CRE paid data sources ie Costar vs Yardi Vs RCA vs ?
definitely been posted before..   but I would like some opinions. I am biting the bullet and buying a subscription to one of these guys soon. I was wondering if this sub could tell me the advantages/disadvantages of each? I am interested in owner contact info. current loan information and properties for sale.  Focusing on multifamily, hospitality, student housing, and retail in that order..

I have arranged in my opinion game changing financing options to drastically improve CoC, so I am interested in acquisitions, but also possibly buying out/refi bridge loans, and JV to improve other investors return.

I had my costar demo. they quoted me about 2200 a month.  comps seem great, listings seem good, tenant info is good, loan info seem wanting....    I am having a Yardi Demo in Person next week ( Go Scottsdale!)  and RCA as well. I was wondering what you guys thought about the three and if there was any other options I missed.

I considered property shark, but they seem to be amateurs in a room full of professionals..   I would love to know your thoughts
[{"id": "fhrluuj", "text": "Former CoStar employee. I would say that if your main focus is owner information they they are likely your best bet. I found that they made a good emphasis on collecting who is behind an entity and their best contact info. \n\nThe others may be wanting. CoStar does it\u2019s best to get sales listings and in certain markets it can be good. but often the best properties are marketed through mouth to mouth or direct email marketing. Loan information is particularly bad. That information is available on CoStar but it\u2019s not a priority for research to collect and won\u2019t be QA\u2019d  at the same level (they may tell you otherwise). Just my two cents.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhrnynh", "text": "Check out Moody's now that they're integrating REIS as well.\n\nCostar is still the gold standard though.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhrr4qk", "text": "AXIOMetrics", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhs5eh9", "text": "Look into CompStack and Reonomy, they will be integrated with Rethink if you are also in need of deal pipeline management and prospecting tool.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhtf422", "text": "Prospectnow is 4800/ yr for nationwide data up to 5 users. Share with 5 and its $80 a month", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhtxxrk", "text": "-Property Shark - I use this the most, contacts, property information, mortgages, etc.. \n\n-RCA for investors, and company's profile.  \n\n-Reonomy for contact information, phone numbers and emails \n\n-Compstak - for sales comps, I also use Propertyshark and Reonomy for comps. \n\nI prefer Propertyshark over others but since my boss pays for them, I use it all. \n\n-btw, I'm looking for sites for lease comps, any recommendations? \nI never used costar I will like to try it out.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhuarb3", "text": "I work at Yardi Matrix but on the office/industrial research. Multifamily is pretty much done in terms of market coverage in the US - ie, they no longer add new properties but only do maintenance on ownership/management and sales/loans info. The product does not cover hospitality or student housing yet, and retail is in its infancy right now. Otherwise, the datasets for each property (ownership, management, leasing, sales and loans, tenants and listings, rents and building characteristics) is very complex and solid, and each aspect is QA'd rigourously before launch. Availability of for sale properties is not marketed in the Matrix product but rather found on subsidiaries such as property shark or commercial cafe. I am not aware of the pricing in exact numbers, but it depends on the coverage you want (national, local).", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhueebf", "text": "Cute. Costar costs us about 300K a year, since it is a per person service and if you have 10 people in your office, well you need 10 accounts. \n\nRCA is good if you are selling 50 million dollar listings and need to know who the top buyers are in an area. If your average sale is below 5 million, then they hardly even cover it. \n\nYardi, I dunno. We have it but I hardly use it. \n\nWhat I do use, is title software and then lexis nexis. \n\nThe ownership info you get from Costar is mostly right from title, and it is not going to give you the guys cell phone number.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhw7ts9", "text": "Depends on what you want to do long term. I use to utilize all these sources as analyst and this is just my take on how I used them. I also am a former Yardi Matrix employee as well (was there during the transition from Pierce Eislen)\n\nRCA is great for sales and trending but with the frequency of sales this information is really only needed on a quarterly basis. This is a great to pull all product types and if you\u2019re looking into investment trends and doing data analytics. Can be somewhat helpful in pursuits because you can see who is actively selling/purchasing in the market. You also will have better access to the knowledge of loans and such as well. \n\nCoStar probably does the best at entity level information. I know that someone in this thread mentioned they worked there at some point. CoStar does a solid job of using relationships that they have with different brokerages and owners to update the data. In my opinion, this source is strongest in office/industrial. They do have retail/multi family information but it can be better. \n\nYardi Matrix great information tool for multi family. The office/industrial tool that is being rolled out is still in its inaugural stages. When I left the company and used it in my analyst role my challenges were that they had a limited market package and the focus has been on properties 50ksf+. I know they plan to lower the threshold to 25ksf and eventually capture everything but there is still a lot of work to be done. If your product of choice is multifamily this or Axio may be the better product for you. \n\nAxiometrics is another favorite multifamily tool, what sold me on this over Yardi was their data analytics and reports. They had a lot of the same information (and I was able to compare because I had access to both) but they provide historical information that was useful for underwriting that we utilized for our capital markets team. \n\nOverall, CoStar is probably the biggest source of information which is the reason for the $2,200 price tag but if you\u2019re looking for all product, all markets, etc, you\u2019re likely to get more bang for your buck. Also my understanding is with their acquisition of Apartments.com not too long ago that they\u2019ve actually improved their MF intel, but I haven\u2019t really utilized that part of the tool since that happened. \n\nHope this helps! Let me know if you have any follow ups, I used each of these on a daily basis for 3 years and still use them intermittently since my job has changed a bit.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]