Why is there no commercial equivalent to MLS?

[J Grant]

I just logged on my MLS and for fun put in one geo area of my county under their commercial/industrial section and 38 listed and sold properties came up. I am sure a number of specialized properties are not on there, but a simple search revealed a healthy number for just one geo section of a county - how else can commercial brokers get their listings out there?

It costs yearly dues to join an MLS as an appraiser (same or similar to what RE agents pay ). My MLS has residential properties, land, agricultural, businesses for sale and commercial/industrial properties ( as well as rental properties ) Though my MLS officially includes just two counties, for some reason it also includes some listed properties from other counties across Florida -

 

[Long Walk]

My local MLS has a commercial property section for commercial listings. Idk how comprehensive it is compared to residential listings.

Idk if there is an internet equivalent to what REDFIN, or ZILLOW that exists ...I just know that in residential these days type in a property address and information pops up

Compstak might be what you're thinking of. Donate a few comps and get a few. Problem is there is no source data or provenance for what they offer. No idea who confirmed it or if it is accurate. Maybe Crexi. 42floors. Some pay sites like REIS and Reonomy. Most of it is not very helpful, IMO.

CoStar sues other firms (think Exceligent) out of business for using CoStar's data as the base of their own data. And they keep users in line with lawsuits over unfair use.

I don't know how much a kidney costs, but CoStar fees are not prohibitive. Figure $700-800/mo. for a single license. Expensive, but it saves so much time. Plus the license is now nation-wide.

To make CoStar useful, I use their sale and lease data as a start point and all errors in the data get worked out in confirmation. Their market analysis reports are the real benefit to CoStar, IMO. A published authoritative source for vacancy, etc. is gold. But it has to weighed against my own experience, judgment, and curated data.

 

[Ricky LaFleur]

Why does a similar database for commercial properties not exist?

In my area, it does exist as part of the typical MLS. Large commercial firms surely use CoStar, etc also, but in my experience they didn't even pay much attention to the local data. I've seen several cases where out-of-area appraisers use sales from like 6 states for a typical office/warehouse when there was good, relevant info on properties in the same industrial park as the subject that they ignored. But why bother when you can reuse the same data from across the US over and over and do less research?

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

CoStar charges one kidney per month for access to a database full of inaccurate info.

The issue of cost is perhaps less than, as you state, inaccuracy. Loopnet used to be a good source but got bought out by .... guess who. You could buy individual sales for $35 or so. Now it's just a listing site.

Why don't commercial brokers have a similar incentive?

Money...simple.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

CoStar sues other firms (think Exceligent) out of business for using CoStar's data as the base of their own data. And they keep users in line with lawsuits over unfair use.

They actually added fraudulent data in the listings so as to be able to detect 'cheaters'...at least that was the story going around.

 

[Long Walk]

They actually added fraudulent data in the listings so as to be able to detect 'cheaters'...at least that was the story going around.

I heard the same and didn't add it because I didn't have a source.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I heard the same and didn't add it because I didn't have a source.

CoStar Lawsuit Accuses Competitor, Xceligent, of Data Theft

Commercial real estate data giant CoStar has filed a lawsuit against rival company Xceligent alleging widespread theft of CoStar’s intellectual

www.propmodo.com

 

[PL1957]

I heard the same and didn't add it because I didn't have a source.

Seeding proprietary databases with fake data is a long accepted practice.

 

[Long Walk]

CoStar Lawsuit Accuses Competitor, Xceligent, of Data Theft

Commercial real estate data giant CoStar has filed a lawsuit against rival company Xceligent alleging widespread theft of CoStar’s intellectual

www.propmodo.com

Link is a paywall for me. I posted about the exceligent lawsuit above but didn't realize CoStar had salted their data with deliberate errors.

 

[Long Walk]

Seeding proprietary databases with fake data is a long accepted practice.

I had no idea. I thought that was like an urban legend. But that would explain some of the obvious errors I have found in CoStar. Not so in MLS data in my experience, unless someone has other info.