Your CRE Professional Must Know These Answers
October 02, 2017
It’s hard to imagine that a twenty-first century CRE professional wouldn’t know the importance of building security for their clients. If your commercial real estate broker is showing you a property and doesn’t know about the buildings security, fire them!
Here are a few questions to ask your broker about security at any building you are consider occupying:
- What sort of security program is currently in place?
- Is the security program handled in- house or is it outsourced to a third party?
- Controlling access to the building is one of the key’s to maintaining the security of occupants. Are keycards required for entrance, or is there security staff to check id’s?
- What type of physical barriers are used to slow or stop unauthorized entrance?
- How is access to common areas monitored and controlled?
- Parking facilities should not be overlooked. How are they secured?
- What is the policy for checking visitors in and out?
- How are the various security policies enforced?
Your broker should be able to answer these questions and be able to discuss the answers with you. There are no definitive right or wrong answers, but you need to know what type of security the building offers to make a rational decision about the suitability of the property for your company.
For example, whether the building you decide to occupy has in-house security or outsources to a security services company, it’s important that they are visible and active. They need to be familiar with tenants, proactive in approaching guests and ready to respond quickly if trouble arises.
A vital aspect of tenant security is education. Increasingly, security companies are providing training and drills that address how to respond if there is an active shooter situation. It might not be pleasant to consider the possibility of this type of incident affecting your company, but about 25% of businesses have experienced an incident in the past five years. Spending staff time (and the money that represents) on preparedness is an investment worth making.
If you are considering a relocation for your business, please give us a call to discuss.
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