Commercial Properties: Best Places To Find Them On The Web

Commercial properties are something that many investors consider investing in, however, finding listings online can prove to more difficult than your traditional single-family homes. Commercial properties such as mobile home parks, offices, retail spaces and hotels, and residential properties in excess of four units usually aren’t listed on the MLS alongside single-family homes, but instead are advertised on a handful of websites.

By far the biggest and best site to find commercial properties is LoopNet. Any investors looking to enter the commercial real estate market should familiarize themselves with this site, as they will probably become frequent visitors. Viewing basic listings is free, but to see the complete inventory you need to sign up for one of LoopNet’s membership packages, which start at $39.95 a month. Most of the listings can be viewed for free, so if you are just casually window shopping, it probably isn’t worth the expense. Once you come to the point where you are ready to seriously consider buying a commercial property, you can become a member at least temporarily. Many commercial real estate agents have memberships to LoopNet, so you might also try asking your agent to send the desired listings to you and save yourself the trouble and expense.

Many commercial real estate brokerages also provide listings, although some of the brokerages simply pull them from LoopNet. Some of the larger commercial real estate companies are: Grubb & Ellis, RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker Commercial, CB Richard Ellis, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers and Marcus & Millichap.

I recommend starting with LoopNet, but for those who want to try other commercial property listing sites, here are a few:

• CIMLS

• Commrex

• CoStar

• Property Line

As a last note, some areas of the country have local commercial MLS systems. The Pacific Northwest for example, has CBA (Commercial Brokers Association) otherwise known as the Commercial MLS. They offer a wide variety of listings in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. To see if your market has a local commercial MLS, search online using “your state” and “commercial real estate” as the search term, or simply ask a local commercial real estate agent.

Good luck finding your next commercial property investment, and if you notice any other good sites that I missed, let me know and I’ll add them.