CoStar Group, Inc. (CSGP) has a market cap of $24B.
That's a crazy valuation.  I have an individual costar subscription, and I feel abused.

*Question 1:* **What is it, really, that costar provides that is worth my paying $500/mo?**  
*Answer 1*: The **size of their network,** aka the comfort of **knowing every other commercial broker uses them ---** **NOT the quality of their product** or the **accuracy of their data**.  
*Question 2:* **Rate costar on the following attributes on a scale or 1 to 10?**

* accuracy of data
* sophistication of reporting
* lead generation
* competitive pricing
* ease of customization

*Answer 2*: **Trick question. Cannot** rate a product that has no real competitors...there's no market landscape. What is a '1' and what is a '10'? *(And that's the beauty of a monopoly.)*

My **proposal:**  
Can **$5B be raised** to devise a **CRE MLS product superior to costar's** with more useful features and more accurate, up-to-date data that is used by a larger customer base?  
*(without infringing copyright)*
[{"id": "i5b950d", "text": "I\u2019m in Canada and our boutique brokerage pays Altus group something like 10k / yr for detailed comps\nThey are generally well regarded and i find it to be worth it.\n\nWe also use a platform called space list that is much cheaper than co star\n\n\n\nCo-star is a bit of a punch line in our area\n\nThat said\u2026you can\u2019t rely on these systems alone.  Need to know your market", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5bu5qi", "text": "It\u2019s not just brokers, I have 3 users in my appraisal firm and I pay $2,000/month. They know they have me over a barrel and I don\u2019t have any other options. Their data is not good, their research is poor, but their reach is gigantic.", "replies": [{"id": "i5c0q86", "text": "Same frustrations here, appraiser shop. It\u2019s like they\u2019re good for sales leads only. I\u2019m constantly emailing them corrections. It\u2019s like they can\u2019t be bothered or don\u2019t know how to read the deed. And I never hear back on the corrections. It\u2019s like I\u2019m doing their job for them. In another life I could be a costar researcher.", "replies": [{"id": "i5c12b7", "text": "Don\u2019t waste your breath, I\u2019ve emailed time and again about corrections. Once they have something posted they aren\u2019t going to change/fix it. It\u2019s not in their cost model to update their records.", "replies": [{"id": "i5c1byu", "text": "Ponderous", "replies": [], "depth": 4}, {"id": "i5gllq6", "text": "What kind of errors have you noticed them of?  Curious to hear.", "replies": [{"id": "i5gqj01", "text": "Building size, land size, year built, # of tenants. Reporting a sale when it\u2019s just a change in title or putting a property into a trust. Wrong addresses, wrong parcel locations, wrong sales price, wrong sales date. \n\nIf they have a field for it, they\u2019ve put incorrect info into it at some point or other.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "i5czuhl", "text": "Same, I do majority tenant and agency rep and while it\u2019s good for general searches and listing spaces for my clients, often am I coming across data that I need to notify them to update. \n\nThe other issue I have is the service has for more or less not changed in the eight years I have used it. They continue to make cosmetic adjustments just to make it look like there\u2019s been progress but honestly I will back any horse that is willing to go up against them at this point.", "replies": [{"id": "i5d12dq", "text": "We just got pitched an upgrade that contains the actual rent rolls and operating statements from the bank appraisals. That may benefit you, depending on the market. I deal with smaller SW Florida markets and rarely improved properties. I just saw our bill, $2441 a month. \n\nThe product seems geared toward the brokerage and leasing side and appraisers are just along for the ride. \n\nCostar is notorious for shutting down or acquiring any startup competitors. And they\u2019ve been unsuccessfully counter-sued for it too. They are the king of the hill and will stomp any competition into the ground, there are at least two companies that I\u2019ve read about. \n\nThe sales data is readily available from the counties in database files so it\u2019s relatively easy for one or two counties. But nationwide, I don\u2019t see it. \n\nhttps://www.bing.com/search?q=costar+lawsuit", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "i5glmbg", "text": "What kind of errors have you noticed them of?  Curious to hear.", "replies": [{"id": "i5qnqqz", "text": "Often it will show me a \u201cconfirmed land sale\u201d near my subject, but upon researching it I find the adjacent warehouse parcel was included.\n\nI\u2019ll find a sale without the sale price in the top header. I click the deed, and there\u2019s the sale price neatly typed in the deed. \n\nA blank price field in a six month old sale and I have to click through to find the price and put it in my internal spreadsheet. \n\nSo, multi-parcel sales and just lazy data entry.\n\nI started cc\u2019ing the dude\u2019s manager and ofc got the cursory thanks we\u2019ll fix it email.