What is LoopNet and how does it work?
The LoopNet app is the mobile version of the popular commercial real estate listing platform. It displays more than 50,000 listings for commercial properties for sale, lease, and auction. Unlike the LoopNet website, however, the app doesn't show businesses or franchises for sale.
Like most real estate apps, the LoopNet app filters listings by city, price, property type, or tenancy (single or multiple). You can save searches for quick reuse, as well as mark favorites and share listings.
The information in the listings varies by listing broker, but most include at least a few photos and basic property information like square footage and build year. However, while you can find information on the listing broker, searching LoopNet's broker database requires popping onto the full website.
Top perks
Buy or lease commercial properties
Unlike most other real estate apps, LoopNet focuses on commercial real estate. LoopNet includes listings for sale and for lease, as well as commercial properties up for auction. This includes:
- Offices
- Industrial buildings
- Retail space
- Restaurants
- Shopping centers
- Multi-family units
- Specialty properties
- Healthcare facilities
- Hospitality properties
- Sports and entertainment properties
- Land
- Residential income properties
The only listings for residential properties -- properties where people can live -- on LoopNet are those targeted at investors and potential landlords. LoopNet isn't where you can find your next single-family home, but you could find an office for your growing business, or a retail space to start your dream store.
Browse listings with comprehensive filters
Any decent real estate app offers robust search filters, and LoopNet includes a lot of options. Not only can you search by basic property type -- like office space, retail, or restaurant -- you can narrow it down even further. For example, you can look at any office space, or look more specifically for a live/work office unit or a loft/creative space.
Some of the search filters are the same you'd find in a residential real estate app, like price, square footage, and build year. Other filters are exclusive to commercial listings, such as property use and cap rate percentage (an estimate of the potential investor income). Lease searches include similar filters, as well as filters like annual or monthly lease rate. And all searches can include keywords.
Save searches and share listings
LoopNet lets you save searches once you've tweaked all your search filters. This eliminates the hassle of repeatedly filling out search criteria.
Besides saving searches, you can also mark favorites to keep track of the properties that stick out. And, because finding real estate -- particularly commercial real estate -- is rarely a solo game, LoopNet makes it easy to keep everyone in the loop. Click the Share button to send a listing to a business partner or investor through email or another supported app.
A real estate app is only as good as its listings. LoopNet's listings come from commercial real estate brokers, and the information they include varies. Some listings offer lots of details and extensive descriptions, while others are more bare-bones.
Most listings include at least one or two photos and basic property details. Some also offer extras like 3D tours and marketing brochures. Neighborhood data also varies by listing, with data ranging from nearby airports to the Bike Score.
If you want more information than the listing provides, you can reach out to the listing broker. Each listing includes the broker's name and phone number, plus a button to send an in-app email to the broker.
What could be improved
Can't search businesses for sale in the app
The LoopNet app includes many of the features found on the website -- with a few notable exceptions. For instance, the LoopNet site lets users search businesses for sale. This can be useful if you want to purchase a local franchise or an established business. Unfortunately, you can't do that with LoopNet's mobile app.
No real estate agent directory
Another noticeable absence in the mobile app is LoopNet's broker database. On the website, users can search thousands of commercial real estate brokers, including LoopNet's featured brokers.
With the mobile app, while you can see information on individual brokers for a listing, you can't search the database -- you have to head to the website.
One thing that helps residential real estate apps stick out from the crowd is the inclusion of extra tools. These might be mortgage calculators or anything else to help buyers plan ahead. Some apps even include up-to-date mortgage rates and industry insights.
LoopNet has a basic news feed that reads more like a blog, but it doesn't provide calculators or other tools. You need to look elsewhere to do things like calculate your potential monthly payments or figure out the best mortgage lender.