Reis/CoStar alternatives?

My organization pays a lot of money for Reis. Just through spot checking and comparing to our prior transactions and our appraisals it's apparent the Reis is an entirely unreliable data source. We switched over from CoStar last year because it was just kind of mediocre.

Can anyone recommend a source of real estate data that they find fairly comprehensive and accurate?

 

From my experience they all serve different purposes. We have subscriptions to all 3 (Reis, CoStar, RCA) and use CoStar for property level information, Reis for economic data such market/submarket trends, and RCA for transaction information. There is no one stop shop for data. Depending on your needs, we also find Axiometrics to be valuable for apartment data. They are great for student housing.

Ultimately, it is a tough task for any company to maintain a completely accurate database. I always try to confirm as much as possible directly with a broker/owner/manager.

 
DCDepository:

Agreed. I've just found substantial materially wrong data coming out of Reis, so much so that it's basically of no benefit (no benefit because the data is so unreliable).

Same with Costar. Best use of the research is putting you in contact with the transaction agents in the market. They know....

Underwriting to Costar is deadly - but I will use it to find static vacancy within the submarket for similar space. Costar Analytics is a great tool. Definitely tune in to the webinars.

 

We use CoStar and REIS to come up with an initial judgment of a market, that's it. We pay for both, but frankly we never use REIS for commercial space, multi only. Pretty sure I saw that CoStar just launched a multifamily platform, and I wouldn't be surprised if we cut REIS out entirely at some point in the future.

If one of the larger brokerages that has their own research department (e.g. CBRE) is pitching a deal, they often provide their own analysis, which is nice to have just as a cross check.

Ultimately, once we're underwriting, we fall back on whatever the appraisal says, because that's what we'll have to use to sell the deal later.

 

Have you tried M&M? PM me if you are looking for something supermarket specific.

"He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man." ― William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
 

I have done some extensive research on this and I have found Axiometrics in Dallas to be very good for Multifamily. They update the rents every month which i found out that none of the others will do. REIS and COSTAR do it quarterly at best and I don't think that is often enough in Multifamily. I also like how they break out the entire unit mixes and don't have ranges or combined info. I recommend them for sure. I also have found RCA to be awesome for transaction data.

 
 

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