Do You Use Costar?

[Gobears81]

I've sent in a few corrections to CoStar over they years (you can just directly email the researcher listed on each comp) but I don't know if they ever actually made the changes. Frankly I don't have a lot of incentive to help out the competition by correcting CoStar's mistakes. If I know that "confirmed" price of $1.5 million was really only $1.2 million by talking to the broker then I have better data and maybe a slight competitive advantage.

More often than not, the price that they show is too low. They only look at the price quoted on the deed and in the case of hotels or properties with allocations, they almost always just show the real estate allocation. Not to mention the increasing trend where buyers and sellers outright lie on the PTax form, but it is hard to criticize them for that.
Glad that some mentioned the lease comps software. That will come in handy. The market analytics data is about useless if you aren't in a metro market. But, I'm pretty much accustomed to not having market studies to glean from, so nothing to see there.

 

[leasedfee]

I've sent in a few corrections to CoStar over they years (you can just directly email the researcher listed on each comp) but I don't know if they ever actually made the changes. Frankly I don't have a lot of incentive to help out the competition by correcting CoStar's mistakes. If I know that "confirmed" price of $1.5 million was really only $1.2 million by talking to the broker then I have better data and maybe a slight competitive advantage.

Understand completely.... I never bother to email corrections other than on a few occasions..... Still it would be nice to have that text box available.... Now if they gave you a $1 off your subscription with every correction. LOL.

 

[nstanbru]

I've used CoStar since the 1980s (Southern California) when they mailed packets of different colored loose sheets, one per property front & back, that you needed to sort into binders by location. I guess their idiosyncrasies are in my blood.

Comps, Inc.?

 

[rbrienza]

I had a subscription for 5 years.... they are quite expensive. $650++ per month. I am a one man shop. cant afford them since the market changed and 2 of my biggest clients got taken over by the FDIC. I'm in the rebuilding mode. My biggest pet peeve about Costar (Darth Vader) is there arrogance in dealing with appraisers and brokers....

 

[leasedfee]

My biggest pet peeve about Costar (Darth Vader) is there arrogance in dealing with appraisers and brokers....

What's it like using them on the brokerage side? I imagine them being upset with the tripling of Loopnet fees or is it small change to a broker's pocket?

 

[kiritf]

I am lucky enough to have friends who will do the research on CoStar for me or give me their keycode so I can do the research on CoStar. Being a New Yorker I am skeptical about the information regarding the cap rate, rent roll, PGI, etc., being accurate for NYC properties.
As for CompStak, they are good since it is usually the realtor or appraiser supplying the info anonymously.

FYI, I would never ever ever say this publicly or to anyone. At this moment, the costar "legal" department is subpoening for your IP. I'm not kidding. Whover is letting you do that is got a $1m lawsuit for copyright infringement. Trust ME, they went after me for 6 months. Relentlessly, even with an attorney. I was only using my token at work and at home. Two different IP's logged in a lot....suspicious! I was going to sue them, but finally got someone in sales higher up to put an end to this. The "legal" department is composed not mostly of lawyers. My attorney reported them to D.C. for misrepresentation, but I only got one of them canned. They do not f-ck around with this, especially when they go on one of their planned attacks at several people. They have an algorithm for it. I just happened to fit into it. You would fit into it likely. I'll erase this post in a day or two and hopefully you see it. They'll sue everybody. They did attempt sue a friend of mine who they swore they had "indisputable evidence of violations." They said it was my account. They wouldn't give me the list of logins and IP's until 6 months later and at that time, I saw the IP that was indisputable.......my home IP. They're a public company and they will sue anybody anytime anywhere. They're on the forums.

 

[kiritf]

Their info sucks, but it's a necessary evil for efficiency in the DMV. I like the deeds and if there's a sales brochure on a property. They're still planting "seeds" too aka false information in the records to see if someone "steals" the information. Building will be 2,100 SF, county, laser measuring device, Google earth pro, GIS measuring, and CoStar will say 1,700.

When it comes to corrections, they don't fix them. They say they do, or at least your rep will say so. You can put in your own note on a record that is specific to your account and it saves. Use the Notes section. No need to help the competition, ESPECIALLY if you're in a courtroom here and there. The appraiser's, if you wish to call them that, that rolls in and says it's worth $2.5m and only used Costar and you're at $2.0m and you verified and/or confirmed. Terrible day for the other side. Sweetness.