A real estate broker can serve as an invaluable resource for scouting out the perfect property to meet your business needs. Then, this individual (who should have expertise in your particular area) will often help negotiate the terms of the agreement, for both sale and lease transactions. This can save you a lot of time and help prevent careless mistakes, as these brokers typically work with the same types of deals all the time. However, keep in mind that brokers are not allowed to provide legal advice on a real estate agreement. When choosing a broker make sure you do your research: ask friends and relatives if they know anyone, read reviews online, and ask for references. All this extra work will pay off when you go with a broker that can make/save you the most amount of money. Generally the seller will pay the brokers commission, but that is not necessarily always going to be the case.

While a broker can help to facilitate the transaction smoothly and quickly, if you're dealing with a commercial property it is often in your best interest to hire a real estate attorney as well. This is because lawyers do not work on commission as the brokers do, so their primary objective is not facilitating the completion of the transaction. Rather, they are concerned with making sure that the legal agreement you have before you is fully in your best interests, and they'll spend many hours researching every last detail contained within to make sure it is the best possible deal for you, while explaining all the details so nothing comes up after the agreement is signed that you weren't aware of. Because an attorney is paid hourly, you can be assured that they will usually be more impartial than a broker. The last thing you want during a commercial property transaction is to skip a detail in the agreement that later comes back to cause serious problems, possibly leading to a lawsuit or legal matter which could cost you a significant amount of money.