u/Lower_Ad_1146

I’m working on a tool for small/mid-market commercial real estate acquisitions and would love blunt feedback from people who actually source deals.

The basic problem I’m trying to solve: When looking for off-market/self-sourced deals, there are a ton of records you can check like county property records, owner names, LLC/entity filings, mailing addresses, permits, tax records, old sale records, spreadsheets, broker lists, etc.

But the hard part is not “can I find more data?”

The hard part is: Which properties are actually worth researching this week, and why?

The idea is a ranked acquisition research queue for a specific county + asset class + buy box.

Example:

You say: “Show me self-storage / MHC / RV park / 5–50 unit multifamily properties in X county that fit my criteria.”

The product would rank properties and show:

- why the property is in the queue

- what source evidence supports it

- what still needs verification

- what the next research action should be

Important: I’m not trying to build a “motivated seller” score or claim seller intent. More like: “this record is worth an analyst’s time because the property/entity/source pattern is interesting, but here’s what still needs to be verified before outreach.”

Questions:

1. Do you already build target lists manually for off-market CRE?
2. What records do you check before deciding a property is worth outreach?
3. Would you rather have a ranked research queue or just raw searchable data?
4. What would make you trust or distrust a tool like this?
5. Which asset class would this be most useful for: self-storage, MHC, RV/campgrounds, or small multifamily?

Trying to figure out whether this is a real workflow pain or just something that sounds useful in theory. Let me know if you're interested in trying it out for free.

My employment contract requires written consent from my employer for any side business or self-employment. For those who have started a startup while employed, did you actually disclose and get consent, or just operate quietly and deal with it if it ever came up? And did you incorporate while at your W2?

There is a separate IP clause in the contract that does say they are only entitled to inventions I make during work hours on work devices. And the startup is in an unrelated industry to my current work.

My employment contract requires written consent from my employer for any side business or self-employment. For those running side ventures while still W2'd — did you actually disclose and get consent, or just operate quietly and deal with it if it ever came up? And did you incorporate while at your W2?

My employment contract requires written consent from my employer for any side business or self-employment. For those running side ventures while still W2'd — did you actually disclose and get consent, or just operate quietly and deal with it if it ever came up? And did you incorporate while at your W2?

If so, what was your experience?