12/08/2026
11 am PT / 12 pm MT / 1 pm CT / 2 pm ET
*approximate length: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Presenter: Tom Elmer, CPM® Emeritus
A commercial lease is the heart of the landlord/tenant relationship. While a 100% win/win would be great, in reality there is a lot of compromise putting lease deals together, with a myriad of financial, operating, and legal terms. Effective negotiating skills are important, but more so is understanding landlord and tenant goals and perspectives on some of the most common and often contentious lease provisions, and their impact on property performance.
Learning Objectives:
- Understanding typical business goals of the parties
- Explore key commercial lease terms that define leasable area, base rent, and operating cost recoveries, and each party’s view of them
- Illustrate the “net lease” spectrum – the extent that each party pays for operating expenses
- Identify other key terms and clauses that can have significant operational and financial impact to landlords and tenants
Tom Elmer has been involved in virtually every aspect of real estate investment, development, and management during his 40-plus-year real estate career, including both investor and corporate-user perspectives. Currently CFO and Managing Partner of Oakwood Partners, LLC, a real estate investment and consulting company, Tom’s background includes commercial asset and portfolio management, strategy and operations consulting at Deloitte Consulting, and CFO roles with national development, investment, and management companies. Tom is a CPM and long-time instructor of IREM’s financial management courses in the U.S. and internationally. He has also served as past co-chair of IREM’s Asset Management Committee, a planner and host of several Asset Management Symposiums, and contributor to the development of IREM courses and its Financial Analysis Spreadsheet.