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biproxi Acquires Commercial Real Estate Listing Site OfficeSpace.com

The acquisition will enable biproxi to aggressively grow its listing business while simultaneously offering and developing innovative broker solutions and tools

SAN DIEGO, Calif., Feb. 24, 2020 — biproxi, the leading end-to-end commercial real estate platform trusted by the world’s largest commercial brokerages, today announced that it has acquired OfficeSpace.com. The acquisition will allow biproxi to consolidate all of its commercial real estate (CRE) data and listings on the OfficeSpace.com website, which is already the second-largest CRE listing site in the U.S. with over 550,000 listings, and is visited by over 350,000 buyers and tenants every month. In addition, OfficeSpace.com has historical data on over 1.7 million listings reaching back over 15 years.

“We’re excited to add OfficeSpace.com to the suite of products and services available from biproxi and to expand their offerings more broadly to the commercial real estate community,” said biproxi CEO Gordon Smith. “This acquisition will allow us to aggressively build on the success that OfficeSpace.com has seen as a listing site, while also continuing to develop a robust set of solutions for brokers under the biproxi brand.”

With the OfficeSpace.com acquisition, the company will no longer list properties on its biproxi.com website. That site will now focus exclusively on providing modern, unique and effective tools and services to help brokers save time and money while moving their listings. biproxi.com features The Shop which consolidates vendors across a wide range of services, including property photography, photo editing, drone services, and data reports into a single e-commerce platform, allowing brokers to order multiple products and services from one site on one invoice, with an easy to use broker dashboard.

Also available on the site is biproxi’s Marketing Concierge – a full-service marketing program for listings that runs advanced digital and social media campaigns which drive unique leads directly to the listing broker.

“OfficeSpace.com customers can rest assured that biproxi will maintain the current user experience on the site,” Smith noted. “But we also plan to add a broker dashboard and a listing management tool, along with tenant/buyer search capabilities for investment sales and off-market properties to work in concert with the other solutions that the company offers today. We’re bringing the best of both worlds together into one robust offering buyers and brokers alike will love.”

Susie Algard, Founder and former CEO of OfficeSpace.com says, “We are excited that biproxi will continue building on OfficeSpace.com’s success. We looked at several alternatives, and based on the stellar track record of biproxi’s management team and the complementary fit of our business models, it is difficult to imagine a better strategic outcome.” As part of the transaction, Algard will also be joining biproxi’s Advisory Board.

About biproxi
biproxi develops and offers best-in-class marketing and vendor management services for the modern broker, empowering them to move listings quicker and more efficiently. biproxi integrates with brokers’ teams by handling their marketing, vendor management, and logistics. biproxi is proud to offer the first open-access marketplace of its kind, connecting brokers to the best vendors nationwide, without any subscription fees. For more information visit: www.biproxi.com.

About Officespace.com
Officespace.com is the fastest growing online commercial real estate marketplace that connects tenants and buyers with brokers. With over 570,000 on-market listings and 1.3 million properties listed nationwide, OfficeSpace.com provides lease and sale information for all commercial use types – including office, retail, industrial, flex, and land. OfficeSpace.com ‘s online property database is available to search for free and without any restrictions. Hundreds of thousands of unique users generate millions of building views on OfficeSpace.com every month.For more information visit: www.officespace.com.

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Tax Season is Upon Us. Are Your Books in Order?

If not, you’re in luck! We’ve partnered with Bench to help connect tenants with better tools to run their business. OfficeSpace.com users can now get a free one-month trial and an additional 20% off the first 6 months of bookkeeping. 

If you feel behind on your bookkeeping you’re not alone. Most entrepreneurs struggle to keep up with their books throughout the year. That adds a lot of stress come tax season, but it also makes it a lot harder to uncover ever tax deduction you deserve.

That’s why we’ve partnered with Bench to offer business owners (tenants) with an easier solution – and at a discounted price. OfficeSpace.com visitors Bench provides a seamless way to manage tax season, as well as your finances throughout the year.

Continue reading “Tax Season is Upon Us. Are Your Books in Order?”

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It Just Got Even Easier to Add Listings to OfficeSpace.com

While it has always been free and easy to add your listings to OfficeSpace.com, we’re excited to announce that it just got even easier!

Over the last couple of weeks, you may have been contacted about sending us your flyers, personal websites, or adding us to your e-blast. We now have a dedicated team that will update your listings at no cost or disruption to you. Simply send us your flyers, email us your company websites, or add us to your e-blasts – we’ll take care of the rest.

Continue reading “It Just Got Even Easier to Add Listings to OfficeSpace.com”

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One Broker’s Enduring Entrepreneurial Spirit

Big Payoff with Tenant Connect for a MBA grad turned CRE broker.