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5byrbz", "text": "It doesn't cost $5B to develop a costar competitor. No one would hand over that much anyway. WeWork landed $4B but they were already at $2B in revenue at that point. You want someone to give you $5B and you don't have a product ready and your revenue is zero?", "replies": [{"id": "i5g525u", "text": "Costar doesn't have a product.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5c0z2h", "text": "Sure you could do it but then once you got it going then Costar would come along and pay your investors a boatload of cash to buy the competitor.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5c1r9n", "text": "FYI I just found out that the state level memberships are going to be going away. Everyone will be having to subscribe to national coverage.", "replies": [{"id": "i5c3sd0", "text": "This is bullshit", "replies": [{"id": "i5d91zv", "text": "Starts on everyone\u2019s next renewal.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5c2h7j", "text": "There def are competitors. We subscribe to Yardi Matrix, Axio Metrics and Costar. We like to have 3 different providers to justify our rent growth assumptions in development. They each have their strengths", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5cejsu", "text": "These platforms are only as accurate as their data.  I don\u2019t care if you raise $100B, no broker is going out of their way to share transactions details, contact info, etc just to have it published and used by their competition.  Sale comps (public record in my market) are about the only thing costar seems to get right, and even then the transaction parties are sometimes incorrect and the contact info for each party is positively never correct.", "replies": [{"id": "i5derzh", "text": "I feel like I remember some company where the whole system was \"if you give us your data you get access to the whole database\" ?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "i5dlizc", "text": "Literally had this happen this morning, closed on a property last week &amp; CoStar rep called me asking for all the transaction details. No thanks.", "replies": [{"id": "i5g3d3x", "text": "Then why complain about the quality of the data? The whole premise of Costar is you can pay a service to compile and verify data. If people don\u2019t participate in the research then it\u2019s pointless. I would rather get one call from a costar researcher than from 25 appraisers a week on a deal.", "replies": [{"id": "i5hswn3", "text": "You have a point, it's a broken system. What's the benefit of providing my buyers contact info? So, my competition can use it down the road? Not to mention, I've dealt with so many issues inputting data into CoStar. I'll update a listing &amp; the information either doesn't populate or is wrong.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5cpsms", "text": "They split my city in half between two other markets, we have to pay twice as much for coverage on one market. Because of this they don\u2019t have all of the comps they should when half the agents don\u2019t sign up. One day costar will have some real competition and I look forward to it.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5czj78", "text": "Just a heads up evidently they are planning on raising fees this summer. Meanwhile they\u2019re going through a PR shit storm as more and more employees step forward with how absurd the corporate culture is over there \n\ngGranted they more or less have a monopoly on the commercial real estate data market, I think we\u2019re going to start to see a lot more of the larger subscription holders start to push back.  That or we\u2019ll have to see a shift in management structure over there because it really doesn\u2019t look good for them right now. If you\u2019re bored just Google search CoStar broker Instagram and enjoy.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5dc7y8", "text": "The only way to get accurate reliable CRE data is to crowd source it, because sometimes even county data is inaccurate which means 3rd parties are going to be inaccurate. So allowing brokers to enter correct data while another group validates it is the way to go. But when it comes to owner phone numbers, that's a different story because people will want to keep phone numbers to themselves.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5ex7ub", "text": "Just curious, why isn\u2019t Crexi considered a good alternative to Costar?", "replies": [{"id": "i5js0iu", "text": "Crexi does not have as much data as Costar but I think they are attempting to catch up, but they have a long way to go. Crexi appears to be able to compete well with Costar/Loopnet as far as a listing service, and their comps are decent but nowhere near Costar.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5g3zf0", "text": "You pay $500 a month so you can make $50,000 a month. Its just a tool to do your work more efficiently. The Costar moat is pretty wide. 30ish years of shoe leather. Can you pay a thousand researchers at modern wages to call on and photograph properties to catch up? The best way to improve Costars data, or survey data from any company is to just take a few minutes to give a good response. Then you would get a lot of value.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]