You probably heard the story in the Bible about King Nimrod, who fancied himself as a real estate developer, deciding to build a tower to reach Heaven. Kind of like the mid-rise suburban office buildings that you see all over the place.
Well, it seems that God wasn’t in a humorous mood that day and sent all of the workers scattering speaking in different tongues, which is why we have communication problems to this day.
I suspect that this problem in communication has carried down through the millennia to today's commercial property owners.
Ask most Landlords (or real estate brokers for that matter) what the lease rate is, and you'll get a response that it’s “X “dollars per square foot net, modified gross, net net net, double net, or some other term that gives no information at all.
Heck, even Tenant Electric isn't clear anymore. It used to mean lights and electrical outlets. Now, it could include heat (if electric) and air conditioning.
Between "gross" rent which includes everything with the base rent and "triple net" which includes nothing but the base rent, here are no universal terms to describe what charges are included or not included in the base rental rate.
More on this subject in my next post.
