Use AI on a small commercial lease without blowing up the deal: have it sort the issues by what actually matters for a deal your size, check market norms with a local pro, and send the landlord only your top few asks: AI agent prompt
Pasting an AI's full list of lease 'issues' straight to a landlord can backfire. On Oct 31, 2026, the founder of a commercial real estate firm posted on X about a tenant signing a 1,500 sq ft lease with no broker or lawyer. The tenant fed the landlord's old boilerplate lease to ChatGPT, which produced a long list of issues, and copy-pasted the whole list to the landlord. He wrote that many comments made no sense because the AI didn't know local market norms or that this was a 1,500 sq ft deal, not 150,000; the landlord rejected every comment and questioned whether they still wanted to do the deal, and the tenant didn't understand the changes they were demanding. The fix is to use the AI to understand and rank the lease, not to write your demands. This is not legal advice; for anything significant, talk to a local commercial broker or lawyer.
The prompt
1. Upload the lease (remove anything you don't need to share) and tell the AI the deal facts: "This is a [1,500] sq ft [retail/office/industrial] lease in [city], [term] years, about [$/month]. I'm a small tenant with no broker. My business needs are: [list]." 2. Ask: "Explain this lease to me in plain English, section by section: what I'm agreeing to pay, what I'm responsible for, and what happens if I need to leave early or the landlord sells." 3. Ask: "Sort every issue into three groups for a deal my size: (A) could seriously hurt my business, (B) worth asking about, (C) normal or too small to raise. For each A and B item, say whether it's commonly negotiated on small leases or not, and say plainly when you're unsure about local norms." 4. Take only the A list (and anything in B you can't explain) to a local commercial broker, lawyer or small business advisor and ask what's normal in your market. 5. Ask the AI: "Draft a short, friendly note to the landlord raising only these [3-5] points, each with one sentence on why it matters to my business and a simple proposed change. No legal jargon, no demands." 6. Make sure you can explain every point you send in your own words; delete any you can't.
Fill in the blanks, then copy
This prompt has 7 [bracket]s to fill in. Type your details below and the prompt updates as you go. Your answers stay in this browser and are reused on other prompts with the same blanks. Nothing is sent to us.
Example values are fictional, just to show how a filled-in prompt reads. Replace them with your real details.How to use it
- Copy the prompt above.
- Replace every [bracket] with your own details (use the fill-in-the-blanks box above, which remembers your answers for the next prompt).
- Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude and review the answer before you use it.
Works with: ChatGPT, Claude
Real-world example: x.com/bavedikian/status/2116345808702328959
Featured in: Free AI agent prompts for small business (beginner-friendly)
Before you use it: what to check
Check yourself
- Check every figure, price and total against your own records before anything is sent, posted or booked. A person approves refunds, discounts, payments and price changes.
- Anything legal, tax or compliance-related is a first draft for a qualified person to check. It is not professional advice, and clause references and deadlines must be checked against the source.
- Read and edit the draft before it reaches a customer or goes public. If you later automate this prompt, start with "draft and notify me", not "send automatically".
- Check names, dates, numbers and any claim against your own source material before you use the answer. AI can misread or invent details.
Using an AI agent? Download this prompt as a SKILL.md agent skill with these checks built in, or get the .zip for Claude.ai. How to install skills.
Want to make this prompt even better? Grade it with the free prompt grader or build your own with the AI prompt generator.
32 copy-paste agent prompts (PDF) plus 5 new prompts every week.
Get it freeMore Legal & Compliance prompts
See all Legal & Compliance prompts →