Using a broker for your office search is absolutely the right thing to do. But unless you understand their relationship with the office market, you might miss out on important questions. You want someone in your corner that will tick all the right boxes, so what are some office broker red flags you should look out for?

What do office provider say?

There is no better way to give you insight into how coworking brokers work than by asking providers of office space. We spent time speaking with them to understand the key pain points they experience with the broker channel. This way, you can figure out if these points are important in your own office search.

Office broker red flags

Honest and constructive feedback:

Your search for offices plays a big part in shaping how the serviced office market evolves. The feedback you give is used by landlords to better-shape the way their buildings are configured and how to improve their service proposition.

One of the most common issues reported is that your feedback is not passed on very well. This is either because too little focus is assigned to talking about it, or that you gave some but it didn’t reach the intended recipient.

Passing on poor or mediocre feedback is very important. But sometimes you don’t want to.

You should check with you broker. Will they pass feedback on? Can they copy you in? You have a large part to play in how offices improve, so you should be sure it’s being put to good use.

Clients don’t often remember the name / company of their broker:

What impression did your broker make on you? Did you feel like they were really interested in your business? Do you remember their name two days after speaking with them?

Relationship building is huge in coworking brokerage – since you’re not charged for using one, what else is there? If you feel like your conversations with them are box-ticking exercises where they ask you for the basics, you should think twice about continuing. Unless they know you and your business inside-out, how can they do the best job for you?

Ask about their workload. How many clients do they help at any one time? How much money can they make from your enquiry and is it a big ticket for them?

Increased fees: do they matter?

Did you know coworking brokers get different fees from different office providers? Let that sink in: all offices are not created equal. And a big frustration is that brokers will ask for increased fees relating to your search and then potentially cool off on the prospect if the answer isn’t ‘yes’.

You should take charge of this and be proactive. Ask about where your coworking broker is likely to be paid more. Are they making decisions on which buildings to recommend based on their remuneration?

If you’re not getting transparency on this, you might be missing out on parts of the market simply because they don’t serve the broker’s needs.

Taking charge of choice:

The success of your office search depends just as much on your knowledge of how things work, as on how effectively your broker does their job.

Which is why it’s very important for you to choose a coworking broker that is a good fit for you. Our unique directory of coworking broker profiles lets you filter individuals using a combination of professional and personal traits. So that you can connect with the best partner first-time, every time.