If you perform a search for small San Francisco Office Space (less than 1,000 sqft) on Rofo you’ll find many compelling options.   These spaces tend to be short term, furnished and ready to go.  All very important things for an entrepreneur in today’s environment.  But remember not all square feet are created equal.  Depending on the layout and actual usable square feet you’ll fit somewhere between 2 and 5 people in a 1,000 feet.

Besides negotiating the rental rate for your new commercial space, there are other creative ways to minimize your overall financial commitment  in your lease agreement.  I recently had the opportunity to contribute an article to Gigaom highlighting 8 of them.  It ranges from capping operating expenses to obtaining flexible subleasing rights.  Naturally a lot of this depends on market conditions and available commercial real estate listings.

This weekend we pushed an updated version of our search results functionality.  Now you can simply plug in an address (might be your home or an existing office location) and find all commercial real estate listings within a defined radius.  Most people have an idea where they want to locate their business.  Radius search gets you to the available options even quicker than before.

Stay tuned for more website changes and improvements to come over the next few weeks

I’ll be participating in a discussion this week about Technology and the impact on Commercial Real Estate.  The event is being sponsored by the folks at First American Title Company www.ncs.firstam.com/norcal as part of the San Francisco Investment Forum.  This is obviously a very broad topic but in our market niche we’re seeing how user generated content and social interaction on Rofo are enabling businesses, brokers and landlords make relevant and timely connections.

The event starts at 11:30am on September 10 at Embarcadero 4, San Francisco.