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      CoStar Group

      Engaged Employer

      CoStar Group reviews

      2.7

      33% would recommend to a friend

      (3,022 total reviews)
      avatar

      Andrew C. Florance

      31% approve of CEO

      38% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      CoStar Group has an employee rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 3,022 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The CoStar Group employee rating is 22% below average for employers within the Real Estate industry (3.5 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      3K reviews
      2.0
      Mar 27, 2015

      Okay place to start, but get out quickly

      Research associate
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      I can't give too harsh a review of CoStar, because it was my first job out of college. They give professionals with little to no experience a chance. The environment is very structured, which keeps most employees focused and sharp. There were frequent training classes or seminars for tips on how to improve interview skills to maintain update frequency on client portfolios. There was certainly a competitive aspect as well, listing group winners on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. The recognition, organization, and incentives here were definite pros. Also, there is a clear path of upward mobility from Research Associate, Analyst, Manager, etc. I found my Manager very accessible and also spoke with senior management a few times because I happened to be a top performer. The regular Town Halls from Andy (CEO) were also beneficial to understand the direction the company was going and how our goals should change. Simple perks like decent break area, fruit/snacks, and building amenities are pretty common in HQ offices as well. The company parties are hosted at impressive venues (museums oftentimes).

      Cons

      The actual employee program is one that I hope to never experience again. It felt sort of like a factory, cranking orientation groups through weeks of painfully boring training classes prior to their introduction to the actual day-to-day responsibilities. It was almost so regimented that there was zero room for creativity, suggestions, or personal growth. The career path is very limited to Sales or advancing your "Research" skills, which by the way, are not real research anyway but just google maps and archaic public record databases. The environment was also big brother-esque. Every phone call is recorded and employees are often singled out for etiquette, effectiveness, and random review. This keeps employees on their toes, but degrades the morale and overall culture of the group. I do understand the need for metrics as it relates to QA and performance reviews, but the metrics here were so stringent that again, it degraded your attitude and opinion of the company. For example, you have to log a number of phone calls (cold calls and to maintain existing portfolio) per day. These phone calls must be a certain length and quality and vary in purpose... sales deals, rentals, new business, vacant lot inquiries, etc. It can be very tedious trying to extract details on a closed deal from your clients. And you are penalized if they refuse to give you the information, no matter how persuasive you are. That to me, is an immovable KPI that is not entirely within the employee's control. The pay wasn't too great, in my opinion, although the regular review do allow opportunity for bonuses and increases to base salary. All in all, although CoStar gives people a chance, they do not invest in their employees. Point blank, the job as a Research Associate is painfully boring.

      avatar
      CoStar Group Response
      11y
      You said yourself that CoStar Group provides a structured environment for entry-level employees and provides them with the information and skills needed to do the job. The brief, two-week period of classroom-style training provides researchers with the knowledge they need to be able to communicate with brokers. You praised the career path, but then said it was limited. Our career paths to analyst and manager roles include training on forecasting trends for markets and how to work with employees, respectively, and take employees beyond the standard duties of the researcher to develop new skills not yet used in their daily work. We offer tuition reimbursement and ample training opportunities internally to focus on certain areas of the industry, which is only the starting point of our personal and monetary investment in our employees. As with every job, there has to be some measurement of work to be able to evaluate the quality of work. We do need our researchers to be active on the phone to communicate with clients, but call number requirements have not been a focus for some time. We do not penalize researchers for being unable to obtain particular details, though they are expected to ask for the information. Calls are recorded, as they are in most communications-based companies, to check for quality, but also for researchers to listen back to the call and check for details they may have missed while inputting information into the system. All researchers have access to their own phone calls for this purpose. Our turnover rate is on par or less than industry standards for jobs with employees with 2 years or less tenure. In regards to compensation, CoStar’s philosophy is to pay competitive with the market and to pay for performance. The Research Associate is an entry level position and we provide our trainees with the knowledge and skills they need to be able to do the job and we compensate fairly for that role. Increase pay through annual merit increases and quarterly bonuses – as our researchers gain more expertise and are able to provide increased services to our clients, we work hard to recognize their efforts and ensure compensation is commensurate with associates’ performance levels. It’s important to note that our information is not free to the public, but because of the high quality of work our researchers do we are able to maintain a 92% renewal rate among subscribers and a 98% renewal rate for clients who have been using the information for more than five years. Few companies can report renewal rates close to ours.
      1.0
      Apr 8, 2014

      All about quantity. No regards for quality. No regards for employees. Upper management incompetent and indifferent.

