So. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Get in closer. Closer. Make sure no one is looking over your shoulder.
There.
Is the coast clear?
OK! Here’s the secret. In San Francisco (and maybe in other areas as well) commercial real estate is closely guarded. Commercial lease listings aren’t posted on the MLS. Instead, they’re posted on proprietary listing services that only the elite subscribe to.
In fact, as sad as it is, finding acceptable office in space in SF really IS as difficult as it is in the video.
A new company is looking to change all that.
Still in BETA mode, Rofo.com claims to be “Commercial Real Estate for the Rest of Us.”
They claim:
At Rofo, we’re making it easy for entrepreneurs and small businesses to…
- Quickly search all local commercial real estate listings under 5,000 square feet
- Connect qualified businesses with the right brokers and landlords
- Access all the essential information from neighborhood info to service providers
We’re here for you, one square foot at a time. See How It Works for more.
Will they live up to the claims? So far so good. They have a large amount of available office, retails and R&D space on their site. And you can search by City, by property type and even by square footage.
Are you looking to lease commercial space in San Francisco? Contact me. I’m not expert on the subject (in fact, I wouldn’t even try to explain the leasing process to you), but I know people that are, and I can point you in the right direction.
That ad was like, rad. Seriously.
Our family still controls ever so little a bit of commercial real estate since the 40s in Los Angeles and continue to do so…we keep it in the family so we don’t get tax raped on capital gains…and our tenants are awesome.
but changes are coming to LA and SF and office space can be a bitch to rent or buy. it’s particularly bad for politcals who only need a space for a few months but gotta pay bigtime to The Man.
I dug it too! Which is the main reason I was willing to consider posting it to my site. Then I checked out the site, and they do have a decent amount of inventory. I was also promised a first born daughter named Luba Zephyr (last name withheld to protect the guilty) which sealed the deal. Seriously though, I think it is a cool site.
And I never thought about the short term leases politicians take on. In the right location, they will indeed be PRICEY!