Editorial Policy: Sources, Methodology & Bias Disclosure

These are the editorial standards every page on commercialleasecost.com must meet before publishing.

Source standards

Acceptable primary sources

• Government datasets: BLS (employment, CPI), IRS (lease accounting), federal agency publications, Cook County Assessor and similar local government data
• Brokerage Marketbeat / market reports: CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Newmark, Colliers, Avison Young, Savills, Cresa
• Industry research: BOMA Experience Exchange Report, NAIOP, ICSC, CCIM Institute, Real Capital Analytics
• Specialty data: Prologis Industrial Index, CommercialEdge National Office Report, CommercialCafe National Office Report, Stratafolio CAM analysis
• Closed-deal data: CompStak (where licensed and properly attributed)

Unacceptable sources

• Competitor calculator sites (LeaseRef, NationalCalculatorAuthority, Q4 Real Estate, etc.) for benchmark data
• Unverified social media or aggregator content
• Affiliate-marketed product reviews from non-credentialed sources
• Predictive forecasts presented as fact

Citation rules

• Every dollar figure must cite a primary source on first appearance
• Every market number must have a lastVerifiedDate
• Every cited source must include the date accessed
• For statistics, the sample size and time window must be specified where available

Voice and content standards

Voice

The site speaks with a fair-broker tenant-rep voice. Conservative on what we know, explicit about what we don’t. Confident on numbers we’ve verified; hedging on numbers we haven’t.

See /sites/commercial-lease-cost/src/content/_voice/voice.md for full voice guidelines.

Content prohibitions

• No invented client stories or anonymized “case studies”
• No predictions of future rent prices or cap rates
• No specific recommendations of brokers, attorneys, vendors (refer to credentialed pros)
• No legal advice on specific clauses
• No marketing speak (“leverage”, “synergy”, “robust”, etc., per voice guidelines)
• No em-dashes or en-dashes (use comma, period, semicolon, or “and”)

AI-assisted content disclosure

The AI Negotiation Coach is clearly labeled as AI-assisted. Output is generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash with a temperature of 0 and a constrained system prompt. All AI output includes the standard disclaimer.

Editorial pages (pillar, hubs, spokes, listicles, metros, EEAT pages) are written by humans and AI-assisted only for drafting; final review is always human. We do not publish AI-generated text without human review.

Verification cadence

• Daily: source-page hash check at 06:00 UTC
• Quarterly: full data verification on 25th of Jan/Apr/Jul/Oct; lastVerifiedDate updated
• Annually: methodology review against industry standards

Corrections policy

See corrections policy for full details. Summary: data errors flagged via email or contact form; verified within 48 hours; correction published with date and old/new value.

Affiliate disclosure

We may earn affiliate commission from clearly disclosed partners (currently CompStak, Squarefoot for broker matching). Affiliate relationships do not affect editorial coverage. Affiliate links are visually distinguishable from editorial recommendations.

We do not accept “pay for placement” or sponsored content. Editorial recommendations reflect our independent research.

What our editorial doesn’t do

• We don’t recommend specific brokerages by name with affiliate compensation; rankings are based on Real Capital Analytics 2026 transaction volume data
• We don’t accept product reviews “in exchange for” features or favorable coverage
• We don’t operate a brokerage; we don’t take referral fees from tenant rep brokers

Reviewer process

A credentialed CCIM-designated reviewer signoff is required and pending before AdSense application. The reviewer will:

• Verify methodology accuracy
• Verify source citations
• Verify market benchmark accuracy
• Sign off with credential, date, and (where applicable) state license number

We will publish the reviewer’s name, credential, and last-review date when finalized.

How to suggest a correction or update

Email corrections@commercialleasecost.com (or use the contact form) with:

• The page URL
• The specific data point or claim
• Your proposed correction with sourcing
• Your name and (optionally) credential

We respond within 48 hours and publish corrections within 7 days when verified.

Not financial or legal advice. Estimates based on publicly available market data and broker reports. Commercial real-estate is highly local and deal-specific. Consult a licensed commercial real-estate broker and a real-estate attorney before signing any lease.