Where Do You Get Your Commercial Sales Comps?

One of the most time consuming things to get in the commercial real estate business is commercial property sales comps. Yes there are the various “public record” sites, but going through 5 to 6 different sites and combing the sold section of the business journal is not the most efficent way or use of time. There are some online sites that offer this service, but in most cases they are just too expensive and the outputs were spotty at best. What commercial brokers need is a one-stop-shop comp and property records source that is easily accessable and cost effective for repeated quick searches. LoopNet appears to have answered that call with a series of major upgrades to their platform over the last 12 months.

Recently I had the opportunity to get a one-on-one sneak peek into the new Loopnet Sales Comps product that will be rolled out shortly. I must say, Loopnet has really stepped up their game. First with Property Records, and now the expanded Sales Comps features. From the demo I saw, the cost for comps is quite justified.

Let me first say that in years past, Loopnet has been known as one of several good broker-loaded listing databases that also created somewhat average reports. Most commercial real estate professionals did not like sending out reports with Loopnet’s logo attached for fear it would cause their clients to just go to the website next time they needed information. Additionally, brokers would turn to outside software and need to search multiple sources for market data, research and comps. They would then take info from several sources and manually input it all into yet another program for the sake of getting a quality report with company branding. In the area of inventory searches, historical property records and comparables, Loopnet has truly become a one-stop-shop!

Some of the NEW features that I felt were the most impressive and worthwhile:

• 22,000 REO Comps
• 60% More pictures
• 35+ new searchable data points
• Much more professional and fully customizable report templates with a broker’s branding
• NO Loopnet logos on your reports
• Side by side property comparison reports(like an appraisal).
• The ability to edit/customize the final report to fit your purpose. In the past it was very static.
• Loan information from the comp(the Property Records product should have the the current loan info)
• Identifies if the info is “broker loaded” or “researched”
• Ability to preview more data before selecting and paying for a Comp

The jury is still out though on the “broker call sheet”. It is just as it sounds. A listing of all the brokers involved in the comp sale, their contact info and note section. Great for broker to broker networking, but it does seem more like an appraiser’s dream page and may drastically increase the amount of appraiser calls the more active brokers get.

I asked if all these new features were a result of the new CoStar merger. They assured me that these radical improvements were a year long Loopnet initiative to make their product even more user friendly. The CoStar deal has not even taken place yet and is still being vetted by the regulators right now.

Loopnet has definitely upped their game with the recent additions and upgrades to its existing platform and functionality. There are a lot of good platforms out there, but as far as I can see, they are the only MUST HAVE premium membership on the market today!

All the best,

Miguel de Arcos
Managing Director
Sperry Van Ness Florida
Mdearcos@Svn.com
Blog: www.CREadvice.wordpress.com
www.Facebook.com/svnParadigm

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