I’ll start first with the basic food groups (office, apts, retail, indust). Depending on your location, Blacks Guide (
http://www.blacksguide.com/ ) is a good source for identifying rent comps in the markets they cover. BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association –
http://www.boma.org/ ) is a trade group that publishes operating expense information based upon a survey of their members annually.
In regard to apartments, I will often use various leasing publications such as For Rent Magazine (
http://www.forrent.com/ ), the apartment guide (
http://www.apartmentguide.com/ ) or other local marketing publication in order to capture info for rent comps and to fill out property data for sale comps. Also one of the national real estate brokerage firms often specializes in multi-family properties (i.e. Marcus and Millichap) Operating expense information is published annually by IREM (Institute of Real Estate Management -
http://www.irem.org ). IREM also publishes op exp guides for retail and office but the other sources are often more recognized in the areas they cover for these property types.
Retail is a broad category with greater range in the types of properties (i.e. free standing single tenant, credit tenant NNN tenant in common properties, neighborhood centers, community centers, unanchored strip retail, shadow anchored, etc) Consequently, there are many sources for different types of product. Here are some broad based data sources for identifying rentals and property details. Storetrax.com is a marketing site for retail leasing agents - good for anchor spaces and other large/national/regional data (
http://www.storetrax.com ) ICSC is THE trade group for retail. You can often track down data through leads from their web site. The also publish the Shopping Center Directory (
http://www.icsc.org/ ). As for operating expenses, the industry standard is Dollars and Cents published by the Urban Land Institute (
http://www.uli.org ). Although it is only updated every three years, this is the source for op exp comparisons.
Industrial properties don’t really have much of a directory. Blacks Guide has some industrial listings in some markets, but often you can go to the major national real estate brokerage sites (i.e. – CB Richard Ellis, Cushman & Wakefield, Grubb and Ellis, Colliers, etc) and search the listings for rental data. The SOIR (Society of Office and Industrial Realtors -
http://www.sior.com ) used to publish a market survey of operating expenses. I’m not sure if this is still available.
In regard to sales data – CoStar Comps and Loop net are the largest national services. There are other local or regional data providers and you would be in a better position to know those. However, if you’re in an area covered by the Business Journal (
http://www.bizjournals.com/ ) they often have good leads regarding transactions in those areas.
As far as residential subdivisions and condo conversions, these costs are often property specific and your best source is client proforma info confirmed with conversations with local contractors and/or developers. The Urban Land Institute might have some data based on their project reports but not compiled in a single source of which that I am aware.
Market survey data is often published by the large real estate brokerage firms in the area. However, REIS, Inc (Real Estate Information Service -
www.reis.com ) hs market survey reports for most of the larger metropolitian areas around the country on a subscription basis. They have also started a sales comparables service but I have found other sources to be better for the money.
I hope this is helpful. If you need any help for this portfolio assignment or just have additional questions, feel free to contact me at any time.
