The New Rules for Negotiating Your Lease (ft. Stephen Strecker)

One of the easiest ways to find holes in your systems?

Ask different team members how they complete the same task. If every answer is a little different, your systems are living in people's heads instead of your practice. That's why Alex created Milo...to standardize checklists, workflows, and recurring tasks across your entire practice. Learn more at https://go.startmilo.com/jacd

This Week's Episode

Signing a lease for your dental practice seems pretty straightforward… until you realize how much control your landlord can actually have over your business. We sat down with Stephen Strecker of Tower Realty to talk about how dental real estate has changed since COVID and where the biggest opportunities are for dentists today.

Stephen breaks down why personal guarantees have become so common, how the wrong assignment language can cause major problems when you eventually sell your practice, and why the rent you negotiate isn't even close to the whole story once triple nets and CAM charges get involved. We also get into why prime retail space has gotten so expensive, whether paying more for visibility is actually worth it, and the surprising opportunity Stephen is seeing in office space right now.

We cover:

• How dental leasing has changed since COVID

• Why landlords are asking for personal guarantees

• The lease provision that can create problems when you sell

• Why dentists are competing with restaurants and national retailers for space

• Retail vs. office space for a dental practice

• Why $40/sq. ft. rent might actually cost you closer to $55/sq. ft.

• What triple net and CAM charges actually pay for

• How to protect yourself from rapidly increasing landlord expenses

• Whether dental rents will keep going up • Why the market may finally be shifting back toward tenants

Plus, Alex and Eric revisit the tiny 1,250-square-foot practice Alex started in and somehow managed to squeeze five operatories into.

Sponsor Shoutouts

A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible! 🖥️

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