Data to supplement costar listings when making investment decisions?
Hi all,

Just wondering if folks here use any "alternative" data when evaluating or prioritizing properties to invest in or propose to your clients? Costar data tells one part of the story, but do you find yourselves going out and gathering additional data to support your pitches/calls? 

Would having the following example information on your properties you are evaluating help you prioritize or identify listings to make better data driven decisions:
* supermarkets within X range
* healthcare within X range
* demographics
* distance to Metro areas
* traffic patterns
* Commuter volume
* Fortune 500 companies within X range
* etc

If this dataset could also help you identify comps based on similar criteria(ie. Show me all properties within 5 miles of a hospital, within 35 miles of a metro area, and has a Walmart nearby), would that be a valuable supplement to a tool like Costar? 

If above wouldn't be a helpful supplement to Costar, what would be? What additional data do you use to better inform investment decisions?
[{"id": "i48uf43", "text": "I hope you\u2019re getting a commission from CoStar for this post.", "replies": [{"id": "i48v5rl", "text": "I see tons of posts on this sub complaining about their data quality. I am trying to identify opportunities to help you all not have to rely so heavily on shit data... \n\nIf a community of 50k feels so negatively about their data quality that would be an opportunity for disruption.", "replies": [{"id": "i4ap68w", "text": "No one competes with costar they only collect data until costar buys them.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i494wak", "text": "I don\u2019t even use costar anymore, I run comps based on website listings. Long manual process but costar doesn\u2019t put a time stamp on their data which is annoying.  \nAn apartments rent can shift drastically from week to week if a building is leasing up. It seems costar just puts any rent up. Good for an average but you don\u2019t even know the time frame.", "replies": [{"id": "i4a6i27", "text": "This is interesting. How do you find the initial properties to evaluate? Would having some kind of automated process to scrape property websites in real time be valuable? Feel free to dm if you want to discuss further.", "replies": [{"id": "i4bfbuc", "text": "How do I find initial properties, Google maps and flying out to my sites and walking the neighborhood.  \n\nAutomated process would be great but companies change websites and offerings all the time. Example I only pull rents for a 12 month lease with no concessions. Would take a lot of programming to be able to scrape that off 10 dif comp properties, and be able to trust the data.   \n\nMost properties will market \u201c2,000 a month!\u201d But that\u2019s the lowest price on an 18 month lease with 1 mo abated, actual 12 month lease is 2,600 for the same unit.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i49kc08", "text": "Check out CompStak", "replies": [{"id": "i4a472c", "text": "Isn't compstak just comps but contributed by their network?\n\nIf you had 99% accurate comps data is that enough to make an investment decision? Is there other non-traditional datasets you find yourself looking for once you find properties on compstak or costar?", "replies": [{"id": "i4durwv", "text": "Ahh. I re-read your post and yes. Compstak are broker contributed comps. Which are verified. They have better lease comps than CoStar from their business model. But yes, if you\u2019re seeking 100% market information. It never exists. Will never exist. Asymmetry of information is what gives a person or entity an advantage. Just like the stock market", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]