Commercial Real Estate Blog

We’ve been working closely with the Indiana Commercial Board of REALTORS® over the past several months to aggregate and import local public records. The result is a major influx of valuable information into the ICREX database, including 54,000 statewide sales disclosures and 451,000 building and land records.

“ICBR has been working aggressively to improve the level of service ICREX provides. The new data layers are a vital component in making ICREX a complete, one‐stop resource for those in the commercial real estate industry. ICREX is now an efficient source of accurate, reliable information at an affordable cost.” – John Caffray, ICREX Chair and Associate Broker with NAI Harding Dahm

This is a great step forward in their goal to establish a comprehensive and accurate commercial real estate database for the state of Indiana. Read on for the full press release…

Read More »

Mobile CIE App

All CIE Subscribers have FREE access to the Catylist Mobile CIE App:

• Designed to work beautifully on Android/iOS smartphones & tablets, including iPhones & iPads.
• Sophisticated, map-based searching including an unlimited number of results.
• View full listing details, including photo galleries.
• Sync’d with your listing catalogs for access during showings, client presentations.
• Email listings and catalogs directly from your device.
• Access to your CIE’s member directory to call/email colleagues.
• View your inventory of available property listings.
• Read the latest commercial real estate news articles, aggregated from around the Web.
• Free public search allows tenants & investors around the country to find your property availabilities on their mobile devices.

Read the Setup Instructions, and try it out now.

In addition to the new app, we’ve also added some better support for tablets on your normal CIE, including fixes to the scrolling issues some were experiencing when running searches on an iPad.

Improved Email Hotsheets

Email hotsheets allow you to be notified by email about new and updated listings that match your preferences. We’ve made four improvements that we think you’ll love:

• We’ve separated the “New” listings from the “Updated”
• Listings that are flagged as “Updated” will now display exactly what changed, example:
  Price was changed from $1,200,000 to $1,100,000
• All lease rates will now include a type where available, ie. NNN, Gross Lease, etc.
• The layout and spacing have been improved for easier scanning

To sign up for hotsheets or fine-tune your preferences, log in to your CIE, and select the “My Email Preferences” option under “My Account” at the top of any page.

Improved Catalogs

Catalogs are like “favorites” lists or client folders — they allow you to save groups of listings or comparables for later analysis, for presenting to a client, or just to keep track of changes to the properties over time. We made a few changes to make them more useful:

First, we redesigned the layout of the catalogs section to include more information about the cataloged listings and comparables, including a photo, price, size, property types, etc.

Also, each catalog now has a dedicated page branded with your company logo and contact information, and designed to be accessed by your clients. For instance, let’s say you were helping a client find some office space to lease in Albuquerque. As you found suitable spaces in the CIE, you’d add them to a catalog. Then, you’d email a link that would allow your client to review these spaces, all under your own company branding and contact details. Here’s an Example Catalog.

You can access your existing catalogs under “My Account” at the top of any page, and you can add an item to a catalog directly from each listing page. These catalogs are also accessible the new mobile app, making it easy to keep track of properties wherever you are.

Search Improvements

• We’ve added “Size” to the initial search screen for convenience, since most searches will include a size requirement.
• You can now search listings using a “Price Per SF” or “Price Per Acre” range.
• We’ve added better location searching options for Business Opportunities. Now when searching for businesses for sale, you can specify city, county, zip, or MSA in addition to state. Also, CIE subscribers can now search businesses posted by members of other CIEs.
• By default, when searching for lease space, your CIE splits each space into a separate search result. This makes it easier for you to drill down to only the spaces that meet your criteria. There are times when it’s more convenient to keep the results grouped by building, and we’ve added a new option that allows you to consolidate the results into a single record rather than one-per-space. To try it out, run a search, then check the “Group results by building” box the the left-side, near the bottom.
• If your CIE has submarket support, you can now select multiple submarkets from the pop-up map. We also include a list of the submarket names to make selection easier.

Thanks!

All of these changes came directly from feedback we’ve received from you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with your suggestions – we’re planning another round of upgrades for the Spring!

2012 is a big year for us – it’s our 10th anniversary as a company. We’ve gone through a lot over the years, and this milestone is an important one.

We rolled out our first Commercial Information Exchange (CIE) in 2002, shortly after launching a data-sharing platform for members of the CCIM Institute. At the time, the “Catylist Tech Headquarters” was a spare closet in the REALTOR® building in Chicago. Our team doubled in size that first year, and by the start of 2003 we’d launched 10 CIEs in markets around the country. We now host over 30 CIEs and Commercial MLS platforms, more than any other provider.

