Andrew Florance

Founder and CEO at CoStar Group

By Larry Getlen July 27, 2020 9:00 AM

CoStar is perhaps the most important tool that a broker has; it is the ultimate data collector and analyst in real estate. No wonder it’s become a force as great as any other real estate company in the country. (Scratch that: the world.)

CoStar ended 2019 with revenue of $1.4 billion, a 17 percent increase over the prior year. The double-digit growth was consistent across various segments, including 21 percent year-over-year growth in multifamily. The company’s net income for the year was $315 million, a 32 percent increase over 2018.

It’s no surprise, then, that 2019 was a growth year for the company, which increased its field sales force by 20 percent and added 40 mid-market sales positions for multifamily.

Florance founded CoStar in 1987, seeking to provide a comprehensive data solution for the commercial real estate industry. Today, according to the company, it offers hundreds of data points on over 5 million commercial real estate properties, making over 5 million data changes per day, and canvassing 500,000 properties per year across the U.S. They have over 4,300 employees around the globe.

CoStar also made numerous acquisitions in 2019. The company purchased Off Campus Partners, an online multifamily marketplace service for student housing, for an undisclosed amount; STR, which conducts benchmarking and analytics for the hospitality industry, for $450 million, subject to adjustments; Rentpath, which had announced Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, for $588 million, giving CoStar ownership of rent.com and apartmentguide.com, among others; and Ten-X, a platform that conducts CRE transactions online, for $190 million.

The company capped off the year in December by being named to the NASDAQ 100.—L.G.