Company: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Commercial Division
Markets: Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton OH
Results:
– 60 closed transactions
– $250,000+ in revenue
– 30% revenue growth
– Increased tenant rep more than two fold

 

As an MBA graduate with an extensive business background in Finance and Operations, David Mussari is no stranger to entrepreneurship. In fact, it was his interest in entrepreneurial opportunities that became the catalyst for his development as a commercial real estate broker.

Continue reading “One Broker’s Enduring Entrepreneurial Spirit”

John Heimbigner
John is the VP of Sales at OfficeSpace.com where he leads broker relations and sales. Prior to being VP of Sales, he was the Regional  Director for the company. John has over 25 years of experience working in the commercial real estate industry. Before OfficeSpace.com, John was a commercial real estate broker for the Norman Company in Seattle, WA.
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New Partnership Brings Commercial Property Data to EDOs

We’re excited to announce that OfficeSpace.com has joined forces with Community Systems, a leading technology company dedicated to the economic development industry. Through this partnership, OfficeSpace.com‘s commercial listings will now be exclusively featured on economic development organization (EDO) websites across the country and visible to thousands of site selectors, brokers, and companies seeking commercial property data nationwide. 

Continue reading “New Partnership Brings Commercial Property Data to EDOs”

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OfficeSpace.com and Apto Partnership Brings Greater Exposure to Apto Customers.

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If you’re an Apto customer, your life just got a lot easier!

We’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with Apto to provide all Apto users with the ability to automatically publish their listings directly to OfficeSpace.com.

This means that you no longer have to worry about updating across both platforms and can now syndicate your data on OfficeSpace.com without ever leaving your Apto account. By publishing to OfficeSpace.com, you’ll boost your listings’ exposure and lead pipeline as hundreds of thousands of tenants and brokers search for CRE space on OfficeSpace.com every month.

The best part? All it takes is a click of a button from your Apto account to begin syncing your listings, and there’s no additional cost to you.

To get started:

  • Pull up your listing on Apto.
  • Publish your listing to OfficeSpace.com with a click of a button.
  • Instantly get exposure to tenants searching OfficeSpace.com.
  • Start getting tenant inquiries directly and add/manage them on Apto.

To learn more about this partnership and Apto, check out the Apto blog.

Learn more about Apto:

Created by commercial real estate brokers, Apto is the leading web-based software for managing client relationships, properties, listings, and deals. Apto streamlines the entire deal lifecycle. Request a demo today.

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What’s The Most Important Service a Broker Can Provide a Tenant?

In order to better understand how closely brokers’ and tenants’ expectations aligned, we decided to ask the following question: What is the most important service a broker can provide a tenant?

Check out the responses below to see the top answers provided by both sides. You might be surprised to see the differences in the feedback we got.

What is the most important service a broker can provide a tenant?

Top broker responses:

Broker Replies.png

Breakdown:

  • Market knowledge: 21% of responses
  • Locating a space that meets their needs: 15% of responses
  • Good communication/Timeliness: 13% of responses
  • Accuracy: 12% of responses
  • Lease negotiations: 10% of responses
  • Honesty: 7% of responses
  • CRE knowledge/ advice: 6% of responses

Top tenant responses:

Tenant Replies.png

Breakdown:

  • Good communication/Timeliness: 37% of responses
  • Locating a space that meets their needs: 15% of responses
  • Helping them get a good deal: 12% of responses
  • Honesty: 8% of responses
  • Market knowledge: 6% of responses
  • Negotiation skills: 5% of responses
  • Access to hard-to-find listings: 4% of responses

What conclusions can we draw from this?

Market knowledge may not be the most important attribute for a broker from the tenant’s perspective. While this was the number one response from brokers, less than 2% of tenant responses had market knowledge listed as most important broker service.

The second most popular response from brokers was locating a space that meets the tenant’s needs.  Tenants too felt that this was important, and it was a match for second place.  There’s really no surprise here, this is a universal expectation.  

Good and timely communication from brokers is essential for tenants, making this attribute the number one ranked response from tenants with 37% of the responses. Only 13% of brokers marked this as the most important attribute, ranking it the third most popular attribute among broker responses.

Tenants want to get a good deal, and they expect their brokers to help. This answer seems like a no-brainer, so we were surprised that there was a bit of a mismatch between the two groups. For tenants, this was listed in their top three responses. For brokers, this came in as the 12th most popular response with only a small percentage falling this category. We could dive into the differences of responses between landlord representative brokers and tenant representative brokers, and hopefully we would see a difference. However, if we take this at face value, brokers who leverage this attribute could have a big opportunity to attract new clients. 