We had a lot to learn in those early days, and we’ll always be grateful to the first two pioneering groups that stuck with us through those growing pains, helping us build the service into what it is today:

CIEs are more important than ever

We started the company with a belief in a few simple ideas, and looking back it’s nice to see that we’re still on the same path:

• Sharing is Good – Sharing information about commercial property listings ultimately benefits everyone. Owners, tenants, investors, brokers on both sides of the deal – everyone.
• Commercial ≠ Residential – The Residential MLS is no place for commercial property listings. CRE deserves technology dedicated to the complexities of industrial properties, office spaces, shopping centers, etc.
• Data is King – We help communities pool and share their intellectual property. That collection of information is extremely valuable – they should never give up ownership.
• Grassroots > Top Down – Most Commercial Real Estate is done locally and every market is different. It’s better to build a national network of established local communities than to ignore these differences and develop a one-size-fits-all national platform.

As big national services like LoopNet and CoStar consolidate and continue to raise their fees, the CIE movement is more important than ever. All local CRE communities should have access to quality tools and information at an affordable price. For commercial real estate pros, success should be about the level of service you provide, not about how much money you have to spend.

Thank You

While we’d like to attribute this milestone to our keen vision, business savvy, or true grit, we know that we’re still around because of you, our clients. Thanks again for a decade’s worth of enthusiastic support and thoughtful feedback. Keep it coming.

Here’s to a successful 2012, for all of us in the industry!

We’re very happy to announce the newest member of our CIE family – the Northern California Commercial Association of REALTORS®. The new California Commercial Property Information Exchange (CACPIX) is now live: http://cacpix.com

“Our CIE committee’s job was to review the major national CIE options and provide recommendations to the Board of Directors. It was clear the Catylist service provided the best user friendly, flexible, most robust and cost efficient exchange for our members and non-members. I was introduced to Catylist while working in Michigan. Our commercial team relied on the Michigan CIE more than any other exchange due to the amount and reliability of data provided by CBOR/CPIX. I am pleased that NCCAR’s Board of Directors took the lead and partnered with Catylist to bring a valuable and necessary statewide CIE to California”

Steven McMurtrie, CIE Committee Chairman
Northern California Commercial Assoc. of REALTORS®

Learn more about how a Commercial Information Exchange can benefit your local community.

A successful CIE allows local communities to share information about the commercial real estate in their market. A centralized database of commercial property is a great tool, whether you’re a REALTOR® helping a client find space, or an economic development group looking to showcase available sites and draw businesses to your community.

Over the past few months, Catylist has worked with the California Desert Association of REALTORS® (who operates the Desert Area Commercial Information Exchange, or DACIE) to identify and reach out to economic development groups in their area. Through close collaboration, we’ve helped to establish a network of economic development partners that now share information with the association, each displaying sale and lease availabilities on their website.

• Coachella Valley Economic Partnership
• Coachella Valley Enterprise Zone
• City of Coachella
• City of Rancho Mirage
• City of Indio
• City of Palm Springs
• Desert Hot Springs
• And talks are underway with several other groups!

These partnerships ensure that businesses doing site selection in the area have access to the most current and accurate information available. It also helps the association’s REALTOR® members to get their property listings in front of a broader audience.

Learn More about Catylist solutions for Economic Developers

Read on for a recent press release on the topic…

Read More »

Nothing is more important to us than maintaining strong relationships with our clients, and we’re very happy to announce that we’ve recently signed two long-term renewals:

FGCAR – Florida Gulf Coast Association of REALTORS®

Launched in 2002 (almost 10 years ago), FGCAR was our first CIE client. Over the years we’ve worked with them to improve and customize the service (integration with membership and public records databases, etc.) and it’s grown into a successful information exchange serving professionals in the Tampa, Florida region. We’re very happy to continue our oldest partnership, and are looking forward to great things ahead. Visit FGCAR

LACDB – Louisiana Commercial Database

Launched in 2004, LACDB is our largest CIE client. It’s the most comprehensive repository of commercial real estate data in the state of Louisiana, trafficked by nearly 9,000 professionals each month. It’s been a pleasure working with LACDB over the years to build the value of the service. Most recently, we collaborated to add a number of custom map layers, including parcel boundaries, enterprise zones, and zoning information. Visit LACDB

These are just two of the 30 markets around the country that use our CIE software to share information, breaking their dependence on high-priced national services. For more information about how a Catylist CIE can benefit your market, get in touch!

We’ve been chosen to create a new Commercial MLS for the Pensacola Association of REALTORS®!

The new site is live at: GulfCoastCMLS.com and we’ll be working closely with Wendy and the great staff at PAR to aggregate data and grow this into a valuable tool for marketing and researching commercial property in the greater Pensacola area!

Learn more about how a Commercial Information Exchange can benefit your local community.

We’ve just released a new round of improvements to our CIE platform! Over the past year, we’ve built partnerships with providers of the best CRE data available, including tax/assessment/loan records, owners and tenants, traffic counts, current and projected demographics, GIS map layers, etc. Several of our CIEs have already made this information available, and others are in the process.

Our focus over the past few months has been on taking that new data and integrating it within our CIEs in a way that makes the information easy to understand. These latest changes are a big step toward our goal of making our locally-controlled databases a one-stop-shop for commercial real estate information in each market.

