Auction.com is well suited for an event, which has a silent and live auction. I can't imagine hosting an event without being able to swipe guests credit cards and being able to generate invoices. Entering winning bids at the event is easy and can be done on multiple computers - then merged onto one to run the necessary invoices, distribution sheets, and reports. Running a report on the items not bid on allows you to verify that you have entered all the bid sheets.
LoopNet is well suited for many different industries. Obviously it is great for real estate professionals or real estate buyers when researching properties that are available or may become available. The history of the properties provided is excellent and provides details that would be very helpful to the real estate industry. Facility Service companies are also well suited for the use of LoopNet. With the property information it provides it makes it much easier to get to the decision-makers when selling facility services or products. LoopNet may be less appropriate for product sales as these providers may need to be more connected with the occupants of the properties more than the owners.
LoopNet needs to do a better job of sifting through to delete old and stale listings. These listings are inaccurate and clutter a report to lower its credibility.
I am not a fan of the reporting. As a broker, I can make sense of the reports but the public is not always as savvy.
Support is where Auction.com shines. Their support team is incredible. On the day of the event, you can count on them to be on the other end of the phone when you call and to fix issues that you have. They are all very knowledgeable and understanding. They will walk you through any issues or actually make the changes remotely for you. I have nothing but praise for their support!
LoopNet/CoStar representatives are ready to help and willing to come out to the office to give presentations or meet with the team at any time. They are a valuable resource when you are trying to utilize the program to its fullest advantage.
LoopNet is the most well known, with the widest audience. This is why I selected it. But, they cannot get the simplest of details correct for the purpose of advertising the listings I have for sale. When they can't get even a unit count correct, why bother? Not to mention that getting those sorts of core details wrong is actually damaging to the marketing efforts.
