What is the best fee based online search engine to find properties for sale or lease? Costar is cheaper than Loopnet, but I’m wandering if they produce the same results?
I would imagine the best deals aren’t found online, but by networking.
Ding! Give the guy a cookie. Call your local commericial specialist and see what he/she can do for you. Then try your local REIA club.
OK, OK…I get it
I’m not saying either suck or are completely useless…let me just clarify that. But you already know where you will find most of the good deals, you even said it yourself. You know the answer already…
Besides, loopnet is used by brokers to collect your email… so they can spam you with shitty 5 cap listings.
That’s good to know. What percentage of good deals ever happen through the MLS or other online sources?
That’s asking the “chicken or the egg” question, ain’t it? :flush
I like to look at Loopnet and I do look at certain areas often.
I useually request information on deals I think might have potential - Where the deals are is keeping up with what is going on the property and revisiting it 6-8 months after it is off of loopnet.
I just put in a contract on a property I found on Loopnet - originally it was about $800k which was HIGH
it turns out the real story is that the owner owes $75k on it and was looking to sell it because of the taxes going up. So we are trying to work out a real win-win to build some market rate apartments.
This deal has taken about 8-10 months to come around but sometimes you have to be patient
jason sc
agreed… loopnet is good for things like doing comps, market research, etc. … though I do think some of the info is outdated.
Loopnet is trash. It is a bulletin board. It has the most picked over properties of any service.
Best properties are found off-market or pocket listed
Some good properties are found on local MLS, as long as they are fresh and the listing office is not so bright–i.e., they don’t know better and instead of keeping the property off-market, they go ahead and list it.
CoStar is an excellent RESEARCH company. I have a lot of respect for their research.