Improvements to Navigation & Search

We’ve made it much easier to get around your CIE. All major functions are now instantly accessible thanks to the new drop-down menu bar at the top of the screen. This should drastically reduce the number of clicks it takes to get at the information you need.

We’ve also overhauled the search pages to make it easier for you to see all the different kinds of information that can be searched. You’ll notice the new menu on the left-hand side that will allow you to quickly toggle between different searches. The new search pages are a lot less cluttered, and should be easier on the eyes. We’ve made searching by keyword easier to find and more effective. The keyword fields will also auto-populate with popular terms to save time and avoid typos. Finally, when searching for listings or comparables, you will now see a “Show on Map” option allowing you to go directly to the “Map View” when searching.

Better Submarket Support Submarkets are locally-understood designations for areas that don’t always align nicely with government boundaries, ie. “Downtown” or “South City Industrial District”. If your CIE has submarket boundaries defined, you can now choose to filter your search to particular submarkets by visually selecting those areas on a map. Look for the “Select Submarket” link under the location box when searching for listings, comps, or properties. If your CIE doesn’t yet have submarkets defined, let us know and we’ll work with you and your CIE administrator to set them up.

Improved Property History / Address Look-up

Because our CIEs are Property-Centric, all of the information we collect gets tied back to individual parcels. The “Property History” page makes it easy to see everything the CIE knows about a property at a particular address. We’ve just overhauled this page to be more comprehensive, including many new types of information: Active Listings for sale or lease Spaces/Parcels at that address NEW Transaction History, including sale and lease activity Property History Timeline including new listings, price changes, and expirations NEW Property/Building Details including hundreds of possible variables like size, zoning, tax ID, characteristics, etc. NEW Photos collected for that address Owner History including contact information when available NEW Tenant History including contact information when available NEW Tax History including taxes paid and assessed values when available NEW Loan History when available NEW Links to local market statistics and demographics, etc. Maps, aerial and street views

This gives your CIE the ability to function as a powerful research database, giving you quick access to data that might’ve taken hours to compile separately. To try it out, select the “Property Histories” option under the “Search” menu, and enter an address.

If your CIE doesn’t currently provide tax records or owner and tenant information, get in touch with your CIE administrator and let them know you want it. The data is available should your CIE choose to integrate it.

Confidential Prices for Sale Transactions

Many agents aren’t comfortable sharing details about their transactions, especially the sale price. We’ve added a new option for users reporting sales: “Keep Price Confidential”. This allows the CIE to use the price to generate more accurate market statistics, but allows the agent to keep the price private. No one else will be able to see the entered price.

QR Codes for Reports

QR codes are a new form of barcode that can be scanned by smartphones. All printable reports generated from your CIE can now include QR codes for each property. Once a report is printed, clients can simply scan the code and be automatically taken to the online listing presentation to view the full details. You can also choose to exclude the QR codes from their reports by selecting that option when customizing their report. Learn more about QR codes and Commercial Real Estate.

Thanks!

As always, thanks for your excellent feedback and suggestions! Please don’t hesitate to contact us with your ideas to improve the service. We’ll be rolling out more great tools and enhancements later this year.

We’re excited to welcome our newest CIE client! NICAR’s new CIE will finally give commercial real estate professionals in Northern Illinois a place to share information, including property listings for sale and lease, and access to a historical database of over 80,000 transactions.

Learn more about how a Commercial Information Exchange can benefit your local community, or read on for the full press release:

Read More »

We’re very happy to announce a new partnership with our friends at Rofo, a national search engine for available space. All Catylist CIE members are now able to push their property listings to Rofo.

Additionally, thanks to Rofo’s Real Estate Pro app, those listings can also be displayed on your LinkedIn profile. Setting up the app is free and takes just seconds, then you’ll be able to display your available listings and deals done on the world’s largest business-focused social network. LinkedIn has over 100 million members. If you don’t have a profile yet, it’s time to take a look.

To learn more, here’s a short video demonstration:

Get Started!

1. Log in to your CIE and make sure you’re opted in the the Rofo feed by clicking to the “Promote” section for one of your listings. Take note of the username and password displayed.
2. Log in to your existing LinkedIn account (or create one)
3. Setup the Real Estate Pro app (one click)
4. Under “Manage” click “Link Rofo Account”
5. Select “Yes, I already have a Rofo account”, then enter the username and password from step #1
6. That’s it. Now your property listings are displayed on your LinkedIn profile!

Maximum Exposure

Your next deal can come from anywhere. Catylist Commercial Information Exchanges allow members to syndicate their listings to a growing number of sites with no additional data entry. Investors and tenants are searching for space on many sites – we help our members get their listings on as many of them as possible. Learn More about Catylist CIEs

About Rofo

Rofo stands for Right of First Offer. It’s your right to find the best offers and get a complete view of your local commercial real estate market. Whether your searching for office, retail or warehouse space to rent or buy, finding the next location for your business is an important decision and it goes beyond viewing active listings. Rofo provides the unique tools and information to make your search smarter and more complete.