Costar Membership question - Am I being bullied (well probably, but how bad)?
Like many of you, I have a deep distrust of Costar. We current have 3 agents signed up for Costar. 

We have added a few agents over the year and Costar said they all need to have accounts or we are in violation. I have noticed national groups like EXP can have costar but not all agents at EXP have it.

Is this just costar bullying a small brokerage? Is there anything that can be done/ 

Also - does anyone have guidance on what costar pricing would look like for a team of 8 or 9? 

Thank you in advance and may all your deals close in 2022!
[{"id": "hrshrvp", "text": "I used their mid grade service for 4 years, filled in all the boxes, took professional photos, did all the things they recommended for those 4 years, and never got a single tenant from Costar.  I think in all, I spent about 15 grand or so with them in that time.\n\nWhen I finally gave up on it, canceling my contract with them, they called me and said *\"if you signed up for our premium service, you'd get much better results\".*\n\nI'm sure they must have services that are worth buying but...I haven't found any.\n\nCraigslist has always been my go to. Never fails to keep my buildings full.", "replies": [{"id": "hry8v53", "text": "Just wanted to clarify how this works for anyone who is interested in \"knowing\". CoStar is for the brokerage community, so you will only get a \"tenant\" from this resource if it comes from another Broker who is bringing you a tenant. CoStar is mainly for \"market research\" rather than for advertising of your listings.\n\nLoopnet is where you will find principals and tenants for your listings and this is their \"marketing\" platform.  This is how things have changed over the past 3 years or so.\n\nCoStar acquired Loopnet and ran on separate databases for a couple of years. This is why you needed to contact them separately to get your listings on both of the services. This is also when we were able to get better rates on Loopnet.   When they consolidated CoStar and Loopnet into ONE database is where we all got screwed on pricing.....\n\nTHIS IS HOW IT WORKS NOW....\n\nYou can add your property onto Loopnet for free (considered a \"basic\" listing), but unless you are paying for a premium listing (silver or higher tier - roughly $85/month per property), it will only be shows on the CoStar platform. Anyone who has a CoStar account can view the listing in either Loopnet or CoStar....for those of you with CoStar accounts....this is why you see a blue box that says you are able to access this listing because of your CoStar account. Users who do not have a CoStar account will NOT see these listings on Loopnet. Many resi-agents, principals and some commercial brokers are not aware that this is now how their systems work.", "replies": [{"id": "hrynvah", "text": "If anyone is interested in knowing how Costar works for subscribers, if you are on Costar you are automatically on Loopnet (and a few other services they own).\n\nThey do indeed offer (or used to.  Perhaps mine was an old account type) subscriber (non broker) accounts to list your properties, and the fees run well in excess of $85.00 a month.\n\nEdit: Apparently the automatic Loopnet isn't done anymore or isn't part of their service fees anymore.", "replies": [{"id": "hs4fbri", "text": "If you add a listing to Costar, it does not show up on Loopnet unless you pay extra.", "replies": [{"id": "hs4fon8", "text": "Well, for whatever reason, mine must have had that included because they always called to tell me to update both.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrshzpk", "text": "LoopNet used to be a great resource until Co-Star came into the picture. As owner of several properties, I can\u2019t justify the cost to utilize them. I also find their market data inaccurate in some cases. Personally, I hope people quit wasting their $ on them and they go away.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrsiy80", "text": "You can tell them only 2 are commercial agents and the others are residential.", "replies": [{"id": "hrx59mr", "text": "Yes, HOWEVER, CoStar is also looking at advertising.  Your current rep may not push the issue but if they leave and/or the books are reshuffled the new rep may not be so generous.\n\nJust be careful.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrst1xv", "text": "They don\u2019t charge by the team size only by the users count. If the new agents don\u2019t use the system you don\u2019t need to pay for them. \nThe license agreement will be in violation only if you share passwords", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrt1uzm", "text": "They all need accounts if they are in the same office and use costar to update listings ect. They bully large brokerages too.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrt8res", "text": "Dude the \u2018costar memes\u2019 Instagram account is significantly influencing my perception of them. Check it out. Personally I would be careful/ possibly avoid. Weird/bad company culture", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrtadei", "text": "I'm in a similar sized office and they did the same thing to us.  