In 1999, CRA elected to disband “in house” market research and outsource this function to the CoStar Group. CRA made this decision because of its strong belief in outsourcing where the result compliments its Best Choice commitment. The CoStar Group is the nations leading provider of electronic commercial real estate information. CoStar’s web based state of the art software technology has provided CRA with a database of all office and industrial buildings in the top 50 U.S. market areas. With this resource, CRA has been able to provide comprehensive market research reports for its clients in less than ten percent (10%) of the time previously allocated for this function. For CRA, the time savings associated with CoStar have been significant as CRA can quickly produce market research and distribute this research to its clients over the web. To CRA’s clients, quick access to CoStar’s accurate information has yielded knowledgeable and expedited decisions made with confidence. Confidence which is well founded as CoStar’s information, which is updated daily on the web, is accurate and reliable. Additionally, as all Building owners can list their properties free of charge on CoStar, they have every incentive to utilize and keep current their listings in this medium.

CoStar also allows CRA to customize reports for its clients in regard to market information. CRA can quickly produce macro research information relating to the markets current vacancy factors (or by product type and area) and annual absorption figures (or by product type and area) while providing micro information with regard to all office buildings that have (by way of example) first floor space available or all warehouse buildings that have ceiling heights of thirty feet (30’) or more.

In short, CoStar provides CRA with a web based market research database which allows for accelerated delivery of accurate and reliable real estate information at a cost effective price. This makes CoStar the Best Choice for CRA in addressing the market research requirements of its clients.