Getting commercial real estate data points for use in various real estate analysis is not an easy task. Quite simply, there are not many sources, and those sources that exist do not contain data with all inclusive details.
Sources for gathering commercial real estate comps include:
1. Local tax assessors website
2. Local commercial real estate data services (membership typically required)
3. Public commercial real estate sites such as Loopnet.com Users can pay for data comps on a per piece basis or as a subscription.
4. Local commercial appraisers.
5. Local commercial real estate brokers.
6. Costar
There are various outlets for commercial real estate data for large properties and trend analysis. Many small investors should not mistakenly use this information for application to smaller properties. For example, market cap rates for a 20 unit apartment will be much different than a 200 unit apartment located in the same market.
The most difficult data to obtain are lease details. Since there is no required recordation, the only person to rely upon is the owner, tenant or brokers. Most of the lease term data is viewed as confidential by one or all of these parties in some way. The owner may not want to let the world know how much of a discount he had to take to accommodate the lease on the table, The tenant may not want their competitors taking advantage of the information on their term. Typically, a call to the broker involved in the transaction will yield enough detail to make the data you are considering relevant for your analysis.
