1. Loopnet.com - Loopnet is probably the largest and most well-known commercial real estate listing site. They claim to have over 630,000 active commercial real estate listings on their website. It costs $24.95 a month for visitors to have access to all of the property listings. The free membership for visitors allows full search capability, however, only a limited number of results are shown.
2. Realup.com - Realup is brand new to the market and officially launched on May 17, 2009. It appears that all of the memberships for both buyers and sellers are free. The website says that “our property listings are charged based on a pay-per-results pricing model, setting us apart from our competitors and providing the greatest value to our partners and clients.” So, they are basically charging for the traffic or leads that your listing generates. This sounds good in principle but from my experience the technology for these “pay for the lead” type of systems is usually too weak to determine what a valuable lead is.
3. Costar.com - Costar offers the ability to search for all commercial property types. Basic listings are free for real estate professionals and property owners. It costs $24.95 a month for visitors to have access to all of the property listings. The free membership for visitors allows full search capability, however, only a limited number of results are shown. They offer information on “space available for lease, comparable sales information, tenant information, properties for sale, property information for clients’ web sites, industry professional directory, analytic information, data integration, property advertising and industry news–throughout the United States as well as in the United Kingdom and France.”
4. Lead-Trac.com - Lead Trac is designed to give investors and commercial real estate professionals access to following data about commercial real estate: property data, owner data, phone numbers. They also offer direct mailing and marketing tools within the website. Pricing starts at $69/user/county/month.  In addition to the monthly plans, they have an unlimited access plan that they sell on a per county basis.  This plan ranges from $1500 to $3000 per county per year.
5. CIMLS.com - What makes CIMLS different than many other similar sites is the fact that visitors can search listings for free while realtors and property owners can also post their listings for free. Realtors and property owners have the option to upgrade to a Gold account for added exposure. The Gold account costs $14.00 a month for the first month and $20.00 a month for every month thereafter.

Photo Credit: quinet

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Tags: buy commercial real esate, commercial real estate sellers, commercial real estate website, Loopnet, marketing, national association of realtors, real estate, search commercial real estate

I’m not sure where I heard about this site, but I’m very excited to see that it exists, and I hope that it can expand to reach cities across the US. With a headline “Building Safer Communities,” CrimeMapping.com allows its users to view the crime statistics in 23 cities around the country, provided by the local police departments. The great thing about this service is that their data is uploaded every 24 hours and, since it is presented directly on a mapping format, it is extremely easy to navigate. Additionally, according to the FAQ, “The date range for crimes displayed represents the last ninety (90) days of activity.”

Looking to Expand across the USA

I spoke with Vance Stewart, Operations Manager at CrimeMapping.com, to find out why the site is only collecting data from this small pool of police departments. “It takes time to get them to buy off on it” he said, “the goal is to have as many cities around the country to work with.” According to Stewart, it takes somewhere between two months and a year for these departments to make their budgetary allotments, so the actual process of adding new cities is quite time and energy consuming.

Supposedly, they are getting a very good response from the site — apparently some people are so interested in having their city added that the community is asking their local law enforcement agencies to participate.

Quick Look at CrimeMapping.com

Above: Snapshot of recent crime in North Miami Beach

One of the great features that the website offers is a service that allows users to be alerted of crime in their area. If you live in one of the cities serviced by the website, you can choose to get emails when new crimes are reported in your vicinity.

I personally hope this site can continue to grow, as it is a phenomenal tool for everyone in a community, including real estate investors, professionals, homeowners, and renters. Here’s to their success!

BTW - If you know about other fantastic real estate related tools or resources online, please let us know.

Tags: crime, Crime statistics, crimemapping.com, Law enforcement agency, police

If you haven’t seen this yet, you’ve got to check it out! Its a “rapumentary addressing the wall street bailout,” written and performed by 47 year old stockbroker Gregg Somerville.

Thoughts?

Tags: bailout, housing bailout, wall street bailout

My favorite is the last one . . . that’s a cool pad for the beach, no?

Photo Credit: Jan Tik

Photo Credit: ccarlstead

Photo Credit: Wrote

Photo Credit: foto3116

Photo Credit:kowitz

Tags: broken house, fun, funny, house collapse, wood, wooden houses

Will the banks take up this new technique in dealing with foreclosed homes?

