The great residential real estate bust has been an unmitigated disaster for most types of small businesses. Retailers have suffered as consumers adjust to the loss of housing equity. Contractors, real estate agents, interior designers, architects, and insurance agents, to name just a few, have all seen their work dry up. Entrepreneurs who financed their businesses with home-equity loans, or planned to do so, are sweating it out.

For some time, economists have expected that the next shoe to drop is commercial real estate–but in this case, there is some potential upside for small companies. Rent is usually one of a firm’s highest fixed costs, and many of us may now get the opportunity to negotiate a much better deal.

There’s plenty of evidence that the same forces—namely, easy credit—that led to the residential real estate bubble also fed significant overbuilding in commercial real estate. In many parts of the country, there are now simply more suburban office parks, malls, and expensive downtown high-rises than the market can absorb.

The financiers, in many cases, have not officially recognized this, which is why you haven’t read that much about it in the financial pages. But if, as economists such as Chris Thornberg of Beacon Economics predict, the day of reckoning is nigh, this is an excellent time to get a better deal on your space.

If you’re locked into a long-term lease, there may not be much you can do. But if you’re not, and there’s no huge reason that you can’t move, I’d suggest making a few calls to find out what comparable space is renting for. You might also try to suss out whether your building and perhaps other buildings owned by the same landlord are having vacancy issues.

Then hit up your landlord for a rent reduction. You probably want to decide beforehand whether you’re willing to back up a threat to actually move out—you’ll obviously be in a much better negotiating position if you are—but either way, there’s no harm in having the conversation.