Commercial Classroom: Commercial websites - Part 2 - by Edward Smith

This column is offered to help educate agents new to commercial and investment brokerage and serve as a review of basics for existing practitioners. 

Last month, we looked at Commercial Listing Sites; this month we will explore commercial “tools,” organizations and news sites.

“Tools”

• www.REIS.com -This is a research site focusing on previously sold and leased data. It produces comprehensive quarterly reports broken down to sub-markets.

• www.BizStats.com and www.BizMiner.com - These sites analyze business tax returns to determine line item costs by industry. It provides Rent to Revenue Ratios by Industry (RRR-I). This helps us analyze how much rent a client’s business should be paying.

• www.NARRPR.com - Realtors Property Resource is a National Association of Realtors benefit for NAR members. To get full benefits the local MLS must join RPR. However, when you enter a commercial address, the site takes you to the commercial section. Even without MLS affiliation you can get Commercial Property Reports which include the owners name and address, Trade Area Reports with expanded demographics, Trade Area Analysis and Best Businesses (for a location) Reports.

Organizational Sites

There are many real estate organizations that have web sites. Some are national, as most of the examples below; but in different states and local areas many commercial real estate groups exist, many with websites. Search the internet for commercial organizations in your area.

• www.CCIM.com - An affiliate of the National Association of Realtors is the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) Institute. This group provides a series of extensive educational courses leading to the CCIM designation.

• www.sior.com - The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) is also an affiliate of the National Association of Realtors This organization provides educational programs in their area of specialty leading to the SIOR designation.

• www.icsc.org - International Council of Shopping Centers web site offers information about their organization and retailers. This group has conventions throughout the country during the year. Its largest gathering is in Las Vegas, generally in May each year where tens of thousands of retailers, developers and brokers gather to do business.

• www.USGBC.org -The U.S. Green Building Council’s web site leads you to Green Education opportunities, LEED Rating Systems, Resources, News & Events and an opportunity to join local chapters.

There are local commercial brokerage organizations and many Realtor boards have CID’s (Commercial Investment Divisions.) Below are a few examples from my area.

• www.NYSCAR.com - The New York State Commercial Association of Realtors site gives information about their organization and chapter events. They serve as the political “watchdog” for commercial agents in NYS, alerting us of potential laws that may benefit or harm our industry. Members can also “blast” their listings to other members. Another major membership benefit is access to their exclusive commercial listing forms.

• www.NYSCAR-NYCLI.com  - NYSCAR has seven chapters throughout the state. This is the web site for the New York City - Long Island Chapter featuring local activities and events.

• www.NYCommercialNetwork.org - Long Island Board of Realtors Commercial Division is now called the Commercial Network (CN). This active group meets monthly for education and networking. The site also contains a data base of member’s listings.

Real Estate News

Being on top of the real estate news, knowing what is going on in our industry is important to your knowledge as a professional. Subscribe to e-news about real estate, in most cases news is free. Some examples follow:

• www.globest.com - Globe Street provides daily national and regional real estate news about deals, trends and other industry information. You may sign up for various “Daily Alerts” at no cost.

• www.RISMedia.com - Subscribe to “Today’s Real Estate Advisor” for free daily articles on real estate. Although many of the articles are written to the residential side, many of the tips and concepts can be applied to commercial real estate too. They do have other services available for a fee.

• www.inman.com - Inman News specializes in real estate information and articles. This national “paper” has a special section just for commercial real estate, but requires a fee for full information.

Edward Smith, Jr., CREI, ITI, CIC, GREEN, MICP, CNE, is a commercial real estate consultant, instructor and broker at Smith Commercial Real Estate, Sandy Hook, CT.