My thoughts exactly. In fact, I called Loopnet this morning and asked them why they were doing this. I have come to find out that the founder of Loopnet is cashing out………great! I have used Costar since the mid 1980′s and have watched their comp data decline steadily in terms of content and accuracy while their prices have gone in the opposite direction. Loopnet was a cost effective alternative with better data. Now commercial appraisers and brokers are faced with the prospect of a data colossus with no alternatives. I’m hoping an alternative provider does come forward as you indicate.

Thanks for your post.

Ken Nava

I have aways thought that both services missed the mark when addressing the retail leasing market. Neither service has taken full advantage of the capabilities of web 2.0 technology and both have persisted in charging too much for services that consistently under perform. Check out the free service at http://www.retailquest.com for a fresh approach to listing online.

Its a sad day, imo, I threw Costar out the window a couple of years ago. What was the point of paying the fees for inferior data? Not to mention the annoying “we own the market” attitude that seems to be a part of the company’s culture from top to bottom.

@Dan, I just checked out your site. Looks interesting but there is not one single property listed in my town….. Not sure they are ready to take on the giant.

perhaps commercialsource, NAR’s answer to CRE search will take the hint and do a better job of running their site.

Co Star and LoopNet are terribly overpriced, especially for the small operators out there, which I am one of…. LoopNet I will give credit to, as their site has worked hard on their SEO strategy, Co Star has done a terrible job. Just try and find information on their site with a search engine. It does not happen.

Commercial Source I had hopes for, but that was quickly dashed once I found out they somehow keep search engines away from their data. NAR does a great job on the residential side, but for some reason has always stayed out of the commercial side. Commercial Source is not the answer.

I started a site to try and offer a free alternative, focused on one state. I put up links to commerce sites, state sites, etc, all specific to Wisconsin. All focused on Search Engine Optimization. It is not that difficult to make a site SEO friendly, and you have to work to make them unfriendly. Site is at http://www.wisconsinbrokernet.com.

The bottom line in this merger, in my opinion, is that prices will go up and quality will go down as they sort through the merger…

I totally agree with this post. LoopNet was well on its way to taking over the reigns from CoStar. It had embarked down the path of becoming the “go to” place to list to get things sold or leased.

I agree with Gary, the prices may go up and the quality down as the merger progresses.

My biggest fear is that Loopnet, as a low cost commercial real estate tool will become more expensive. At CS Financial we actively use Loopnet to check on up to date market conditions.

I always thought that LoopNet was more user friendly and never likeed posting our Baltimore real estate listings on Costar, because we would get multiple calls from costar sales reps for days asking us to upgrade our service or telling us about their latest and greatest special deal.

LoopNet was always the resource we used to obtain comparables when evaluating commercial properties in Baltimore. I hope Costar does not change the broker or user experience to much since I feel that this will just make it more difficult when evaluating viable comparables around town