OpenComps Blog
We are very excited about our new design. How about you? But we are not only excited about how (good) we look now on the desktop. The even bigger news is that we are now optimized to look great on your phone or tablet too! Have you tried us out?
There is no new address to remember; no server redirection based on device detected (just go to opencomps.com). Thanks to our new front-end framework, we were able to create a responsive design that adapts to whatever device you are using.
Just as fall is getting started to do a makeover to the trees outside, we are ready with our site makeover too. We worked hard on it all summer and, dare we say, we are very happy with the results. But the final judges will be you, our users…. so we would love to hear your thoughts!
Just to be clear, our makeover is just like a new suit… we may look different, but our simplicity in functionality is still there as you (hopefully, just as much as we) like it. The pockets, buttons and sleeves are still in the same place on the suit, just like our functionality is still there where you can see it and access it conveniently and expediently.
With the second quarter behind us, we wanted to update you on the volume of transactions we recorded in OpenComps and the trends we are observing. We also take a look at the first half of the year as well.
The overwhelming feeling for Q2 activity is… whew! Things are cooking and stirring across all the asset types and assets are trading at a fairly brisk speed.
Today we rolled out an update to our billing system to allow you to view your Pro subscription invoices online.
Simply visit your User Profile and follow the “View Invoices” link in Account Summary section. You can then select any of your recent invoices and view an invoice online. It will open in a new popup window (so make sure you can see popup windows in your browser) where you can print it either by clicking Print link or using your browser’s print functionality.
We rolled out a new update recently to better manage the Free Previews of recorded transactions and what happens when you add a comp yourself, i.e. what we call Your Additions.
With the first quarter of 2013 behind us, we thought we should take a look at the volume and trend data. After observing a decrease in volume and cumulative value for hotel transactions at the end of 2012 compared to 2011, the trend in 2013 has reversed significantly and for the better. First quarter of 2013 saw 150 transaction worldwide and 113 in the U.S. vs. only 54 and 52, respectively, in the first quarter of 2012. That is a jump of 178% worldwide and 117% in the U.S. (Naturally, our tracking of non-U.S. transaction is still very sparse, so the real observable trend is in the U.S.).
We also decided to provide you with a summary of the distributions by property type and location type for the first quarter. Interestingly, investors are almost equally focused between Urban and Suburban properties with the focus on Upscale and Upper Upscale properties. (We recently updated our property types classifications to align ourselves with the latest STR classifications; clean up, though, is still in process).
Just a quick note that earlier this month we implemented new email notifications to go along with your activity as an OpenComps Pro subscriber. Now, every time you subscribe, cancel, re-activate, have a paid invoice or a failed payment, we will send you an email regarding each activity. Thus, you will receive your paid invoice directly in your email inbox, which is a feature that was high on the request list.
As always, if you think you are not getting your emails, check your Junk/Spam folder first and/or add “admin @ opencomps . com” (without the spaces) to your email whitelist/address book.
Feel free to always drop us a note about features you would like us to implement or if you have questions with your accounts.
Continuing with the 2012 review, here is a snapshot of the 2012 Top 5 Brokerage Firms rankings as they stand on March 6, 2013. The data is dynamic and changes when new transactions are introduced in the dataset. For the full and most up-to-date 2012 list, you can go to the hotel, office, retail and residential rankings. Don’t forget the “Top Broker” dropdown menu to see who is the most active year-to-date (2013) or create your own custom period (the default gives you the all-time ranking).
The table reflects United States only transactions as outside of the U.S., regrettably, our database does not have many datapoints. We welcome your input. The same is true for our Office, Retail and Residential data, even in the U.S. As a broker, you’ve worked hard to put the transaction(s) together. Shouldn’t you get credit for it? Register for OpenComps for free and update the transactions you’ve worked on or give us your unrecorded transactions. If you prefer to just email us, you can do so at tips@opencomps.com. Send us your one transaction or the in-house spreadsheet if you are that productive. You deserve the credit!
Finally, the table represents top sell-side brokers. In OpenComps we also track buy-side brokers. But let’s be frank, sell-side is where the action is.
As a follow up to the 2012 Year in Review for Hotels, we thought this graph would be interesting to highlight the slowdown in hotel transactions we observed in 2012. Hopefully, in 2013, we’ll see a return to growth.
And hopefully in 2013 we will also make such trend information more easily and interactively available right within OpenComps.
Here at OpenComps we hope that everyone had good holidays. Before we plunge into a hopefully busy 2013, we wanted to take a general look at what happened in OpenComps’ dataset in 2012 as of today January 2, 2013: