Where to find commercial data for leads?

Question

Hi all.

I am trying to run a statewide search looking for multifamily, self storage and commercial facilities.

I know of several data sources including Yardi-Matrix, CoreLogic and Costar but don’t have access to any of these platforms.

I don’t know which is best and the price points seem very high when I want to just test and see if these are even useful for me. Does anyone know of a way to gain access to these platforms to try them out to see if it fits in my deal flow pipeline?

Or do you have any other data sources you would recommend?

Thanks for the help and advice!

Sandra Canning · Answer

I just completed a trial for Reonomy and was very impressed. Contact data was mostly accurate and easy to use dashboard. Great filters to fine-tune (multiple properties owned, financials, distressed, etc.)

Justin Reed · Answer

Hey @Bill Goodland - hope you're doing well.

CoreLogic (RealQuest) and TitlePRO are both good. If you message me I can probably help you out with access to either. Honestly I don't trust other data sources, I've done a ton of testing and other sources are inaccurate, incomplete, in a horrible format, etc.

Steve Morris · Answer

Call the reps for CoStar, Yardi, etc. and explain your situation.  They may give you a free month to get going.  However, they are very expensive services (like a few hundred a month).

You could always try to make friends with your title person and they can send lists that are about 80% accurate (vs. 90% accurate on the pay-fors).

However, you're going to have to keep your list updated as stuff changes.

Ryan Alexander · Answer

@Bill Goodland

Hi Bill, I’ve have some luck using Radius+ for owner names and then will pay for someone on Fivrr to use skip tracing to get the owners home mailing address and phone. Radius+ can get expensive quick, but once you sign up you get so many free credits. Good luck in looking for some deals!

Brandon Hobbs · Answer

@Bill Goodland

Will definitely be following this thread and look forward to others input.  I am trying to figure out which way to go as well.  I can only speak to commercial and self storage, have never been a MF guy.

Outside of InfoUSA, ListSource, etc. I am not aware of another platform outside of the ones you mentioned.  The problem with the list company data is you are buying property information, not ownership information.  I have used these for direct mail and cold call campaigns and have had some success, but many of the mail pieces get returned or never see the actual owner's hands.  The phone numbers provided are at the property level, so most of the time the manager answers and not ownership.

I'm sure many folks will say you just need to dive in to the local markets you are focused on with G-Maps and build your own database.  That works too, and can certainly help prime the pump.  But it's extremely time consuming and it's just not scalable once you get to a certain size and are trying to research multiple markets at once.

Will be very interested to see others input here.  Best of luck.