Tenant Needs Analysis for Healthcare Professionals: What Is Your Career Plan?

Before commencing negotiations with your landlord, you must have a “game plan”. To devise this plan, you must assess your current situation, considering short, and long term goals. Some things to consider include: age, health, sale of the practice, and office space requirements.

How does this relate to lease negotiations?

A clear understanding of these important issues will allow you to focus on the important items to be negotiated in your new deal. As an example, if the ability to transition and sell the practice within the next few years is of great importance, achieving a fair and flexible “assignment and subletting” clause may be your primary focus.

Alternatively, if the existence of deteriorating health is a major worry due to the burden that rental payments could have one’s family if you had to stop practicing, you may want to attempt to secure a “death and disability termination” provision in the lease.

Internal needs analysis

The above are only a few of the many criteria that should be identified before you can start the negotiation process and these issues will only be handled properly once you have carefully completed an “internal needs analysis”. By being acutely aware of your needs, and by focusing on these needs in the right way, you will ultimately have the best chance at securing the most valuable lease for you and your practice. The name of the game is to minimize risk and maximize flexibility, thereby adding significant value to your practice.

Conducting an “internal needs analysis” is a tremendously valuable activity that may ultimately help clarify a tenant’s career plan and facilitate the reaching of specific goals.