Considering the fast-paced nature of the commercial real estate market in 2023, a slightly amended truism about doing business could help illuminate why the CCIM Institute places such emphasis on technology.

It's not about what you know — it's about how quickly you know it.

Site To Do Business — the CCIM Institute's comprehensive CRE digital toolkit that provides essential data and tools to support financial, market, spatial, and competitive analysis — recently introduced Catylist from Moody's Analytics. This application is an all-in-one research, marketing, and listings platform for commercial real estate professionals, combining fully researched CRE data, a suite of reporting and marketing tools, and national exposure for listings.

As an early adopter, Michael Hironimus, CCIM, the principal/founder of Duckridge Realty Advisors in West Linn, Ore., has already experienced the benefits of Catylist, which has been a game-changer in the hyper-competitive CRE space.

“The analyze tool is one workflow that really sets Catylist apart from other platforms we've had,” he says. “You can quickly understand submarket statistics such as occupancy, vacancy, average lease, and sale rates, among others.  Additionally, you have comprehensive market and submarket reports that are invaluable for understanding a trade area. The ones who win in investment real estate are the ones who have access to the best information.”

When it comes to leveraging the information and analysis delivered by Site To Do Business, the benefits are better understood when shown and not told. One example from Hironimus's experience helps illuminate the possibilities.

“We were recently going back and forth with one of our current tenants on a renewal option on a retail strip center in Texas,” he says. “Their broker was trying to earn a fee by stating that the market was less than what was previously agreed to several years ago. Within a short amount of time, we were able to put together a complete package with available properties, occupancy, and vacancy data, along with average rental increases. Catylist allowed us to quickly and easily create a package that saved us thousands on the renewal — all in a very short amount of time.”

Available to Site To Do Business users at a preferred rate, Catylist is just the latest in a varied suite of offerings that aims to separate members of the CCIM Institute from the competition.

“The CCIM Institute has always been a one-stop shop for doing business in commercial real estate, but we were always missing property and ownership data — and now we have it,” Hironimus says. “The market data that Catylist provides in the Business Analyst/ArcGIS system makes for an incredibly powerful tool. Imagine layering property data with demographics/psychographics, spending statistics, population data and more — these are capabilities even some of the large brokerages don't have.”

No matter what tomorrow's commercial real estate markets looks like, whether in recession or booming, top professionals need to harness the best technology, the most current data, and the richest analysis to continue booking business and closing deals.