Loopnet, Costar, Xceligent Commercial Real Estate Listing Services. Commercial MLS

Hi Ben,

We have been using CoStar for quite sometime.  They have a more proactive approach to making sure the data is up-to-date and accurate. 

Thanks for sharing your tips!  I appreciate this!

Tom Davis

Realtor

I've used LoopNet since day one when they were a free service. I received several leads from potential clients and Broker/Agents. When they started charging, they limited free members the ability to access listings until they were 30 days old. This still provided many leads. Now with their Premium Membership, only premium members have access to all of the listings. Free members can only access about 10% of the database. This severely limits the leads from potential clients who don't want to pay for the membership.

CoStar is basically the same. Great for other Broker/Agents, but very limited for leads from potential clients.

I can't speak to Xceligent because it is not used in my geographic area.

I get several leads from CIMLS and PropertyLine both free services.

I just signed up for a free service started by AR member Matt McNeill. I think it will give LoopNet a run for its money. It's called CPREX. You can read Matts blog here. Give it a try, the price is right.

Hi Ben, In my prior life, I was the Marketing Research Director for Northern California for CBRE.  We used most of these systems, however alot of sales staff would not put their listings on these system, they would only put them on the company systems and keep the best listings as pocket listings so be carefull.

Steve

Excellent post, Ben. I agree with you, including both CoStar and Xceligent being good resources for the "whole picture."

Steve's point about "pocket listings" is also a good one. A lot of brokers do that, at least at first. When I was a broker, though, I'd always put my listings up first thing, because I thought that was best for my client. But that's just me.

Also check out our new free service when you get a chance: http://www.Sibdu.com . Thanks, and again, great post.

Thanks for the summary.  I use all three--Loopnet, CoStar and Xceligent.  I find most of my buyer prospects come from Loopnet although I haven't used CoStar as much.  Xceligent in the Denver market, at least, has a minimum amount of information available for each property and not as user-friendly or as responsive as the local commercial association members would like.  We hope this will improve.

This is really a great comparison.

Thank you for the information.

I use all three, CoStar, Loopnet and Xceligent.  Each has their own advantages.  I use all three because I feel it best serves my clients to have expose my listings and find all of the options available for buyers.

Ben,

We used to use Loopnet, but they switched their memberships, so we bailed, went from affordable to ridiculous.

Costar is solid, but similar to Loopnet, although I actually prefer Costars constant contact and current database.

I use services such as Commercialsource.com and other cost effective avenues of promotion.

Sean

I've used Costar for my listings, along with Loopnet, and CIMLS but have only used the free service on all of them.

I've received the most contact probably from loopnet.

Michael, I used your link to go to Matt's blog, but there was no post, only his profile...?  followed his link to the website and signed up.

Thanks to this BLOG, I picked up a tip on the CPREX (cprex.com)site.  Nice listing site.  Free, easy to use, etc.  This along with other FREE sites like Commercial Source may just get costs in line again.  LoopNet is killing me with their new fee structure.

Any of these services can be useful research tools, but they are market-dependant.  For instance, I've worked deals in roughly a dozen states, but mostly in the Florida Panhandle and Metro-Atlanta.  In the panhandle, most commercial brokers rely on Loopnet, as CoStar is not very accurate.  However, in Metro-Atlanta, brokers must rely on Loopnet and CoStar, as the amount of available property is quite large and each submarket is different.   I subscribe to both services, as I find it's better to double-check all availability in the effort to better serve my client and not leave any stone unturned.  It's also worth noting that sometimes nothing is better than the old-fashioned method of driving the area and verifying what's online! 

Costar people can to my office after they purchased Loopnet and made an pitch.  What do you think of the services now?