YOUR COMPANY is outgrowing its current space and needs to move. Like any other major investment, relocation requires due diligence and an informed decision-making process in order to be successful. Considering certain factors before you buy or lease space will help ensure your relocation is a move in the right direction.

How much space?
This question is more complicated than it sounds. You have a general sense of how much space you need, but do you know how much space you will actually use every day? If you have employees who travel or work from home, consider creating flex-space in your office layout. By moving to an environment with no assigned work spaces, you may reduce your requirements and facilities costs.

Even without going this route, you may need less space than you think. By going into an efficiently laid out building (think square or rectangular floor plates) or thoughtfully planning your space, you can minimize the amount of rentable area needed.

Where do you need to be?
The operative word here is “need,” not “want.” Consider whether your business requires you be in a particular neighborhood or near certain facilities. In some cases the answers are obvious: if you have a lot of tractor-trailer traffic, you will want easy freeway access. But in many other instances, the tradeoffs are less apparent.

You might want to move downtown from the suburbs to have access to a larger pool of potential employees, only to find many of your existing employees live and like working in the suburbs. Or you might move from an area of town where parking is free to another where everyone has to pay for parking. In order to appease your employees, you subsidize their parking, incurring an unexpected new expense.

By thinking through all aspects of the “where” question thoughtfully and objectively, you may be able to avoid some costly mistakes.

Hire the right consultants.
It may be tempting to try get by without hiring an outside real estate consultant. In many cases that could be a regrettable decision: few companies have the necessary expertise in-house to represent themselves on a major relocation.

The right real estate broker can add value to a deal, but the key is to select the best broker for the job at hand. Engage someone who is an expert in the particular submarket you are interested in (both in terms of geography and asset class).

If you intend to lease, you may want to hire a tenant representative, which is a real estate broker who specializes in representing tenants in lease deals.

Brokers are usually paid on a commission—often a fixed rate per square foot on lease deals; a percentage of the purchase price on sales. Rates and responsibility for payment vary by market.