The previous lesson on sourcing called LoopNet "the worst part of the deal universe." That's still true. But the public platforms are not useless — they're just usually used wrong. Used right, they're a powerful market intelligence tool.

This lesson is about what each platform actually does well, what they don't, and how to extract real value from them without falling into the beginner trap of underwriting every overpriced listing.

The four major public platforms

There are dozens of CRE listing platforms but four matter:

| Platform | Owner | Strength | Weakness | Cost | |---|---|---|---|---| | LoopNet | CoStar Group | Largest listing volume, free browsing | Aging UX, lots of stale listings | Free (basic) | | Crexi | Crexi.com | Modern UX, growing inventory, auctions | Smaller than LoopNet but catching up | Free (basic) | | CoStar | CoStar Group | Best market data and comps in the industry | Expensive ($500-$2000+/month) | Paid only | | Reonomy | Altus Group | Owner identification and direct contact | Spotty data quality on smaller properties | Paid |

Two more worth knowing:

CRE Marketplace by Marcus & Millichap (TenX/auctions, primarily Marcus listings)
Brevitas, RealNex, theBrokerList — niche/regional platforms

For most investors, the practical setup is: LoopNet + Crexi (free) + CoStar or Reonomy (paid, when you can afford it).

What public listings actually represent

Before using any platform, understand the population of deals you're looking at.

A property hits a public platform when:

The seller wants to sell publicly (not all do)
The broker has been hired and put together the listing package
The deal hasn't already sold to a private buyer
The price is at or above what the broker thinks they can get

Step 4 is the trap. Listing prices are aspirational, not market-clearing. A property listed at $4.5M might trade at $4.0M, or might not trade at all and re-list 6 months later at $4.2M.

The deals that move quickly off the public platforms are usually:

Genuinely well-priced (rare — the broker would have shopped them privately first)
In a hot submarket where buyer pools are thick
1031 exchange deals where the seller has a deadline

The deals that linger are usually:

Overpriced relative to comps
Have hidden issues (vacancy, deferred maintenance, lease expirations coming)
In thin submarkets

Both populations are useful. The lingering deals teach you about pricing and seller psychology. The fast-moving deals teach you about market dynamics.

How to actually use LoopNet

Setup

Create an account (free)
Set up saved searches by submarket and asset class
Enable email alerts for new listings matching your saved searches
Bookmark the "recently reduced" filter — this surfaces seller capitulation

Daily / weekly use

5 minutes a day: Open LoopNet, scan new listings in your saved searches. Don't underwrite anything yet. Just scroll and look for headlines that sound interesting. This builds market awareness over time.

30 minutes a week: Review every new listing in your buy box. Save the top 5-10 to a "to underwrite" list. Don't underwrite them yet — just save.

60-90 minutes a week: Do a basic underwrite on the saved listings. 80% will fail the first 5 minutes (price too high, cap too tight, leverage doesn't work). The remaining 20% get a deeper look.

Every quarter: Run a "delisted" check. What got listed 90-120 days ago that's no longer on LoopNet? It either sold (look up the actual sale price in public records) or got pulled. Both data points are useful.

What to look for in listings

Beyond price and cap rate, scan for:

Days on market — anything 90+ days is potentially negotiable. 180+ days is a desperate seller.
Price reductions — multiple reductions signal seller fatigue
Listing language — "motivated seller," "bring all offers," "priced for quick sale" all signal flexibility
Photos with vacant units — visible vacancy at marketing time is usually under-disclosed (the actual vacancy is often higher)
Photos with old fixtures, deferred maintenance — capex risk, may justify a discount
Recent renovation language — usually means the value-add story is already played out, you're paying for the upside

The cold offer move

Once a listing has been on LoopNet 120+ days with one or two price reductions, it's an OK candidate for a "cold lowball" offer — significantly below the listed price.

Script your cold offer letter to the broker:

"Hi [Broker], I noticed [property name] has been on the market a while. I'm an active buyer in the area and ran the numbers. At a 6.8% cap on trailing NOI, I'd be at $X. I know that's below the asking, but I'm a clean buyer — 60-day close, no financing contingency past day 30, no re-trade. If your seller is at the point of considering offers in that range, I'd be happy to put it in writing. If not, no hard feelings."

Maybe 1 in 10 of these cold offers gets a response. But the ones that respond are gold — these are sellers ready to accept market-clearing prices.

How to actually use Crexi

Crexi is similar to LoopNet but with a few unique advantages:

The auction inventory

Crexi runs commercial auctions. Auction listings are public, transparent, and have hard deadlines. They tend to be:

Distressed assets
REO from lenders
1031 exchange situations needing speed
Properties that didn't sell traditionally

Auctions are a real channel for finding mispriced deals — but they're competitive and you need to bid quickly. The advantage: the auction house has run the title, the financials are usually disclosed, and the close is fast.

Beginners should watch a few auctions before bidding. Many auctions don't meet reserve and the property goes back to standard sale — at which point you can sometimes negotiate after the fact.

The valuations and comps

Crexi has a built-in comp tool for paid users. It's not as comprehensive as CoStar but it's significantly cheaper and decent for general market pricing.

The newer / hungrier brokers

Crexi tends to attract newer or smaller brokerage firms that don't have CoStar/LoopNet relationships locked in. This means:

More direct access to brokers (fewer gatekeepers)
Some genuinely off-market or first-look listings
Faster response times

For a relationship-focused investor, Crexi's broker pool can be more accessible than LoopNet's institutional brokers.

