Once upon a time (ten years ago), investors looking for investment properties with attractive cap rates (rate of return), blue-chip tenants and triple-net leases (the tenant pays virtually all operating expenses), had to rely on word-of-mouth, out-of-state brokers, trade publications, or specialty research firms. If you were buying for your own account, as opposed to looking for a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust), there were no central clearing houses with decent inventories of properties. Sometimes, when you got a lead, you jumped on a plane.
What a difference a decade makes. According to a recent New York Times article, several websites now focus strictly on buying or selling commercial properties, both nationally and internationally, whether they be office buildings, warehouses, or shopping centers. Currently, only about one percent of all visits to real estate websites are for commercial properties, but with more efficient and comprehensive sites, experts believe that number will grow considerably.
In addition to the traditional commercial brokerages like Cushman & Wakefield, Grubb & Ellis, Marcus & Millichap, and NAI Global, which have their own websites with free information about markets and listings, several new fee-based sites are garnering a burgeoning share of buyers and sellers, lessors and lessees. Because commercial properties are generally easier to value than residential—the more revenue a commercial building generates, the more it is worth—a real estate broker is not always necessary. However, there can be complexities dealing with location, tenant history and creditworthiness, age, and condition of the property, and 1031 tax-deferred exchanges. Also, some of the sites below operate along the lines of eBay, bringing buyers and sellers together. For best results buyers, once they target desired properties, enlist an independent broker for additional research.
Loopnet.com is the largest commercial real estate independent site with over 2.5 million registered members and over 900,000 unique visitors monthly. As of this writing, there were over 535,000 listings, representing $425 billion of value and 3.7 billion square feet of property. A basic free membership with limited listings and search capabilities is available if you want to get your feet wet. Premium packages start at $39.95 a month.
Costar.com with 75,000 subscribers offers a huge database of properties in the United States and Europe, with more than 2.6 million properties represented and 43.5 billion square feet. Constar provides photos, comps, tenant contracts and lease expirations dates. It also handles sales as well as leases. Memberships start at $24.95 a month.
Commrex.com allows users to search free but they must become members ($79/year) if they want to list a property for sale or lease. Current memberships exceed 300,000 and its database has over 10,000 properties.
Cimls.com stands for Commercial Investment Multiple Listing Service and offers free basic memberships for users to search listings and place basic information and a photo about a property for sale. Premium memberships start at $20 a month and include priority placements and the ability to attach marketing packages like property fliers.
Catylist.com offers locally branded websites for commercial brokers and organizations. It also is in effect a national portal with access to an aggregate database of over 200,000 listings and recent transactions. Basic membership is complimentary and a full membership is $35 a month.
