Commercial Web Sites
I did an article 10 years ago on commercial “Web Sites”, looking back many of them are now gone. The latest site to go down was the National Association of Realtors site, “CommercialSearch”. They were being run by Xceligent who went bankruptcy. So here is my current list of Commercial Web Sites.
Certain sites are available to list and search for properties at no charge but may offer additional services on a fee basis. Other sites require membership fees for their use. Almost all sites (even if they are free) require a registration process.
Most sites are searchable by type of property, size, price range and geographically by town or county within states.
COSTAR Group
www.costar.com
CoStar owns Loopnet, Cityfeet and Showcase. Its own site is focused on researching commercial buildings, with over 1,600 researchers tracking 5 million properties and 1.5 million listings. It provides extensive property details and excellent reports. It is “members only” access; members can post properties and search listings of other members.
www.loopnet.com
Loopnet is one of the largest national commercial listing services. It contains hundreds of thousands of commercial and investment property listings, which may be viewed by the public. Searching for properties is free, but to post your listings requires a subscription.
www.showcase.com
Searching for properties is free. These properties are seen by the public. Posting is done through CoStar of Loopnet subscriptions.
www.cityfeet.com
This site also has an extensive amount of commercial listings, which are also distributed to many newspapers throughout the United States. Posting is done through CoStar of Loopnet subscriptions.
Other Sites
www.catylist.com Another large data base of commercial and investment properties. You may search for properties at no cost but you must subscribe to post your listings.
www.commrex.com
Commrex.com is a national commercial property information exchange covering many areas of the country. They have listings in many states that can be searched for without cost. There is an annual fee to put an unlimited amount of listings on the site. They provide broadcast email services and other marketing “tools” to their members for a fee.
www.realtyzapp.com
Realty Zappis the only integrated, proactive marketing platform allowing agents to post listings with self-directed SEO, create branded, "smart" email campaigns to capture more leads, manage prospect follow-up, activity and pipeline with a simple, built-in CRM and embed their profiles and listings in social media sites and their firm's website for one incredibly low price.
Free Basic Services are provided by:
www.realnex.com
Basic services are without cost, but this site have extensive “tool” for a fee including transaction management, cash flow projections and marketing programs.
www.CIMLS.com
The Commercial Investment MLS was established in 2001 and now has over 320,000 members. This national site allows searching and listing of commercial properties without cost. Additional marketing services are available for a fee.
www.LDCRE.com
Leavitt Digital Commercial Real Estate is a huge global data base of commercial and investment properties. Basic services to search for and list properties are free. Additional services are available
www.CREXi.com
Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. is a relatively new (started 2016) rapidly growing national listing site; very high tech with interactive map searching. Currently only focuses on properties for sale, but lease listings are expected to be added this year. You may search and list commercial properties at no cost. They do have thousands of registered Investors (buyers) who they will market your properties directly to, for a fee.
www.plainvanillashell.com
Retail news, haves (listings) and wants (client requirements) board; free but requires registration. Also access to the Retail Tenant Directory is available on this site by subscription.
“Tools”
www.REIS.com
This is a research site focusing on previously sold and leased data. It produces comprehensive quarterly reports broken down to sub-markets.
www.BizStats.comand www.BizMiner.com
These sites analyze business tax returns to determine line item costs by industry. It provides Rent to Revenue Ratios by Industry (RRR-I). This helps us analyze how much rent a client’s business should be paying.
www.NARRPR.com
Realtors Property Resource is a National Association of Realtors benefit for NAR members. To get full benefits the local MLS must join RPR. However, when you enter a commercial address, the site takes you to the commercial section. Even without MLS affiliation you can get Commercial Property Reports which include the owners name and address, Trade Area Reports with expanded demographics, Trade Area Analysis and Best Businesses (for a location) Reports.
www.sitesusa.com
Retail marketing tools: maps, maps with logos of retailers in the area, demographs and other reports by subscription.
Organizational Sites
There are many real estate organizations that have Web sites. Some are national, as most of the examples below; but in different states and local areas many commercial real estate groups exist, many with websites. Search the internet for commercial organizations in your area.
www.CCIM.com
An affiliate of the National Association of Realtors is the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) Institute. This group provides a series of extensive educational courses leading to the CCIM designation.
www.sior.com
The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) is also an affiliate of the National Association of Realtors This organization provides educational programs in their area of specialty leading to the SIOR designation.
www.icsc.org
International Council of Shopping Centers Web site offers information about their organization and retailers. This group has conventions throughout the country during the year. Its largest gathering is in Las Vegas, generally in May each year where tens of thousands of retailers, developers and brokers gather to do business..
www.USGBC.org
The U.S. Green Building Council’s web site leads you to Green Education opportunities, LEED Rating Systems, Resources, News & Events and an opportunity to join local chapters.
There are local Commercial Brokerage Organizations and many Realtor Boards have CID’s Commercial Investment Divisions. Below are a few examples from my area.
www.NYSCAR.com
The New York State Commercial Association of Realtors site gives information about their organization and Chapter Events. They serve as the political “watchdog” for commercial agents in NYS, alerting us of potential laws that may benefit or harm our industry. Members can also “blast” their listings to other members.
www.NYSCAR-NYCLI.com
NYSCAR has seven Chapters throughout the State. This is the web site for the New York City - Long Island Chapter featuring local activities and events.
www.NYCommercialNetwork.org
Long Island Board of Realtors Commercial Division is now called the Commercial Network (CN). This active group meets monthly for education and networking. The site also contains a data base of member’s listings.
Real Estate News:
Being on top of the real estate news, knowing what is going on in our industry is important to your knowledge as a professional. Subscribe to e-news about Real Estate, in most cases news is free. Some examples follow:
www.globest.com
Globe Street provides daily national and regional real estate news about deals, trends and other industry information. You may sign up for various “Daily Alerts” at no cost.
www.RISMedia.com
Subscribe to “Today’s Real Estate Advisor” for free daily articles on real estate. Although many of the articles are written to the residential side, many of the tips and concepts can be applied to commercial real estate too. They do have other services available for a fee.
www.inman.com
Inman News specializes in real estate information and articles. This national “paper” has a special section just for commercial real estate, but requires a fee for full information.
Ed Smith may be contacted at: CRETeach@charter.net
