Real Estate Services
Landlord Representation Across the DMV
Landlord representation is the discipline of turning vacancy into signed leases on terms that protect your return. Levaru provides landlord representation and commercial leasing services across the DMV, covering Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland, for office, retail, medical, and industrial owners. We price the listing from evidence, market it with tools most listings do not have, qualify prospects before they reach your desk, and negotiate the economics line by line.
We are also operators. Levaru manages and maintains commercial buildings daily, so the leasing plan for your building accounts for what the building can actually deliver: HVAC capacity, delivery condition, realistic makeready costs. Leasing advice that ignores the physical building produces leases the building cannot keep.
Positioning and pricing the listing
Pricing starts with comps, not hope. We pull current lease comparables for your submarket and competitive set, then adjust for what actually differentiates space: floor plate, delivery condition, parking, amenities, and expense structure. You get a written pricing recommendation with the evidence behind it.
Positioning is the honest version of marketing: deciding which tenants this space genuinely fits and building the campaign around them. A commodity suite priced like trophy space does not lease; it sits, and sitting is the most expensive thing a vacancy can do. If the right move is a modest makeready investment before going to market, such as paint, lighting, or demolition to open the floor, we will say so and price it, because our team builds those budgets for a living.
Price the listing on effective rent, not face rate. Face rate is what the lease says; effective rent is what you collect after free rent and allowances. Owners who negotiate on face rate alone routinely give the difference away in concessions.
What does landlord representation include?
It includes everything between an empty suite and a paying tenant: pricing and positioning the space, producing the marketing package, syndicating and promoting the listing, fielding and qualifying inquiries, running tours, negotiating LOIs and lease economics, and coordinating with your attorney through execution. A landlord rep is accountable for the outcome, not just the sign in the window.
In practice the value concentrates in two places. First, deal flow: brokers bring your space into requirements you would never see on your own, because most serious tenants in this market search through tenant rep brokers. Second, negotiation: someone who negotiates leases every week, and who models each counter as effective rent, protects economics that an owner negotiating occasionally tends to concede.
A marketing package prospects can tour from anywhere
Every Levaru listing gets professional photography, a measured floor plan, a listing flyer, and syndication to the commercial platforms where DMV tenants and their brokers search. Then we add the piece most listings are missing: a browser-based 3D walkthrough of the space with an interactive floor plan.
The walkthrough is a shareable link. A prospect opens it in a browser, no app, no appointment, and walks the floor. That matters for two audiences. Local tenants use it to self-qualify, so your physical tours are fewer and more serious. Remote decision-makers, the out-of-state owner, the national real estate director, the home office that approves the deal, stop being a three-week scheduling problem, because they tour the space the day they get the link.
The result is not magic; it is tempo. Space that can be toured at any hour stays in more deals, and deals that keep moving are the ones that sign.
Qualifying prospects and negotiating economics
Every inquiry gets qualified before it consumes your time: the business, its financial strength, the intended use, the guarantor if the credit needs one, and whether the requirement actually fits the space. We would rather tell you a prospect is weak in week one than explain a default in year two.
When terms start moving, we negotiate the full economic package, not just rate: term length, escalations, free rent, TI allowance, delivery condition, expense structure, security deposit or letter of credit, and options. Every proposal and counter is modeled as effective rent over the term, so when you approve a deal you are approving a number that includes the concessions. TI allowances get special attention: we scope what the requested buildout should really cost before you agree to fund it, because an allowance negotiated without a construction number behind it is a blank check.
From signed lease to paying tenant
A lease creates value only when the tenant is in, paying, and stable. We coordinate the handoff with property management so onboarding is orderly: certificates of insurance collected, buildout and permits tracked, delivery condition documented, move-in scheduled, and rent commencement confirmed against the lease. When Levaru manages the building, that handoff happens inside one firm and nothing falls between brokers and managers.
Ownership reporting runs on a set rhythm. You see activity, meaning inquiries, tours, and proposals, deal status, and our read on how the market is responding to the price, so decisions about repositioning are made on facts and made early. Buildings on our platform are documented with photo records and 3D walkthroughs owners can open in the client portal, so you can see the condition of your own vacancy without driving to it.
Put a broker and an operator on your side
Landlord representation is part of Levaru’s full real estate services practice, alongside tenant representation, investment sales, and market research, and it is backed by teams that run buildings every day. If you have a vacancy now, or a lease rolling in the next year, we will give you a straight read on pricing and a plan to lease it. Request a proposal or call +1 (703) 646-8300.
FAQ
Landlord Representation — common questions
How does a landlord rep broker get paid?
Through a commission defined in a written listing agreement, typically calculated on the lease value and payable at lease execution. When the tenant has its own broker, the commission is split between the two sides, which is the market convention. There are no marketing retainers hidden in our standard structure; the economics are in the agreement you sign before we start.
What is included in the marketing package?
Professional photography, a measured floor plan, a browser-based 3D walkthrough of the space, a listing flyer, and syndication to the commercial listing platforms where DMV tenants and brokers actually search. The 3D walkthrough link is shareable, so prospects and their out-of-town decision-makers can tour the space remotely before booking a physical visit.
What is the difference between face rate and effective rent?
Face rate is the rental rate stated in the lease. Effective rent is what you actually collect once free rent, improvement allowances, and other concessions are spread across the term. Two leases with identical face rates can produce very different returns. We model every proposal and counter as effective rent so you approve deals on real economics, not headlines.
How do you qualify prospective tenants?
Before terms get serious, we look at the business itself, its financial strength, the guarantor if one is needed, the intended use, and how the space requirement fits your building. We request financials or other credit support appropriate to the deal size. A vacancy filled by a tenant who fails in year two costs more than the vacancy did, so qualification is not a formality we skip to get a deal signed.
Can Levaru manage the building after leasing it?
Yes. Levaru provides commercial property management and facility management alongside brokerage, and many owners use them together. The handoff from lease signing to tenant onboarding happens inside one firm, and the building is documented on our platform with photo-documented work orders and 3D walkthroughs, which owners can see in the client portal.
Next step
Tell us about your building. We'll show you what we'd do with it.
Curious how it works? See how our 3D walkthroughs work →