Good Starting Point in Real Estate if you have no Experience - Research Associate II CoStar Group Employee Review

-The true research position, in basic portfolio research, is a glorified marketing telemarketer. Basically your job is to be in the ear of everyone in the industry and promote the word that is CoStar. The database is so big and basically operates on its own at this point. These calls often times sever relationships. Let people do research however it works the best not have a constant whip at their back to make pointless phone calls so the team number goes up. -A facade of movement-For example the company has created a false sense of movement by making positions like the "market analyst" that really doesn't have a job but instead took away from what the former PPR analysts were doing and have just slowed down the production of information due to a large number of uneducated persons writing reports. Accept CoStar for what it is and leave the smart people in positions where they can contribute. -Management on the research level is horrible. Outside hires make little to zero sense other than they don't ask questions, but I guess that's what CoStar wants for that position. One manager managing a major market in CoStar couldn't even point out the different sub-markets in her market on a map. Literally your only job is to know research and you can't do that? Speaks to the management loud and clear. -The biggest problem with CoStar is the employees constant feeling of worthlessness in the industry. As a researcher or sales rep you feel that you are less than other professionals in the industry (IE brokers or analysts). I even had a manager tell me basically that we were below them. The management does a great job at keeping this mentality up by their constant in ability to understand real estate as well as to understand what real relationships are in the industry. As an equal in the industry you shouldn't constantly feel worthless as an employee and less than a broker who works at Cushman, CBRE. Train your employees more. -The ability to strangle any outside the box thinking. At CoStar you are told to do one thing and it can choke the life out of your creativeness and ability to work and learn in the industry. -Failure to pay smart people One thing that really is awful here is the failure to recognize individuals who actually think and analyze the work they are doing. I saw countless people get promoted who simply sat down and didn't ask questions or even attempt to learn real estate but instead just plugged numbers in. -Team projects, ha what a joke. The Directors will present team projects for example (the True Owner or Property Management project). The project was designed to capture the real owners and property managers of 1000s of assets, instead it was blindly inserting false information into the database to make a number go up. Managers will have researchers plug in 1000s of fake contacts (information) into the "reliable" database just to see the numbers go up. The pressure from the upper management causes the manager and the Director to simply turn there eye and reward the research associates for putting in false information, pretty ludicrous right? Not only did the management ignore what was really happening but rewarded those who had falsified hundreds of contacts at the end of the quarter as "researchers of the month" or those individuals received higher bonuses. Its really eye opening to watch people put false information into the database and not only be promoted but praised by management who know that the numbers are false. It's the classic facade of false performance and reward for false performance that really is CoStars whole motto on the research and director level.