Commercial Real Estate Blog

Catylist CIEs: More Data, More Accessible

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.

Comments

  1. Posted by commercial broker on August 18, 2011 at 4:53 AM | Permalink

    What a great system. It is nice to be able to have another option to the current MLS competitors. Catylist has powerful mapping, search and reporting for commercial real estate. We are going to have to look at this system for our commercial real estate brokerage in columbus, ohio.

  2. Posted by GSV on October 24, 2011 at 4:02 PM | Permalink

    Every commercial real estate broker or commercial appraiser can appreciate an excellent system like Catylist. Thank you for providing an excellent product – from a commercial real estate appraiser in Los Angeles CA.