LoopNet let commercial brokers list properties for free, and that is how it became the largest marketplace of its kind in the United States. Brokers posted offices, shops, warehouses and apartment buildings for sale or lease. Buyers and tenants searched them free or with premium memberships. LoopNet also sold data on property sales and comparables. When it went public in 2006, commercial real estate was booming.

Out of the Flyer Business

Dennis DeAndre started LoopNet in San Francisco in 1995. The bet was that commercial real estate, a business of private networks and printed flyers, would move its listings online. Free listings drew brokers in fast. LoopNet then charged its heaviest users, the people who listed and searched the most, for premium features. That model built a base of listings that rivals could not match.

CoStar Wins Approval

LoopNet priced its IPO at $12 a share in June 2006 on the Nasdaq. It stayed profitable through the property downturn of 2008 and 2009. In 2012 CoStar, the commercial property data company, bought LoopNet for about $860 million after regulators approved the deal. LoopNet still runs as a CoStar brand. Its listings remain a standard stop for anyone searching for commercial property.

Cover: The Flatiron, Alfred Stieglitz. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for the Flatiron building (commercial property).