Commercial IQ is a national commercial real estate marketplace, built by Catylist Real Estate Software. Catylist's software helps commercial professionals save time and money, and do more deals.

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    Commercial IQ Blog: New Functionality

    Catylist Summer Software Improvements

    August 7, 2008 –

    Notes from the latest round of upgrades:

    Search for Off-Market Properties

    A growing number of our CIE clients are choosing to give their communities an affordable alternative for research data and statistics by building out local databases with not only active sale/lease listings and comparables, but also records for every property in their market. If you’re a Full Access member of one of our research-enabled commercial information exchanges, you can now search the database of off-market properties alongside active listings.  You’ll see an “Off-Market” option along-side “For Sale” and “For Lease” when searching.  Off-Market properties can be compared, emailed, mapped, and used in reports just like listings.  Note: Property records must be considered “verified” to be searchable.

    Chicago CDB Property Search

    Improved Lease Searching

    Lease searches will now return individual records for each matching space instead of a single record for each building with matching space. This will make the results (and subsequent printable reports) more accurate and eliminate much of the “why was this returned?” confusion. We’ve also improved the display of multiple suites within a building.

    Better Profile Pages

    Having an impressive online resume is a good way to get new business.  We spent some time cleaning up the profile pages on our sites (agent and company). You should notice lots of little improvements to both the search and display sections.  Here’s a good example: http://www.commercialiq.com/agent/17913

    SiteLink Upgrades

    SiteLink is our very affordable service that builds a listing search engine into your company website, which is extremely convenient if your listings are already in one of our CIE databases.  We’ve made several significant changes:

    1. We’ve integrated much of the new search technology into the sites.  Results are returned in List View, with a Map View option.  There’s a expandable filters-section at the top that can be used to manipulate the results.
    2. The front pages have also been given a make-over: There’s now a quick email form which should help generate leads for each SiteLink company.  Also, if a company has one or more agents with transactions being featured on their professional profiles, the most recent will now display on the front page.
    3. Users can now email listings to interested parties and generate property reports directly from the SiteLink site.

    Our EDCLink service for economic development communities and MediaLink service for local publications that wish to display commercial property have also been similarly upgraded. Here are a few examples:

    CIE Manager improvements

    It can be hard work managing a database of users, companies, listings, properties, transactions, etc. and we’ve made numerous changes to our tools to make life easier for CIE and company administrators.

    1. The speed for listing searches should be greatly improved.
    2. Search pages for users, companies, listings, transactions, and properties have been overhauled.  You can now jump to any record quickly using the Catylist ID, and we’ve created a list of common search links to save you time.
    3. We’ve also added a feature to the listing searches allowing you to search for listings that are missing a particular value — useful to see all listings without Ceiling Height, for example.  We’d picked a few important fields for now, but can expand this easily by request.
    4. CIE administrators can now edit company admin usernames and passwords.

    Marketing Tools, News Updates

    A key part of the value of Commercial IQ and our local CIEs is the tight integration with various marketing tools, which were just given an overhaul. We also added a comprehensive list of online distribution sites where members can automatically send their listings.

    We added a section to the front page of Commercial IQ that tracks recent activity on the site: national industry news, Catylist updates, listings, and posted wants.  We’ll be expanding on this idea in the near future, and integrating it in some fashion into our CIEs. 

    Miscellaneous

    • Loading Docks, Loading Doors, and Ceiling Height have been added to the expanded summary view in search results, and to the summary report.  This was highly request by ChicagoCDB and several other industrial-specialists.
    • The default zoom on re-geocode pages is now closer, so users don’t have to zoom in several times to see where to click.
    • We’ve patched several changes to the map view and polygon functionality lately.  It should be working better.
    • The real estate services directory on our local CIEs should now be much more intuitive.

    Thanks!

    As always, thanks for your excellent feedback and suggestions.

    By Catylist | Posted in New Functionality, SiteLink, Technology | Comments (0)

    Building a better source for Commercial Real Estate news

    July 10, 2008 –

    Trying to keep up with current industry news is tough, even with handy tools like feed readers.

    We’ve wanted to add news streams with current commercial real estate headlines to our sites for quite a while, but were having trouble deciding which source was best (most relevant, most current, etc).  Eventually, we realized that being forced to choose between fragmented news sources was an industry-wide frustration.

    Why can’t we just see ALL the news?

