If you want to buy or lease commercial real estate, browsing all available commercial real estate listings is usually a good place to start. However, it is important to note that the commercial real estate industry does not operate the same way as the residential real estate industry.
Commercial real estate listing websites contain valuable information for CRE professionals and cover a number of their needs. When you google “search commercial real estate listings,” you’ll get millions of sources to choose from. However, only a tiny part of them can be considered reliable commercial property listings websites.
First of all, while there are several websites that list commercial property for sale, there is no single MLS where they all must be listed. It is also common for commercial property to be “off market”, but still available for sale or lease. This means that the property is available, but only through private channels such as mailing lists or broker networks. This can make finding commercial property much more difficult than finding a residential property.
Finding commercial real estate that is listed for sale can be challenging for the reasons discussed above. If you want to find commercial real estate for sale, then hiring a reputable commercial real estate broker is a great way to get access to the private marketing channels and email lists commonly used to market commercial properties. Usually commercial real estate for sale will go through these private channels first, before hitting any publicly available commercial real estate listing sites.
How to List Commercial Investment Property
- Prepare Your Property
It is important to clean up the interior and exterior of your commercial investment property as much as possible before listing it for sale. If the property is vacant, be sure to remove unnecessary trash or items left behind by tenants. Make repairs to the property, if the budget allows. Even minor repairs, such as patching a hole in drywall, can be cost-effective and could make a major difference when it comes to selling your property. Commercial investment properties with attached buildings show best to potential investors when the buildings are in good repair.
- Perform Your Due Diligence
Conduct some research, and have all the information about your commercial investment property available to a possible buyer. This may include preparing a basic synopsis of the potential uses for your investment property based on the zoning of the property. You may also provide a summary of the price per square foot, how your sales price compares with other commercial properties in the area, in addition to the total revenue the property currently brings in as is, or the potential revenue that could be attained for an investor.
- Try Listing Yourself
Create an account on a website that specializes in commercial property listings, such as Commercial Source or The Commercial Investment Multiple Listings Service. Fill out the online form to build your listing, and include clear photographs as well as information about the property size, location, possible uses, and price. If you are listing a property for sale by yourself, you can also utilize online classified listings like Craigslist, newspaper listings, and even billboard or TV advertising.
- Use a Broker
Hire a broker to list your property if you are unable to maintain the listing yourself. Although a broker requires a commission for selling your property, the broker also takes over the hard work of listing and showing your property. A commercial broker takes measurements, photographs, and even site surveys to create a listing that may be featured on the broker’s website, in commercial real estate magazines, and in the commercial multiple listing service accessed by the entire network of real estate brokers.
Where to Find Commercial Real Estate Listings?
There are many commercial property listings sites to help you advertise or search specific commercial building listings. There are two primary sources of where to find commercial real estate listings;
Firstly, you can get listings through a strong network. Commercial real estate agents are constantly creating and maintaining relationships. Many of them start by connecting with everyone they know (family, friends, acquaintances). They communicate with these people to make it known that they are in the business.
Even if CRE agents communicate with people that might not be in the market for selling or buying properties now, there are chances they will become prospective clients later or have other acquaintances that might be interested in the deal. To expand the network, agents and brokers use the methods of warm calling and cold calling to attract leads to commercial building listings as well.
Secondly, use MLS or commercial property listing sites to advertise your commercial real estate for sale. To help you choose the best platform for commercial realty listings, this article highlights a list of some of the commercial property listing sites. Hence, brokers will always be looking for sources of commercial building listings. Knowing where to find commercial realty listings for a good price helps to close deals successfully.
Top 5 Commercial Listing Sites
- LoopNet
LoopNet is one of the most recognized commercial property listing sites that offer various types of CRE: office, multi-family, industrial, retail, land, agricultural, hotel & motel, residential income properties, and more. It has one of the largest databases with 1.1 million property listings and 5.1 billion square feet for lease around the globe. In April 2012, LoopNet was acquired by CoStar Group Inc for $860 million in cash and stock. In October 2017, CoStar fully integrated its database with LoopNet, expanding the number of commercial realty listings, and creating a new platform for users.
- CREXi
Commercial Real Estate Exchange, Inc. (CREXi) is the commercial real estate marketplace and technology platform. Since launching in 2015, CREXi has helped 6 million users (buyers, tenants, and brokers) to transact business on over 500,000 commercial listings.
- Catylist
Catylist (acquired by Moody’s) is a listing platform that provides services for individuals or companies looking for office, industrial, shopping, retail, land, multi-family, or hospitality properties. It contains thousands of listings across the United States in different categories.
- Brevitas
Brevitas is a commercial listing platform partner of the National Association of REALTORS that offers a private, open, and off-market commercial real estate marketplace. It allows users to track the offers on the market, search or post “a want,” and create alerts and listings. Additionally, users can request syndication if they want to add listings from their company or MLS.
- OfficeSpace.com
OfficeSpace.com (acquired by Biproxi) specializes in all types of office spaces, including large-scale spaces, smaller offices for independent businesses, and coworking spaces. Users can browse the listings according to the following categories: commercial, office, retail, and industrial. The site currently has more than 570,000 active listings across the United States available for tenants, brokers, and partners. The predominant part of commercial realty listings covers 20 major U.S. cities and states.
Featuring your commercial asset on these platforms can increase your chances of finding a qualified buyer. The listed-above commercial realty listings have become handy tools for investors, tenant rep brokers, commercial real estate brokers, etc.
As informed investors we should understand the risks associated with real estate investing and that there is no guarantee. Please do your due diligence.