Photo by: Colin McMillen

Tags: banks, foreclosed, foreclosure, Foreclosures

We created the following video this past spring, but thought it was worth sharing once again, since it has re-emerged into the collective consciousness thanks to our friend Joseph at Sellsius. Enjoy!

Please make sure to share this with all of your friends! Blog about it or just spread the word!

BTW - We’re working on a new video series on real estate and we’ll be sure to let you know about it soon!

Tags: biggerpockets, fun, housing, money, real estate, real estate investing, rich, subprime, video, youtube

The BiggerPockets Real Estate Investing for Real News Blog is officially the first media outlet to announce the arrival of a new website dedicated to helping dogs and cats victimized by foreclosure.

Abandoned Animals of Foreclosure: Help Is On The Way

I have been working in the foreclosure market since I began investing in 1999 and I have run into animals affected by foreclosure. Some were going to be dropped off at shelters while others ended up being left behind in the house…Abandoned.

In fact, last year a homeowner told me they were planning to take their puppy to the pound after I left. Needless to say, I didn’t leave alone. I fostered that puppy for two months until I found it a new home. That’s just me. I have known that animals are abandoned at times but, I never thought I could do much to prevent it and certainly not enough to make a big difference.

In mid-August, I got an email from a woman I used to work with. It contained a link to an article published by the Dallas Morning News. It reported on the growing number of pets that are being abandoned by their owners as a result of losing their houses to foreclosure. It said the local animal shelters have seen an increase of foreclosure homeowners dropping their dogs and cats off with the hope that they will be adopted. An official with the Dallas area SPCA said it has been a growing problem and appears to be getting worse.

I read the article several times and I continued thinking about it for several days.

Two weeks ago… It hit me! I hope that I have come up with a way to make a BIG difference by saving thousands of animals. I have been hard at work transforming my idea into a reality. It is a work in progress and will likely be non-stop updating but, I am hoping that my idea will demonstrate how one person is capable of saving thousands of dogs, cats and other household pets that are or will be affected by foreclosure.

Introducing… HelpForeclosurePets.com

I have summarized how HelpForeclosurePets.com will be able to save thousands of foreclosure pets in Dallas – Fort Worth and maybe on a National level as well.

• A flyer will be mailed to homeowner’s currently in foreclosure in the Dallas - Fort Worth area. It will contain information posted on the website Help Foreclosure Pets.com such as, where owners can turn to for help with their pets like City Shelters, “No-Kill” Shelters, Temporary Boarding, Fosters and Adoption options.
• The site’s main feature is the Pet Connection Board. It will connect pet owners with others who may be able to save their pet by fostering, boarding or adopting foreclosure pets in need.
• Pet owners needing help are encouraged to post information about their pet, what type of situation they feel would be best for their pet and their contact information.
• In order for this concept to work, people interested or able to foster, provide boarding or adopt need to post their contact information on the Pet Connection Board, along with how they are able to help.
• The website also includes rescue information for specific breeds and other organizations & clubs that may be able to help.
• The website will be continuously updated with links to other sites that offer a service to needy animals.
• Help Foreclosure Pets needs donations from individual and corporate sponsors, to help save these voiceless animals. Those sponsoring the mailings will be listed on the flyers, envelopes as well as receive free banner advertising on the web site.
• In order to send a flyer to over 3,000 homeowners in foreclosure every month, a complete list is needed and in Dallas the list must be purchased.

I am happy to announce that Help Foreclosure Pets has its first major sponsor! Foreclosure Listing Service of Addison, Texas, will generously donate monthly foreclosure lists covering four Counties in North Texas.

A big “Thank You” to George Roddy Senior, President and owner of Foreclosure Listing Service.

I hope that anyone interested in saving these animals will contact Help Foreclosure Pets or other organizations dedicated to the same.

One of my mottos with DFW Mentor has been, “Investors Helping Investors.”
Help Foreclosure Pets is “My” way of providing a voice for dogs, cats and other innocent family pets needing help.

The motto of Help Foreclosure Pets is… “People Helping…Foreclosure Pets.”

Tags: abandoned pets, foreclosure, foreclosure pets, foreclosure rescue, Foreclosures