    There really isn’t one best source.  Each publication or blog is good at a particular type of reporting, or specializes in a certain type of story or industry segment.  What we really needed was a way to pull ALL of the news together. Luckily, with the help of recent syndication technologies, we were able to do this in a matter of hours.

    Quick Introduction to Yahoo Pipes

    Yahoo released a very powerful service last year that allows you to mash-up content from various sites, filter or manipulate it, then repackage it.  It gave us an easy way to take news feeds from all the major sources and combine them into a single feed.  It’s really an amazing application and very useful for anyone who monitors lots of feeds, even if you’re not technically-inclined.

    The finished product

    So after a little post-processing to handle feed idiosyncrasies, remove duplicates, etc. we have a glorious aggregated news feed:

    http://www.commercialiq.com/news/

    Each story links to the original source for the full version, so we’re really just acting as a comprehensive search engine for CRE news.  Also notice that you can subscribe directly to this consolidated feed — much better than having to subscribe individually to 15+ sources!

    Next steps

    Now that we have all the news together, the next logical step is to allow readers to choose which bits they care about. We’ll be working on various customization options (location and keyword filters, etc) in the near future.

    Let us know what you think, or if you have any other sources you’d like to see us add to the list.

    By Paul Brockmeyer | Posted in New Functionality, Technology | Comments (0)

    New Listing Presentations, Demographics and Market Statistics

    May 20, 2008 –

    We’ve just released some enhancements!

    Listing Overview

    Screenshot

    We’ve updated the Listing Overview page to provide added context:

    • View contextual Demographics and Market statistics right on the listing page (for Full Access Users)
    • See the property in fullscreen Google Street View (where available) with links to Microsoft Bird’s Eye aerials
    • We now show all details and attachments upfront (no more “View All Details” button)
    • Link Directly to your listing. Copy & Paste link into your emails to clients and prospects
    • Links to our new “Property History” page, which displays all listings and comps for a particular address

    Demographic Statistics

    Screenshot

    Our newly integrated demographics information allows you to perform quick and reliable market analysis. Our information is provided by SRC, an industry leading demographics company. Demographics greatly enhance your marketing presentations and provide you and your clients with an array of contextual information.

    • Automatically embedded on Listing and Comparables pages
    • Can be exported as PDF or Excel files

    Market Statistics

    Screenshot

    What’s the average lease rate per sq. ft. for office space in your market area? How many square feet of shopping center space is currently available in your market? The addition of our new Market Statistics* will help you to quickly answer these types of questions and will provide you with a snapshot of current market conditions.

    • Automatically embedded on Listing and Comparables pages
    • Statistics are available for any location with more than 100 listings
    • Can be exported as PDF or Excel files

    *All market statistics are compiled using available listing information in the Catylist database for any given market area based on broker loaded data.

    Marketing Report

    Screenshot

    The marketing report is an excellent communication tool for you to share online activity information with your clients. The new report, linked from the promote page, includes:

    • A list of marketing channels that the listing is being marketed on
    • Channel-by-channel viewing statistics
    • If desired, a custom message from the listing agent to the client

    And finally, Quick-Edit is now full-screen, and supports suites.

    By Paul Brockmeyer | Posted in Marketing, New Functionality | Comments (0)

    Welcome Commercial IQ!

    February 26, 2008 –

    We’ve just release a new national marketplace for commercial property, and a whole bunch of enhancements to our existing sites. Here are some of the more significant changes/additions:

    New National Website - Commercial IQ

    Screenshot

    Some Background

    We at Catylist have spent the past 6+ years working to empower local real estate associations — allowing them to maintain and control a local marketplace rather than just shipping their data off to a national vendor.  We’ve built CIEs (Commercial Information Exchanges — the equivalent of a Commercial MLS) for over 30 associations around the country, which is more than any other vendor.  Besides all the normal MLS features, these exchanges also allow sophisticated email marketing, syndication of listing data to various local and national distribution points (listing aggregators, media outlets, economic development communities), etc.

    We’re very pleased to announce the launch of our new National CIE: Commercial IQ, located at www.commercialiq.com. Commercial IQ offers all the great functionality and integrated marketing tools as our local CIE websites and will be heavily promoted to investors, users, tenants and commercial real estate professionals across the country to provide your listings with increased marketing exposure. Listings and professional profiles of full-access CIE members will automatically display on Commercial IQ.

