Portland Loopnet vs Costar vs MLS vs RMLS

[John Laney]

Hello,

I am a single family investor who is new at the multi-fam/commercial game.  And trying to get my mind wrapped around the sources for single-family and multifamily listing services in the Portland area. 

I started corresponding with one commercial realtor (not signed any exclusivity agreement), but got frustrated as I was able to pull more and better listings off loopnet and redfin than he was able to give me. 

So,  I reached out to a different realtor to see if he had a better source of listings. Unfortunately, this realtor sends me listing where half of the listing have already been sold?!?

Is this normal to have such a difference in realtors?

If you could help me understand what is the source that loopnet, Costar, MLS and any other listing service pulls from I would be grateful.

[Richard Sherman]

@John Laney Yep, you nailed it. Though there is no magic sauce. Other than the 2 off-market deals, I have found every deal I have ever done either on MLS, Trulia (7 unit), Realtor.com (8 unit), Loopnet (32 unit) before the brokers. There is no magic source and unless someone has a true pocket listing (which means you are shooting offers at possibly hostile buyers) then the hype about paid services is BS...maybe for non multi or really big ones or something its possible...but I find it suspect...why would someone wanting to sell try to keep people from knowing about it...sure it happens sometimes but for the most part do not buy the hype.

ALLWAYS be looking...the exercise is good as it makes you better at valuing anyone deal and that's how you catch stuff.  Newberg is tight...but things do come up there for sure.  I have made offers there but its too far from my core to push too hard on it.