CoStar Group Reviews

Pros

Very nice employees, excellent products, wonderful benefits and a high-end work environment.

Cons

High sales turnover due to impossible goals, structure/leadership changed weekly. Inconsistent management directives. Former employee tagged Costar as "Change Often".

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage Andy to understand customers high Account Executive turnover and wonder why. They count AE's per year and take bets....

Pros

co-workers are great. All in the same boat.

Cons

management, pricing, the way they treat the clients and employees

Advice to Senior Management

get new leadership

Pros

Salary - my base salary was in the mid 80's and with bonus it was close to 100K. I started out with a lower salary, but was promoted a few times over almost 3 years. Decent benefits as well.

Cons

When I accepted a promotion to a management position, I knew my days were numbered. Everyone who had been in the same type of position typically lasted about a year at most, and when the VP I was hired by was canned, my time was up soon enough. I had 4 different managers in 2.5 years. All of them were fired. The company continually raises the bar in research and sales so that few receive their bonuses or hit plan. The plans are designed that way. There is a strong culture of fear. Everyone is afraid to say anything for fear of Andy's disapproval. Additionally, the company (upper management) does not seem to care about their customer base in the slightest and seems more interested in who they can take out a lawsuit against and bully around.

Advice to Senior Management

Andy is afraid to let people actually do their jobs. He wants to micromanage everything. He seems to find reasons to cut the intelligent people who could actually contribute and make things better, and surrounds himself with henchmen who are willing to say yes to everything he says/does even if there are better ways of doing things. Andy is very bright, but he has to learn to trust his employees.

Pros

Reliable timely pay, good benefits, fun corporate culture at DC headquarters. No culture in remote offices however. Very corporate model.

Cons

High-pressure, quota-driven-hard to hit; mgmt does not protect/help you, CRM/expenses hard-to maintain/get back. Sexist, male dominated. Will terminate b4 6-monthprobationcomplete

Advice to Senior Management

Care/nurture employees &customers. Churning/burning AE's negatively impacts market. Improve data quality in tier 4/or reduce prices. Get-rid-of Horrigan, he's terrible.

Pros

good health insurance, benefits like metro pre-tax cards, one-month initial training, a college-like atmosphere (all young people)

the bethesda location was a clean, modern environment. the position itself is almost like having your own business since you have your own portfolio and no one does identical work,

you dont have to think or worry about work outside of work (punch-in, punch-out) and you wouldnt be able to take work home with you even if you wanted to

Cons

--goals for the position (minimum daily/monthly work requirements) change constantly so there is a sense of not being able to accomplish even the most simple duties
--lots of gossip, though every work environment has it, this one seems to have more of it since even upper-management consists of young people

Advice to Senior Management

listen to the RAs feedback instead of reassigning them or firing them!

Pros

I began working for CoStar in 2004 when we were called "Research Analysts." It's a great sounding job title and the starting pay was great. It's a good job on paper. You work in a nice Class A building in Bethesda and people think you're important. Also, since a lot of the employees are right out of college, it's almost like school and I met some of my best friends while working there. That's where the pros end.

Cons

Constantly changing metrics make you feel like you're always chasing a dangling carrot. I was once told that I could take the test to be promoted to a Senior Researcher by the next quarter only to have that rescinded. They changed the metrics a week before my review and I missed by a news story. You try to maintain your integrity only to watch others "updating" their way to management.

Advice to Senior Management

I'm sure upper management could care less about turnover because new researchers are like aspiring actors in LA. There's one getting off the bus every minute. However, when you hold focus groups to determine why turnover is so high (as they did when I worked there), it may be a good idea to actually read the results.

Pros

Good pay for a glorified telemarketer with essentially no experience. Nice, youthful coworkers. Benefits were pretty good.

Cons

Monotonous job. No job advancement opportunities. Ever changing metrics/goals. Managers have no authority to do anything. You are at the mercy of senior management. Better not fall into the bottom 30, even if you're not sure what metrics you need to meet for that corner (because they're always changing). It's a dog eat dog world, and everyone there is so worried about their job, that no one will put their self on the line if they see something wrong.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your researchers. The only thing the employee task force accomplished was getting one Friday off for the San Diego office!

Pros

(Idea of) Benefits; People; Corporate atmosphere

Cons

High turnover
Lack of communication
Lack of advancement

Advice to Senior Management

Try to lower turnover

Pros

- great training program gives you insight into Real Estate
- if you like talking on the phone instead of face to face its great

Cons

- boring job in general
- sitting down all day

Advice to Senior Management

I personally needed more diversity in my schedule - I can't sit still all day...but it's the nature of the job

Pros

Easy job if you dont care too much about work and want to enjoy other things on the side. There is somewhat of a bonus potential.

Cons

No real opportunity for advancement. No real visibility with senior management.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to get rid of some of the ridiculous metrics