COCIE - More CDX Tips and Tricks

By Catherine Erney
Xceligent

2006 was an amazing year for COCIE powered by Xceligent. As of December 6, 2006, we have 524 agent users in 178 member companies. Over the year we have taught countless agents in the "Welcome to COCIE" class. Our first "COCIE for the Advanced User" class was held December 14th. The Super User group has traveled to the Columbus Metro Library to learn about free online company data available there and to MORPC to learn about maps and reports available from that organization. At our most recent Super User meeting, Laurie Ludlum, Manager of the Appraisal Section for Franklin County Auditor Joe Testa, demonstrated the new commercial data available on the county website to 20 eager students. The Super User mailing list has grown to 23 members, comprised mainly of researchers and support staff from many of Columbus' most prominent commercial firms. Contact Cat (cerney@ xceligent.com) if you would like to be included in invitations for future meetings.

During the course of our first year, Xceligent staff has written several articles for In Contract magazine, covering topics such as:

• Mining Sales Data in the CDX, 
• Top 10 user issues in the CDX, 
• Using Saved Search Criteria and Saved Search Results, 
• Adding Pictures in the CDX, 
• CDXMail Etiquette 
• Using the New CDXMail Plus.

If you`ve missed any of these helpful pieces -- don't go digging for your old paper copies and DON'T DISPAIR. They are all available online at www.cocie.org. When you're on the site, click on "Features and Benefits" on the left hand side of the page. You'll see the articles under "Tips and Tricks" on the right hand side of the next page.

This month, I thought we'd cover "I didn't know I could do that in the CDX!" These are some useful features that you just might not know were available to you. Hope you find these tips useful!

Search Agents -- You can use the CDX to find agent's phone numbers and company affiliation. From your home page, select "Searches" from the black bar at the top of your screen. In that pull down menu -- see "Agents" -- click on that. You can search by last name, first name or company. Warning -- it's not 100% accurate, but it's a quick and easy check. For example, a quick search of all agents with the first name "Bill" yielded 8 contacts.

Reverse phone number look up -- Ever get a voice mail message from Tom Mumbles with the Garbled Company? If you subscribe to Tenant ProspeX, you can use that database to look up companies by telephone number. Click into Tenant ProspeX _ the reverse lookup in on the right hand side of the page, just about in the middle. Put the area code in the first box, the phone number in the second, following the number format as described on the page. And VOILA! The Garbled Company will appear, if you wrote down the number correctly!

Search for sent CDXMails -- This is a function of the new and improved CDXMail Plus. On the left hand side of the screen -- just below "Compose New Message" you will see "Search Archived E-Mail." Check it out! You can search CDXMail Plus by company, by senders first or last name -- or by message type. Messages sent using the old plain CDXMail won't show up here. Try searching for the latest "Client Requirements." Isn't that slick?

Search For FSBOs -- You can search "For sale by Owner" commercial properties either in "The Search" or in the Property/Listing" search. In "The Search" click on the "Additional" Tab -- it's right in the middle at the top. Once you're in that screen, you'll see the "Click to Select a Listing Company and Agent" in the upper right portion of your screen. Click on that blue link -- a drop down menu will appear with ALL of our listing companies on it. You can scroll down to "By Owner-Columbus" or just type "By" in the Company Lookup box. "By Owner-Columbus" will be highlighted. Add it to the "Selected Companies" box by pushing the "Add" button. Unless you want to select a specific owner, you're now ready to "Perform Search." If you've read this far, you have probably figured out that you can search for ANY company or agent's listings in this manner.

Help Xceligent keep Dunn & Bradstreet on its toes. -- If you subscribe to Tenant ProspeX and send out post-cards or mailers using the mailing labels report, you can help us keep that data current, too. Just collect any returned mail and hand it to Cat, Mandi or Angie the next time we come by your office. We aggregate the returned mail data and periodically forward to D & B for further research. We send updates to D & B weekly and get refreshed data once per month, so the changes won't appear instantly -- but they will be addressed.

Make a database of Proprietary Comparables. You can add either lease or sales comparables to any building in the CDX and keep the information you have added for your eyes only. From within the property record, click on the "My Comps" tab. It's just to the right of Tenant and left of "Analytics." After selecting "Lease" or "Sale", go ahead and fill in the record with whatever data you might have. As in the rest of the database, "must fill" fields are shaded blue. At the very bottom of the record you create, you will see a category called "Share Level." Setting the Share Level to "Myself" will keep it for your eyes only. "Office only" will share the data with your own company only. Unlike notes and newspaper articles stuffed in a file, the database never forgets!

Get an Xceligent Owners Manual! Look in the upper right hand corner of your home page. See the "Help/Guides" pull down menu? Click on "Member Guide." Everything you might need to know -- except your password -- is all right here and, unlike even the friendliest and most helpful customer support person, this service is available 24/7. There are multiple ways to access the information included here. You can scroll through the Table of Contents, clicking on the plus sign beside various topics to see the subheadings. To see the full text, click on the blue underlined topic -- and the explanatory manuscript will appear on the right of your screen. If digging through the Table of Contents is too slow for you, select "Search" at the top of the screen. Just put your term in the box and push "Search." Unlike a printed Guide which outdates quickly, this information is always current. Full directions for our newest feature -- CDXMail Plus -- are already online here. If you're struggling to add photos in the CDX, check under FAQ -- Frequently Asked Questions.

Create Current Vacancy & Last Quarter and Year-to-date Absorption Reports -- Creating vacancy and absorption reports in the CDX is as easy as selecting a set of properties. When you start your search, remember that "The Search" defaults to "For Lease" properties. To get a valid vacancy rate, you need to be sure to select "All Properties" instead. (Think about it -- if you do your calculation based on only properties for lease, your resulting vacancy rate is going to be in the neighborhood of 80%!) Whatever property type you select, be sure to remove "Planned" and "Under Construction" properties from the set. After you have chosen your target properties, "Select All" and then choose a vacancy report. My favorite is Property Availability Summary by submarket. You can also run absorption for the most recent closed quarter -- and year to date -- just by selecting "Absorption" from the analytics reports.

Export Historical Data -- Yes, you can export data by quarter from as far back as 4Q 2004 - on a building or a set of buildings. You can use that data to calculate historical vacancies and absorption on any segment of the market. That is the topic of next month's article.

Whatever you want to accomplish, remember that there's a wealth of information in the CDX and infinite ways to slice and dice it. If you have a special project -- feel free to call us -- we can help you figure out how to mine the information you need.