I received a "chicken and egg" question about leasing an office — which comes first, the lease or the bank financing? Good question – this one's kind of a juggling act. You will need a specific locaiton before you finalize your financing, since you don't know how much exactly you'll need to pay for rent until you know the location. On the other hand, you don't want to get locked into a lease before you have funding. One solution is to sign the lease with a CONTINGENCY (a condition which must be met before everything is final) that you receive ACCEPTABLE financing. That word "acceptable" is important. You don't want to get into the position of having to take financing at a ridiculously high interest rate, just to get into the lease. See what I mean by "juggling act"?
Planning for Practice Success has lots of information about leasing and financing.