When CoStar is worth the money

CoStar is the gold standard for CRE market data. It's also expensive — $500-$2,000 per month for most subscriptions, and significantly more for institutional packages.

CoStar is worth it when:

You're full-time in CRE
You're underwriting 5+ deals per week and need fast comps
You're presenting to LPs and need institutional-grade data
You're a broker (clients expect CoStar comps in your packages)

CoStar is NOT worth it when:

You're part-time
You're doing 1-3 deals per year
You can get by with the broker giving you comps when you ask
You're in a market where local broker knowledge is more valuable than database data

For most beginning investors, CoStar is overkill. Skip it for the first 1-2 years and use free tools + broker relationships.

When Reonomy is worth the money

Reonomy ($150-$500/month depending on tier) is primarily an owner-identification tool. You search a property and it tells you who owns it (LLC and beneficial owner) and gives you contact information.

This is the data you need for direct-to-owner outreach (next lesson). Without Reonomy, you're either pulling property records county by county (slow) or using free tools with worse data.

Reonomy is worth it when you're running an active direct-mail or cold-call campaign. It pays for itself if you generate 1-2 deals per year from direct outreach.

Free alternatives

If you can't or won't pay for tools, here's what's available:

County property appraiser websites — every Florida county publishes ownership records, sales history, building info, tax info. Free.
Florida Department of State — LLC ownership and registered agent. Free.
PropertyShark — partial free tier
PropertyRadar — limited free
Google Earth + Street View — for site assessment
Census Bureau — demographics
BLS — employment data
STDB.com — limited free comps

The free stack will get you 80% of what you need to do meaningful underwriting. The other 20% is where paid tools earn their keep.

The market intelligence loop

Beyond individual deals, the public platforms give you something more valuable: an evolving picture of your market.

Track over time:

How many new listings hit your submarket each month
Average days on market (rising = market softening, falling = tightening)
Average asking cap rate (the trend tells you where the market is moving)
Price reductions per month (more = more capitulation)
Listings withdrawn (sellers giving up)

A simple monthly spreadsheet:

Month     New listings   Avg DOM    Avg asking cap   # reductions
Jan 2026     12            85          6.2%               3
Feb 2026     14            92          6.3%               5
Mar 2026     11            98          6.4%               6
Apr 2026     15           105          6.5%               8

This data tells a story: the market is softening. Days on market are rising, asking caps are widening, and reductions are accelerating. As a buyer, you should be more aggressive with cold offers and patient on negotiations.

The opposite trend (DOM falling, caps tightening, no reductions) tells you the market is heating up. You should move faster on the deals that DO fit, because waiting means paying more.

This monthly read on the public platforms is intelligence you simply cannot get any other way. It takes 30 minutes a month and pays off in better timing.

Common public-platform mistakes

1. Underwriting every listing

This is the biggest beginner trap. You spend 90 minutes underwriting a deal, conclude it doesn't pencil, and feel like you wasted the time. After doing this 50 times, you give up.

The fix: 5-minute screen first. Look at price, cap rate, NOI, location. If any one of those is clearly off, don't go further. 5 minutes × 50 listings = 4 hours. Way better than 90 minutes × 50 listings = 75 hours.

2. Trusting the listing pro forma

Listing brokers' pro formas are marketing documents, not honest underwrites. They typically:

Project rents 10-20% above current
Assume 95-97% occupancy (vs. realistic 92-94%)
Underestimate operating expenses
Use the seller's old insurance number (not current quotes)
Ignore property tax reset

Always re-underwrite with your own assumptions. The seller's number is the start of the conversation, not the answer.

3. Looking at the wrong submarkets

Beginners search "Florida multifamily" or "Orlando MSA" — too broad. The result is 200 listings of which most are irrelevant. Tighten to specific zip codes or submarkets and the noise drops dramatically.

4. Ignoring the data behind the deal

LoopNet shows you the listing. The county appraiser shows you the truth. Always cross-check ownership, sales history, tax assessment, and building characteristics in public records before spending real time.

5. Spending too much time on platforms relative to other channels

LoopNet is the easiest sourcing channel because it's at home on your computer. That makes it tempting. But it's the least productive per hour. Don't spend 80% of your sourcing time on platforms when 20% would be enough.

A weekly platform routine

Here's a sustainable weekly routine that gets the value without becoming a time sink:

Monday (15 min): Scan new LoopNet/Crexi listings in your saved searches. Save top 5-10 to "review" list.

Wednesday (45 min): 5-minute screen on each saved listing. Discard the obvious passes. Underwrite the 2-3 that pass the screen.

Friday (30 min): Update your monthly market intelligence spreadsheet. Note any auctions worth tracking. Send any cold offers you decided to make.

Total per week: 90 minutes.

That's enough time to extract real value from the public platforms without letting them become a black hole.

What to take away

Public listings are usually overpriced and picked-over — but they're not useless
LoopNet and Crexi are both worth using; CoStar and Reonomy when you can afford them
5-minute screens prevent the trap of underwriting every listing
Track market data over time — the trends tell you when to push and when to wait
Cold offers on stale listings can occasionally work
Always re-underwrite with your own assumptions, never trust the listing pro forma
Spend 90 minutes a week max on public platforms — the rest of your sourcing time goes to higher-value channels
The monthly market intelligence spreadsheet is the most valuable output of public platform use

Next lesson: direct-to-owner outreach — finding owners directly and convincing them to sell when they weren't planning to.

LoopNet, Crexi, CoStar — Public Platforms Used Right