Tell us what you think! Is this feedback different from what you had expected?

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How Are Tenants Searching for Office Space?

Finding your first office space can be one of the most exciting, yet nerve-wracking experiences. The team here at OfficeSpace.com has interacted with millions of tenants who have been in the same position.

This is why in an effort to shed some light on the process, we recently surveyed tenants about their search experience. Part of what we found out was what we expected, while some responses took us by surprise. Here’s a look at what tenants shared with us about their CRE search experience.

How much time did you spend researching commercial real estate leasing online prior to connecting with a broker?

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When asked how much time they spent researching CRE leasing online prior to connecting with a broker, almost have of our respondents (45%) selected “within days”.

How many brokers did you reach out to before selecting one to work with?

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Over half of our participants (54%) also revealed that they had not yet selected a broker to work with yet. Of those who did, 32% said they reached out to 2 to 5 different brokers before selecting one.

If you have not yet selected a broker, where are you now with your space search?

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For those who had not yet selected a broker, 33% had told us that they decided to look for space on their own when asked where they currently were with their space search. 11% of the 33% who decided to look on their own also reported that brokers had not responded to their initial inquiries, so there wasn’t much choice.

How many spaces did you see, or plan on seeing, during your search?

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In regards to space searches, we also asked how many spaces they’ve seen or planned on seeing during their search. More than half (54%) said between 2 to 5.

Do you have a preference for working with a tenant representative’s broker or a landlord’s representative’s broker to help you find a space?

Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 2.32.01 PM.png

When asked if they had a preference to work with the landlord’s broker or a tenant representative’s broker, 37% of our respondents did not know the difference between the two.  The majority of tenants did not have a preference (44%) while 14% preferred to work specifically with a tenant representative’s broker and 6% preferred to work with the landlord’s broker.

Did you end up signing a lease with the broker you decided to work with?

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Finally, over 66% of tenants said that they did not sign a lease with the broker they initially selected to work with. When we asked for their reasons, 50% had to do with a negative experience with their broker, 26% of the tenants had a change in circumstances in their situation and 18% were still looking for the right space.

We would love to hear from tenants and brokers on our research. Does this information surprise you or is it what you would have expected?  

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Susie Algard, CEO of OfficeSpace.com, Accepted Into Forbes Real Estate Council

Forbes Real Estate Council Is an Invitation-Only Community for Executives in Real Estate

[Seattle, WA (May 8th, 2017)] — Susie Algard, CEO of OfficeSpace.com, has been accepted into the Forbes Real Estate Council, an invitation-only community for executives in the real estate industry.

Algard joins other Forbes Real Estate Council members, who are hand-selected, to become part of a curated network of successful peers and get access to a variety of exclusive benefits and resources, including the opportunity to submit thought leadership articles and short tips on industry-related topics for publishing on Forbes.com.

Forbes Councils combines an innovative, high-touch approach to community management perfected by the team behind Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) with the extensive resources and global reach of Forbes. As a result, Forbes Council members get access to the people, benefits and expertise they need to grow their businesses — and a dedicated member concierge who acts as an extension of their own team, providing personalized one-on-one support.

“The CRE industry is ripe for disruption and there are a lot of exciting things to look forward to” says Algard. “It’s been amazing to hear from tenants and brokers who tell us that OfficeSpace.com has been changing the way they search for space and do business. As a member of the Forbes Real Estate Council, I’m excited to be sharing our insights about what we hear from the feet on the street to the broader CRE community.”

Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, says, “We are honored to welcome Susie Algard into the community. Our mission with Forbes Councils is to curate successful professionals from every industry, creating a vetted, social capital-driven network that helps every member make an even greater impact on the business world.”

About OfficeSpace.com

OfficeSpace.com is the fastest growing online commercial real estate marketplace that connects tenants and brokers. With over 1.3 million properties nationwide, OfficeSpace.com provides lease and sale information for all commercial space types – including office space, retail, industrial, flex, and land listings. OfficeSpace.com’s online property database is available to search for free and without any restrictions. Over 200,000 unique users generate millions of building views on OfficeSpace.com every month.

For more information, visit OfficeSpace.com.

About Forbes Councils

Forbes partnered with the founders of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to launch Forbes Councils, invitation-only communities for world-class business professionals in a variety of industries. Members, who are hand-selected by each Council’s community team, receive personalized introductions to each other based on their specific needs and gain access to a wide range of business benefits and services, including best-in-class concierge teams, personalized connections, peer-to-peer learning, a business services marketplace, and the opportunity to share thought leadership content on Forbes.com. For more information about Forbes Real Estate Council, visit https://forbesrealestatecouncil.com/. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com.

 

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