AMTdirect’s corporate office is located just outside of Charlotte, NC. A little more than a year ago, Charlotte office lease rates as well as shopping center lease rates were hitting record highs. High-rise office towers were appearing like weeds all over the city as tenants were quickly filling these buildings.

Today, that seems like memories of the distant past. As with most of the major markets in the US, the current economy has changed the commercial real estate landscape. What was once a market dominated by landlords having the upper hand and dictating rent payments has drastically turned where tenants now have the upper-hand.

Property managers are slashing rents halfway through contracts and brokers are giving tenants free flat screen TVs. Of course this is nothing new as property managers always have adjusted rents depending on the market. However, today’s market has added complications with tighter credit markets and weakened demand, which is affecting both parties.

Tenants are asking for breaks and bargaining hard when it comes to lease negotiations. On the other side, Landlords are paying closer attention to their tenants more than ever. In many cases, they are requesting financial records of tenants who are asking for help to make sure the tenants are not trying to take advantage of them.

What it all comes down to is forcing both sides to have a tighter grip on their properties. A year ago, if a tenant went out of business, the space could be quickly leased, now it takes more due diligence on both sides to lease an office or retail space.

The market has also changed the way that both landlords and tenants have used AMTdirect. For those new to active real estate management solutions such as AMTdirect, AMTdirect gives you an ability to achieve significant cost savings through improving operational efficiencies by utilizing a 100% web based solution that enables visibility into real estate spend and process.

In the past, the driving force for a real estate management solution or commercial real estate software was because of stricter regulations (such as Sarbanes Oxley and FASB) and intense competition over locations. As tighter regulations still remain a top concern for purchasing commercial real estate management software, clients are using AMTdirect’s software in new ways. Now tenants and landlords alike are using commercial real estate software to monitor and scrutinize every intrinsic detail of their property in order to achieve hidden cost savings.

In a downtrodden economy where every penny matters, clients are retaining cost savings that were previously left on the table. As of recent, our clients are using AMTdirect to see typical savings of 3 to 6 percent of real estate management costs.