      Field research photographer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Decent benefits. I can't say anything other than that. The pay is lower than average and the management is corrupt and incompetent.

      Cons

      This job was actually worse than telemarketing. Positions are structured ridiculously. Salary positions are paid hourly without overtime. Earning a living requires make bonuses. Making Bonuses requires that you work too quickly to produce anything of quality. Management is corrupt and incompetent. Metrics force employees to focus on only quantity.

      2.0
      Nov 27, 2013

      Low pay for the amount of work, decent benefits, absurd expectations

      Research photographer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      You can set your own schedule to some extent, you're outdoors all day, decent benefits, no one is looking over your shoulder.

      Cons

      Things got progressively worse the longer I stayed... very high turnover rate, micro managing, unreasonable expectations, managers who have not done your job, but expect you to do your work on their terms, even when it makes no sense. I was frustrated every day. You are expected to photograph and record statistics on a certain amount of buildings each day, which was more than doable when all buildings in the county needed to be done. But as time went on, it turned to only recording buildings for sale or for lease, (but only those that were not yet in the system). There were days when I spent all day in the field and found 5 or less. That is well below what is expected, but it wasn't my fault... there just were not that many new leads... This also directly affects your income!!! I am a hard worker and when I started, I was getting 40+ building done each day. 15 was the minimum required at the time; each extra building earned you more income. Now imagine how much less I was earning for months at a time only doing the minimum or less, because the leads just weren't there. I complained about this quite often, and my manager said if I wasn't being so negative, I would find those leads... what?! Another time he said that everyone was in the same boat, and that I just had to just do what was asked of me. Don't rock the boat - otherwise it's your fault. I was unhappy too, that I was alone at work all day, every day. I called and checked in with my manager (located on opposite side of the country) in the morning and at the end of the day. Management at the time was trying to get people in the field more involved in the company so we wouldn't feel like such outsiders... so they required us to listen in on 1 hr + long conference calls while sitting in our vehicle, wherever we happened to be at the time. That also meant we were not supposed to do any work for that time, but we were to listen to the call. That of course also meant that we lost an hour+ of production time, which cut into our potential earnings! The conference calls were for the most part irrelevant to those working in the field. They actually asked us in the field to come up with ideas for the conference calls so that it would be of more value for us. How about not requiring us to listen to the calls? I notice nothing has changed when I look at current reviews... I'm just repeating or backing up what many others have already stated... I noticed how some current research photographers complain about having to clean up the mess of those who did the work before them. I wonder if they need to clean up my work? Requirements and parameters were constantly changing. At one time they required you to drive up and down every single street in a square mile grid regardless if it was commercial or residential. That is a lot of wasted time driving in neighborhoods that you knew had nothing commercial. I complained, and again, I was being negative and that was the reason why I didn't magically find commercial properties in these areas. A month or so later, they scrapped that idea and we didn't have to drive through residential anymore... I guess they finally realized it didn't make sense. You are salaried, so only allowed to work 8 hours per day which includes your drive time to and from your given territory. For me this was 3 hours roundtrip or more at times, so my day of actually working was often reduced to 5 hours or less to get my minimum number of buildings. I "illegally" worked overtime without pay and without letting Costar know, because this was really affecting my income! I was getting pathetic numbers even with that overtime. I remember a day where I worked 4 hours overtime (happened more as the norm than the exception) and even with those extra hours only found 4 leads. Drove around all day and found 4 new leads, and then management asks why I did so poorly... Well, it can't be because there are no new leads... Very Frustrating! Taking this job was a poor decision on my part and I lost several years of my life to it... Looking back, I wish I would have passed on it.

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