Are you planning to relocate your dental clinic?
You will first have to find a new location, and then go through the dental office lease negotiation process with your prospective new landlord. Landlords are aware that dental clinics are expensive, difficult-to-relocate businesses. Therefore, it is critical that your lease agreement, and the terms and clauses within it, are set up to protect your investment well into the future, and avoid any costly surprises. For tips on a safe practice relocation, read our Practice Relocation Process Guide, now.
Questions to Consider Before Relocating Your Dental Practice
Our Dental Office Leasing Services
Critical Dates and Risk Assessment, a.k.a. Dental Office Lease Review
Cirrus Consulting Group offers dentists the invaluable Critical Dates and Risk Assessment (CDRA), a.k.a. Dental Lease Review, which is guaranteed to save you time and money. Our CDRA arms you with essential information about the expensive traps and tricks hidden in your lease for discussions with your landlord. We guarantee that this review will help you save thousands of dollars over the life of your lease. Learn more about our CDRA, and how it can benefit you.
Dental Office Lease Negotiation Services
Avoid the endless time and frustration involved in negotiating your own lease. Cirrus’ expert Dental Lease Negotiators handle the entire process from start to finish, representing you in all dealings with your landlord or broker. We offer the full package, representing you with the expertise of an in-house legal team, skilled professional lease negotiators, real estate analysts, and ex-landlords. Learn more about our Dental Lease Negotiation services, and how we can help.
Dental Office Lease Date Tracker
Landlords aim to get dentists to pay the highest rental rates possible, which is much easier for them when the negotiation clock is ticking and there is limited time before your renewal or lease expiry date. To combat this, Cirrus is offering complimentary enrollment in our Dental Office Lease Date Tracking System. Simply enter your lease expiry date, and our system will notify you when it’s time to start thinking about your lease again. Track your lease dates now!
Relocating a Dental Practice: Essential Steps for Success
There are three major parts involved in the process of getting your new lease secured, and your dental practice efficiently moved to a new location.
Part 1: Negotiating the Offer to Lease, or Letter of Intent
This document is the short form of your lease that mainly addresses economic terms such as rental rates, lease start date, length of the term, what your options are to renew, tenant improvement allowances, financial deposits, etc.
This agreement is a very important part of the dental practice relocation process, requiring extensive research to help negotiate fair terms. Remember, landlords and most realtors aim to get dentists to agree to pay the highest rent possible. Research and a strong negotiation strategy here are critical as this will determine how much money you will spend over next 10-20 years. Making a mistake with this part of the process will be very expensive for you.
Part 2: Reviewing and Negotiating Your Dental Office Lease
The second step in moving a dental office is reviewing and effectively negotiating the dental office lease agreement. The lease is usually a much longer document than the letter of intent or offer to lease, and is always written and presented in a very ‘landlord‐favored’ way. This is the landlord’s tool that they use to make as much money as they can for as long as they can via hidden terms and clauses. The more you pay for rent and the longer the term, the more valuable the dental office property becomes.
It’s critical to be careful here, and have a dental leasing expert get involved to ensure your practice is safe and protected in the long run.
Part 3: Ensuring You Have Enough Term in Your Old Location
The third component to relocating a dental office is ensuring you have enough term and mechanisms in your current location before the move. You want to avoid losing your old location if your new location is not ready for you to start seeing patients. “Downtime” or “dark-time”, as it is commonly known as in dental circles, is one of the worst things that can happen to you and your dental practice. Ensuring you have enough term left in your old location or that you have a short term extension is critical to your practice’s continuity while you go through this process.
