Question #2: Are the Terms of the Lease Negotiable?
All commercial leases should always have at least some room for negotiation, no matter how small. A completely inflexible landlord is generally not someone you want to lease from because “inflexible” often equates with “unreasonable.” If a landlord is unreasonable during lease negotiations, s/he may also be unreasonable or unfair once you are in the space and need repairs or considerations for unforeseen things like more parking, access to equipment or telephone rooms, etc.
Negotiable terms include length of the lease, free rent, smaller security deposits, and concessions for the tenant upgrading the space. Other areas typically negotiated in commercial leases include lower rent, caps on rent and "load" increases, reducing other fees, or eliminating them all together.
When there is absolutely no room for any negotiation you immediately know two things: your landlord is unreasonable and you can probably do better elsewhere.
Sometimes, the best way to change the terms of a lease are to first negotiate the type of commercial lease. For example, a Triple Net lease requires tenants to always pay all or part of the taxes, insurance, and maintenance associated with use of the property. These fees are paid in addition to the tenant's regular monthly rent. If you do not want to pay all these fees, you need to ask for a different type of lease.