    This new Commercia lIQ site is a way to give those local groups some additional national exposure, on their terms.

    Listing Overview Revamp

    When you click on “view details”, the page will expand to include all listing detail as well as links for all file attachments. Additional links and custom CIE links, i.e. Assessor data, can be found under ‘View all Attachments”.

    Local Exchange Overhaul

    Screenshot

    Based on your feedback, we have made some significant changes to your CIE Website, including more intuitive navigation, a wider screen width, and easier access to commonly used functionality.

    We’ve completely revamped the “My CIE” section. Log into your CIE website and immediately access everything you need to search, market and close deals faster than ever before.

    From MY CIE, you can:

    Screenshot

    • Add and edit property listings
    • Perform local and national searches
    • Save searches and catalogs
    • Manage your account info, edit your professional profile, email preferences, password and more
    • Access various marketing tools at special CIE member rates, including Catylist CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Cmail Marketing (Email Marketing Network), Custom Brochures & Flyers, Floor & Site Plan Cleanup, Company & Property Websites, and Much More
    • Enter listings one time and send to Catylist partner websites, including: Commercial IQ - Catylist’s NEW National Exchange!

    Integrated CIE Listing Management

    In an effort to simplify the listing process, members adding or managing their listings may now do so directly from the CIE instead of going to market.catylist.com. To manage your listings from the CIE, simply log in and click the “My Listings” button that appears in the navigation bar under the header. Also, members may edit their account and profile directly from the CIE. To do this, log in and click the “My Account” button in the navigation bar under the header.

    Bulk-edit Interface

    We’ve replaced the existing quick-edit functionality with a more functional online spreadsheet. You can now customize which fields show up on the spreadsheet, and save these preferences for future use.

    By Catylist | Posted in New Functionality | Comments (0)

    More Exposure for Listings, Usability Enhancements

    October 12, 2007 –

    More Exposure for Your Listings

    Screenshot

    In addition to Google, REBusinessonline.com, CIMLS and the Zana Network, you can now display your listing information on Lyco/Oodle, one of the Web’s largest classifieds networks.
    We’ve also changed the “Promote” listing page to display logos for local distribution channels, including: France Publication regional websites, Economic Development websites (where applicable), and other distribution points that are specific to your local market.

    Make Sure Your Listings are Getting Maximum Exposure:

    • Go to http://market.catylist.com
    • Login with your username/password.
    • Click “Manage Property Listings”
    • Click “Promote” next to the listing you want to send.
    • Click “Find Out More” to distribute your listing to the appropriate website.

    Specify Display Order of Attachments & Lease Suites

    Screenshot

    You can now change the order in which uploaded listing attachments (including images) as well as suites for lease appear.

    How it Works:

    • Click the appropriate link under CIE Content Manger.
    • Use the corresponding arrows to move the document higher or lower on the list or drag and drop to the desired position.

    NEW Printable Comparison Report

    Screenshot

    We’ve added a new report that mimics the “compare” feature of the site. You can generate a printable PDF report that compares up to four properties per page in a side-by-side format. Just a reminder: You be logged in to create reports.

    Auto-Populate Property Location

    When adding a new listing, just enter the postal code and we’ll auto-fill the city and state.

    Lease Pending for Suites

    Screenshot

    You now have the ability to mark individual suites as lease pending.

    How it Works:

    • Click “Manage Property Listings”.
    • Click “Edit Listing”.
    • Click “Space” tab.
    • Click “Lease Pending” link next to the appropriate suite.

    Have Questions?

    Contact the Help Desk at 877.595.5478 or help@catylist.com

    By Paul Brockmeyer | Posted in New Functionality | Comments (0)

    Lead Generation and RSS Feeds

    July 12, 2007 –

    Single Search for Local & National Listings

    From your CIE website, you now have the option to include national listings in your search criteria.

    Users who are logged in can choose to:

    • Search listings from ALL sources nationally
    • Search local CIE member listings only

    Improved Tracking & Lead Generator

    The graphs and stats now use a more descriptive site name instead of a URL, and we’re tracking hits that come specifically from third party partners, including:

    • Google Base
    • MyNextDeal
    • REBusinessOnline.com
    • Zana Network

    We’ve added a new section that allows you view a list of members who have shown some level of interest in your listing. The list is compiled using the following criteria:

    • Who has viewed the listing?
    • Who has emailed it?
    • Who has it cataloged?
    • Who’s searching with parameters that match the listing?

