How do you track tenant movement before a requirement hits the market?
You track tenant movement by watching the occupiers in your market for the events that come before a space decision: hiring for site roles, contract wins, new locations, funding, acquisitions, lease expirations, layoffs and closures. Lease expirations alone arrive late, and every broker with CoStar sees the same list. Scayled automates the watching: every occupier you scan is re-checked every two weeks, each sign is shown with its source on a map and a feed, and the person who decides is attached so you can act the same day.
- Which events signal that a tenant will need space?
- Where can you find tenant movement signals for free?
- How far ahead of a lease event should you reach a tenant?
- Why is a lease expiry list not enough?
- How does Scayled track tenant movement?
- What should you do when a movement signal appears?
Which events signal that a tenant will need space?
Growth events signal a need for more or different space, and contraction events signal space coming back. Growth: hiring for site roles in your market, a contract win, a new product line or service area, a new location announcement, an acquisition, a funding round. Contraction: layoffs, a closure, a consolidation announcement, a sublease listing.
Lease events sit between the two: an expiry forces a decision to renew, move, grow or shrink. The strongest signals are specific to a place. A company hiring forklift operators in your submarket tells you more than a company raising money at its head office in another state.
Where can you find tenant movement signals for free?
Most signals are public, spread across job boards, company newsrooms, local business journals and government records. Indeed and LinkedIn Jobs show hiring by location. Company press pages and local business journals report contract wins and new sites. State WARN notice lists show planned closures and mass layoffs, which US employers with 100 or more employees generally must announce 60 days ahead.
County permit portals show fit-outs and expansions. For public companies, SEC EDGAR has 8-K filings for material contracts and acquisitions, and the property section of each 10-K. Google Alerts on company names catches news as it is published. The cost is time: checking these sources for hundreds of occupiers every few weeks is a job in itself.
How far ahead of a lease event should you reach a tenant?
Earlier than most brokers do. Tenant rep guidance commonly advises starting a search 12 to 18 months before expiry for mid-size requirements, and longer for large or build-to-suit ones, because finding space, negotiating and fitting out all take time. A tenant that starts on that schedule has often chosen its advisor before a broker working an expiry list calls.
That is why the earlier signals matter. A business hiring for a new site or announcing a contract may not have a lease event for a year, but it is deciding now how it will grow. Reaching the person who decides at that point puts you in the conversation while the requirement is still being defined.
Why is a lease expiry list not enough?
An expiry list is late, shared and incomplete. It is late because a known expiry is the last signal, not the first. It is shared because every subscriber to the same database pulls the same tenants in the same quarter. It is incomplete because many leases are never reported, and owner-occupied buildings have no lease at all.
Expiries also say nothing about intent. A tenant with a lease ending may renew quietly, while a tenant with three years left may need to move next quarter because it won a contract. Tracking the operating events, not just the paperwork, separates the two, and it sits at the core of occupier intelligence.
How does Scayled track tenant movement?
Scayled tracks every occupier you have found through its scans and re-checks each one every two weeks. A Listing Scan adds every business around a property, and a Target Scan adds businesses across the country whose operations fit a property. From then on, each one is watched for hiring, contract wins, new sites, funding and lease events.
Each sign appears on a map and in a feed with its source and date, next to the person who decides at that business. Everything stays in your own Occupier Database, and emails go from your own inbox. Coverage grows with the properties you scan, so the tracking reflects your market rather than a generic list, the idea behind territory intelligence software. It works in the US, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the UAE and other countries.
What should you do when a movement signal appears?
Read the source, check the fit, then send a short email that names the event and a specific property. For example: you saw the business is hiring drivers for a new route in your area, and a building nearby has the trailer parking and doors for it. Keep it factual and do not assume more than the source says.
Follow up once or twice, then log the outcome so the next signal starts from what you already know. Scayled can be tried for 3 days at scayled.com/start with 4 scans. When the goal is a single property, The Campaign at scayled.com/campaign builds the list, flags the businesses showing signs of needing space and writes the emails, from US$449.
Start Conversations With Occupiers That Need Space.
Add a listing. Scayled finds the businesses most likely to lease or buy it, around the property and across your market, names the person who decides at each, drafts the outreach and tracks every one. 3 days free, no card needed.
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