By: Deborah Johnson Wood
On April 25, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation announced the nation's first agreement between a state and a commercial realtors association. The announcement came from MEDC CEO James C. Epolito during his speech at "Synergy," the sixth annual statewide commercial real estate conference in East Lansing.
For the first time, the 650-member Commercial Board of Realtors (CBOR), the 80 local economic development corporations (EDC), and the MEDC will use the same online resource, CPIX (Commercial Property Information Exchange), to advertise Michigan's commercial properties.
"CPIX is a statewide commercial property database designed by Michigan commercial realtors for Michigan commercial realtors," said Nancy McKellar, executive VP of CBOR. "A lot of marketing web sites own the data once you give to them and they can do anything they want to with it. They can even stop you from using photos you've sent to them."
With CPIX, the brokers can advertise their properties and control the information, the EDCs can advertise EDC or government properties, and both groups can work together to find buyers. Property information must be verified every 30 days (minimum) or that property becomes non-visible after 60 days.
The database is linked to about 100 web sites that have access to national data.
CPIX was created in 2003 with no members and no properties. Today, 2,400 people are inputting properties and information for approximately 20,000 listings, and the database receives 38,000 hits a day, McKellar said. When the EDCs are brought online over the next few months, McKellar expects the number of properties to double.
"The goal is to have every single commercial property in the state on this database," McKellar said.
Source: Nancy McKellar, Commercial Board of Realtors
Deborah Johnson Wood is the Development News Editor for Rapid Growth. She can be reached at [email protected].
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