    Only members who are logged in will be included on the list.

    Redesigned Broadcast Emails

    We’ve created a new HTML broadcast email template. The new version includes a cleaner layout, more records per page and improved subject lines.

    Easier Listing Exposure

    You can now opt in ALL of your listings to a distribution channel (Google Base, MyNextDeal, etc.) instead of one at a time.

    Time-Out Feature Added

    To avoid losing unsaved data when editing a listing, you will now receive a notification that your session is about to time-out. Please make sure to save your changes often.

    RSS Feeds

    Track an RSS feed from any listing search you run on our sites. To access the feeds, click the “Feed” link at the top right of searches and add it to your favorite news reader. As new listings come on, the feed will automatically update.

    Miscellaneous

    • By popular request, you can now enter zip codes when running searches rather than choosing them from a list. Multiple zips can be entered, separated by commas.
    • We’ve added character counts for most of the text entry areas in Market.Catylist so you know how much room you have left. We’ve also made several of the areas wider, where possible.
    By Catylist | Posted in Marketing, New Functionality | Comments (0)

    Market your Listings EVERYWHERE

    May 30, 2007 –

    Add and Edit Listings Easier
    We’ve replaced Property Profiler with a streamlined interface to add listings. Our new tabbed format lets you enter the most relevant information quickly. Changes include:

    • Improved location mapping
    • Easier interface for adding photos and attachments
    • Reduced the number of property fields - by moving infrequently used fields to the ‘additional details’ section
    • Added a new details section where you can create your own data fields to help in describing your property

    The end result: it’s a lot easier to add and edit listings.

    Market Listings Efficiently
    Access the most commonly used functions directly from the manage listings page:

    • Edit: Build customized listing presentations with over 100 fields of detail and unlimited photos and documents
    • Promote: Publish your listings to your company website, numerous online listing services, media publications, email networks, and more
    • Track: View traffic statistics, measure your progress, generate qualified leads, and close your deal*Market Listings Everywhere*

    We are increasing our efforts to help real estate professionals market listings in as many places as possible. We’ve improved the Promote page to include three distribution tabs: web, email and print.

    Web: Send your listing to multiple websites

    • National CIE - search.catylist.com
    • Local CIE
    • Your Company Website (SiteLink required)
    • Google
    • MyNextDeal
    • France Publications: REBusinessOnline.com

    Email: Create and send broadcast email

    Print/Export: Design professional quality marketing materials and export your listings in three common file formats

    • Generate customized Print Brochures
    • Create postcards and order other marketing materials with REBackOffice
    • Export your property listings in XML, XLS, or CSV format

    Friendlier Lead Generation
    Inquiries coming from Catylist CIEs will now contain more information®making it easier for you to know which listing is being referenced.

    Sitelink Clients: Showcase Your Featured Listings!
    You can now highlight company listings on the main search page of your SiteLink listing engine. Select specific featured listings or let SiteLink choose them at random.

    By Paul Brockmeyer | Posted in Marketing, New Functionality | Comments (0)

    Google Export, Mobile Access, and Quick-Edit Listings

    December 20, 2006 –

    Listing Quick-Edit
    A new option has been added to the ‘Manage Listings’ section of CIE Manager allowing users to select several listings to “quick-edit”. The new interface will display common fields from the selected listings side-by-side, and allow the user to click to edit any given field. We hope this will speed up the process of general listing maintenance.

    Catylist Mobile, Beta
    We are deploying a simple version of selected CIEs for display on mobile devices. These mobile sites will have scaled back functionality, but will allow users to search and display listing, agent, and company information. Point your phones to http://mobile.catylist.com, or to your local CIE.

    Improved Promote Page
    The “Promote your listing” page has been streamlined in order at accommodate future additions. We will be adding several new options to this page in the near future and hope that it becomes a single place for users to monitor the marketing of each property listing.

    Export listings to the Google Base
    There’s a new addition to the promote page that allows users to opt in to export their property listings to the Google Base automatically each night. Listings sent to Google will be indexed and searchable. More about Google Base here.

    Additional Improvements

    • The listing overview page has been redesigned
    • Admins and agents can once again export listings from CIE Manager
    • CIE and Company admins can now add International users, and International users can now register for any of our CIEs
    • The “Compare” feature has been added to catalogs
    By Paul Brockmeyer | Posted in Marketing, New Functionality | Comments (0)