Which Property Ownership Information Service Is the Best One?

With the different property ownership information services that are available to you as a commercial real estate broker, which one is the best one for you? Each one can have different features, but normally the question that I get asked the most by brokers is, “Which service will give me the best and most accurate information on who the property owners are within my territory?”

And my answer to that question is, “It can often depend on exactly where your territory is located geographically, and which service provides the best information within that territory.”

So what I recommend, when you’re considering doing business with companies like CoStar, Buildout Connect, Reonomy, and Prospect Now, is that you give them the addresses of five properties in your area, where you already know who the owners are, and you know these owners’ contact information. Then see how accurate the contact information is that these companies will give back to you about these owners.

It’s not a perfect way to determine how accurate the ownership information will continue to be if you become a new customer, but it’s certainly better than operating off of pure blind faith, and hope.

In addition, when you know brokers in your territory, who are in your niche or property specialization, who are also friendly competitors, and who are people you can trust to tell you the truth, you might ask them about the reliability of the ownership information for the service or services that they are currently utilizing within your area.

Because the chances are very high that you will experience the same kind of quality when you become a customer of one of these companies, when you’ve obtained the local feedback on them.

In addition, it seems that these property information companies tend to have better, more accurate information within the major cities, because in my opinion, this is where they can develop the greatest amount of incoming revenue, from all of the brokers who are located within these cities.

So do your homework, take demos of these products and services, ask the opinions of your local brokers, and then make the educated decision that will be the best one for you.

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