By Linh Luong, Broker — Core CRE
Most Houston owner-operators who have never hired a tenant rep still think the next step is “call the number on the sign.” That skips the actual sequence. This article is the process — request for proposal, letter of intent, then the lease — not who pays. Who pays is already covered in Is Tenant Representation Actually Free in Houston?
The hub for the service itself is Houston tenant representation. Site selection has its own write-up: commercial site selection in Texas. Tenant-improvement dollars are a separate negotiation: TI allowance in Texas commercial leases.
Where the process actually starts
Before anyone writes an RFP, the requirement has to be real: square footage, budget, headcount, timing, and which Houston submarkets you will actually occupy. A tour list without that filter is just a week of driving. Once the requirement is written down, the market scan and tours can produce a shortlist worth asking landlords to price.
If you are still deciding whether you need your own broker, stop here and read the who-pays piece. The rest of this page assumes you want the occupier’s side of the table staffed.
RFP — make landlords compete on paper
A request for proposal is how you get comparable numbers instead of whatever the listing broker volunteered on the tour. The RFP goes to the shortlist. It asks for the same fields from every landlord so the answers can be lined up: base rent, operating expenses, tenant-improvement allowance, free rent, term, renewal options, and the dates those numbers are good through.
Two practical rules:
- Do not send an RFP on a building you have not walked, unless the goal is only to test a number.
- Do not let each landlord invent their own response format. You will spend the next week translating instead of negotiating.
The output of a clean RFP round is a comparison sheet, not a feeling about the lobby.
LOI — lock the economics before the lease is drafted
The letter of intent is where the deal is actually made. Base rent, TI, free rent, term, and renewal options should be settled here so attorneys are not arguing economics in redlines. In a Houston commercial lease, that LOI is still a business document — it is not a substitute for the lease — but it is the last cheap place to change a number.
What belongs in the LOI:
- Premises, rent commencement, and term.
- Base rent and how it escalates.
- Operating-expense treatment (what is passed through, and whether there is a cap).
- TI allowance, who manages the work, and what happens to unused dollars.
- Free rent, if any, and whether it is at the front of the term or earned later.
- Renewal and expansion options, in enough detail that they survive into the lease.
If a term is “to be negotiated in the lease,” assume it will be negotiated against you. Put it in the LOI or drop it.
Lease — the document that has to match the LOI
Once the LOI is signed, the lease should implement it, not reopen it. This is where assignment and sublease rights, kick-out language, default, restoration, and the operating-expense definitions either match what you thought you bought or quietly do not.
The job at this stage is consistency: every economic point in the LOI should appear in the lease with the same meaning. The second job is the non-economic language that only shows up when something goes wrong — assignment, sublease, casualty, condemnation, and how disputes get handled.
That is also why this is not a landlord representation page. Landlord-side work is a different duty, a different client, and a different set of documents. If you own the building, start there. If you occupy space, stay on this path.
A realistic Houston timeline
There is no single clock, but the sequence does not change:
- Requirement and scan — days to a few weeks, depending on how tight the shortlist is.
- Tours — usually compressed into one or two rounds once the filter is honest.
- RFP out / responses in — often one to two weeks if landlords are actually competing.
- LOI — days if the economics are close; longer if TI or commencement is the fight.
- Lease — measured in attorney turns, not in optimism. Build time for it.
Start earlier than feels necessary. Once the landlord knows you are out of runway, the RFP stops being a competition.
What this page is not
This is not a who-pays explainer, a TI primer, or a site-selection framework. Those already live on the links above. This page is the order of operations for a Houston occupier who wants their own broker in the room from RFP through lease.
Questions about a live search or a renewal: call 832-956-1444 or start at tenant representation.