We switched to Crexi and its been great.  More leads, and it cost less.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrtbu5t", "text": "Not getting bullied, they bully everyone. It'll be this way until another player in the market can actually gain some steam. But you can simply tell CoStar that they are residential agents or you can tell them that they are not planning on using CoStar to market their listings. Best of luck.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hru28iv", "text": "Rules of dealing with CoStar....\n\nNever let them into your office as they will walk around and count desks\n\nCoStar will go onto your company website, linked In and other resources to find \"commercial\" agents and add them to your account.\n\nCoStar's contract states that all agents, etc are required to have a CoStar account. If your shop does both residential and commercial deals, let them know the \"other\" agents they are referencing are residential agents and the do not conduct commercial business. If they play hardball, you will have to make a decision.....because they will deactivate the account to get payment from you. \n\nWe have a license of 10+ agents paying roughly $350/mo for each account. \n\nSince someone from CoStar is probably reading these posts.....Fuck off a$$holes. The commercial brokerage community WILL be done with you one day.", "replies": [{"id": "hrx2p47", "text": "According to their terms of service its suggested that all agents or anyone that benefits from the product at a specific office need to have accounts. If some of your agents that don't use or need the product office elsewhere it's reasonable to assume they don't fit this description. Listing are also examined to see who is active with commercial deals and confirm office location.They can try to pressure you into buying more accounts or even refuse to sell to you, however escalating to senior management may get a more measured response. \n\n In any case this is a suggestion of who should buy an account in the first place, misusing the product is a separate and very important issue. I'd make certain that passwords aren't being shared or a common computer isn't in use. If you really need 8-9 just bite the bullet and buy the cheapest plan that fits most users - market instead of nationwide etc. \n\nFar too disruptive for most shops; if you are able to cancel completely you'll be considered a \"new\" customer in \\~6 months with far more attractive deals. I wouldn't bluff on the cancellation, and if you have some grandfathered plan if likely won't be offered. \n\nYou can also try to hold out signing the renewal until the very end of the month or better yet end of quarter. Depending on where the rep and manager are on sales quota you may be able to get a more aggressive deal, especially if they are dinged for lost renewals.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hruuvmm", "text": "CREXI is a much better resource for a more affordable price. CREXI has yielded me almost three times the buyers as CoStar has.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrx2i7u", "text": "Don\u2019t mess with their terms of use as they are extremely litigious.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrx7mo0", "text": "Costar cannot go BK fast enough.  I hate this company more than anything.   They are complete and total assholes and their service platform totally sucks.  I spent the money on Placer, Crexi, hired a 3rd party for Ad Words and social media adds and Resquared and we have made many many more deals.  Burn in hell Costar", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrx82uy", "text": "National groups are wierd with CoStar. It depends on what kind of group (franchise vs no franchise). In general, one one broker sign up, they'll research the office and start making terms of service depends. That's because that 'broker' didn't really sign up, the office did. Then they can swing their weight around. \n\nBe careful with the Residential agent trick. If a broker closes more that 3 CRE deals a year, regardless of their focus, CoStar can try to exert terrns of Service. In general, they're generally make that determination based on marketing material in Costar and press releases. You can play games, but you need to be careful and it won't work forever.\n\nYou can absolutely kick out CoStar reps at any time. They keep trying because CoStar keeps hiring new reps and applying significant downward pressure without any significant market expansion. It's an incredibly wierd company to work for. People either last or they don't and there is no in-between.\n\nSource: former employee. wait wait wait! I didn't do sales, I was just a trainer with previous industry experience.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hrxcrq9", "text": "It\u2019s an inside job with the major brokerage firms that are publicly traded companies", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]