Loopnet

[Greg B.]

Howdy gents. With my history of rental properties I occasionally toy with the idea of getting into commercial rental property(apartments). I can see some pros/cons about making the jump, so I just haven't really tried yet.

I have been a subscriber of Loopnet in the past and really wasn't impressed by most of the listings. They had a huge amount of volume but nothing I ran numbers on made any sense to my and my spreadsheets. So I canceled the subscription. I do check in from time to time and still not thrilled with what I see.

So now I have this little lady from Loopnet calling me every month trying to get me to subscribe again. I will say she is working hard for her sales commission but I'm not taking the bait. She is claiming they have a new database search engine and now they have off market listings that reveal a lot of relevant information.

I told her I wouldn't subscribe but I would ask about the new features on the forum. If the features are that good then they would pay for themselves and I would be subscribing pretty quickly.

So here I am asking, has anyone used the new Loopnet features? Are they worth their money?

[Don Konipol]

I have been a subsciber of Loopnet for the past 2 years. Pretty good and getting better. As you indicate, don't expect many outstanding deals listed if you consider the list price - however, you may be able to negotiate a good deal by purchasing for less than the list price. All different kinds of sellers with some listing prices very soft, much softer than on homes MLS.

Actually bought only one deal from info on Loopnet - it is a Retail/Warehouse. Owner was asking $240K, I purchased for $145K. found a tenant paying $3000 per month for 18 months, then sold it to that tenant for $239,000 with $30K down and carrying the note .

I was able to sell a couple of properties thru Loopnet, though I had to get VERY realistic on asking price!