Frequently Asked Questions

We have answers to your questions about markets, transactions and submittals.  

*Please note: We have made important changes concerning submissions, deadlines and our methodology. Please make sure to review these changes prior to submitting your deals.

Should I provide all 2011 transactions or just my best deals?
As the Power Broker award ranking is based upon 2011 transactions, we request that you provide all 2011 transaction information, not just top deal information.

What information do I need to submit?
For lease transactions, we require the building address, city, state, property type, square footage leased, floor or suite (if multi-tenant building), sign date, tenant move-in date, name of tenant, names of brokers involved, and notation of new lease, renewal, or sublease. If you are not restricted by a confidentiality agreement, please include the lease term and effective rent.

For sales transactions, we require building address, city, state, property type, rentable square footage of the building, date closed, sale price, buyer name, buyer broker company, buyer agents, sell name, seller broker company, seller agents, and notation of investment or owner/user sale.

If the sale was an investment, please send us the cap rate for the transaction (if it has one). If the sale was an owner/user, please send us the date the new owner is moving/moved in.

* In what format do I need to submit my transaction information? My company has a sheet with all of this information on it already. Can I send you that?
CoStar provides you with lease and sales transactions templates that will assist you in providing deal information in the appropriate Excel format. If you have your own sheet that has all of the required information, please transfer that information to the supplied Excel template. Please see How to Enter page for transaction templates.

In what markets will the awards be given?
The following is a list of markets in which the 2011 Power Broker awards will be given:
 
Western Region:  Albuquerque, Austin, Bakersfield, Boise City/Nampa, Colorado Springs, Denver, East Bay/Oakland, El Paso, Fresno, Hawaii, Inland Empire (California), Las Vegas, Little Rock/N. Little Rock, Los Angeles, Marin/Sonoma, Orange (California), Phoenix, Portland, Reno/Sparks, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle/Puget Sound, South Bay/San Jose, Stockton/Modesto, and Tucson.

Central Region:  Birmingham, Chicago, Cincinnati/Dayton, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas/Ft Worth, Des Moines, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Knoxville, Louisville, Memphis, Milwaukee/Madison, Minneapolis/St Paul, Mobile, Nashville, New Orleans/Metairie/Kenner, Oklahoma City, Omaha/Council Bluffs, Pittsburgh, Springfield, St. Louis, Toledo, Tulsa, and West Michigan.

Eastern Region:  Albany/Schenectady/Troy, Atlanta, Baltimore,  Baton Rouge, Boston, Buffalo/Niagara Falls, Charleston/N Charleston, Charlotte, Columbia (South Carolina), Greensboro/Winston-Salem, Greenville/Spartanburg, Hampton Roads, Hartford, Jacksonville (Florida), Long Island (New York), New York City, Northern New Jersey, Orlando, Pensacola/Ferry Pass/Brent, Philadelphia, Portland/South Portland, Providence, Raleigh/Durham, Richmond VA, Rochester, South Florida, Southwest Florida, Syracuse, Tallahassee, Tampa/St Petersburg, Washington DC, and Westchester/So. Connecticut.

I can’t make the deadline. Can I submit my transactions late?
No. In order to be fair to all participants, we will not accept any Power Broker submissions sent after 11:59pm PST on the February 1, 2012 deadline.

* What if I miss the February 1, 2012 Power Broker submission deadline?
If you miss this deadline, it is important to note that both you and your firm will still be considered for a 2011 CoStar Power Broker award. You and your firm are eligible for consideration based on the lease and sales transactions already in our database that CoStar Research confirmed and added throughout 2011. Our research associates continually monitor the market for transactions and add them as they happen. The details of these transactions are collected and confirmed from a variety of sources, including:

• Ongoing broker interviews to update current for lease and for sale listings
• Monitoring of local and national media sources for news articles written on significant transactions in your market
• Review of public record documents and corporate securities filings for lease and sale transactions
• Ongoing discussions with key research representatives at major brokerage firms and local market organizations
• Telephone interviews to identify and confirm sales comparables

Looking forward the 2012 CoStar Power Broker Awards, please help to build awareness about the deals you are doing by proactively informing your CoStar Research Associates about your transactions as they happen. 

How many awards do you give out? 
The number of awards given in each market is dependent upon the tier. In larger tier markets, 20 awards are given for the individual and company level. In middle tier markets, 15 and 10 are awarded, with other markets awarding three firms for leasing.

“I did 1,000,000 sf of deals,” did I win? “I did $1,000,000 worth of sales,” did I win?
The Power Broker Award acknowledges the top brokers and firms in each market in relationship to other brokers and firms within the market. There is no minimum threshold for receiving one.

If I send you my deals, can you tell me where I rank?
We cannot provide rankings throughout the submission process or in the final winner announcement. 

Can I just send you the total number of deals I did?
No. The required transaction information must be reviewed and verified by our internal research team.

I'm located in a market that quotes rents as per square foot per month. Do I need to convert contract rental rates to annual or can I submit monthly rents? Also, should I give them per square foot or as a total?
When submitting effective rents it is not required to convert monthly to annual rents (or vice versa); however, we do ask that you quote them consistently. Also, please quote rents as a per square foot value regardless of whether it is a monthly or a yearly rent.

How do you calculate winners?
On the lease side, deals are calculated primarily based upon square footage. On the sales side, winners are calculated based upon sales dollars. Only deals that occurred during the 2011 calendar year are considered. For more information, please view the methodology.

I represented both sides of a deal. Do I get credit for being on both sides?
CoStar understands that in some cases the broker will represent both parties involved in the transaction. In those cases, the entry is counted twice for the same transaction. For more information, please view the methodology.

Should I submit deals done outside of my home market? Will I be considered for awards in those markets as well?
You should submit deals outside of your home market, as CoStar counts deals conducted anywhere in the United States during the 2011 calendar year; however, they will all contribute towards the awards in your home market.

* Who is eligible to win an award?
The Power Broker Awards recognize third party brokerage. To be included in the 2011 Power Broker Awards, firms must be primarily in the business of brokerage, either as a tenant rep, a landlord rep or both. Firms that are primarily owners of real estate are excluded. If the agent is employed by the owner, property manager, asset manager, fund manager, or developer of the property, or if they or their firm have any direct or indirect ownership of a property, they will not be credited for that transaction. Brokerage agents and firms who lease properties for their own family members or corporate parents will not receive credit for transactions in those properties.

* If many of the brokers from my office were involved in a deal, will we all get credit?
Yes. CoStar gives credit to every broker involved in a deal—according to the new methodology, we divide the total credit by the number of brokers representing each client’s side of the deal. For example, a broker representing the tenant on a transaction with a total of three tenant representative brokers will receive credit for one-third the square footage of that deal. 

For sales transactions, the total sales dollar volume is calculated for each sale in which the individual represented the buyer, divided by the total number of brokers representing the buyer.

When submitting the deals, please make sure that all brokers are included on the same line of the spreadsheet. Please do not send the same deal twice.

Who do I send the completed transaction sheet to? Should I send this to my regular research contact?
No. Please send the completed transaction sheet to your Power Broker Regional Manager, which can be found by referencing the map on the How to Enter page.

* I changed firms at some point during 2011. What firm name will be on my plaque?
The firm that a broker is with as of 12/31/11 will be the company name appearing on the plaque. If the broker changes to another company after the 12/31/11 cut-off, the company name will still be the firm that the broker was with prior to the deadline.

I broke my plaque from a previous year. Can I get a new one?
Yes. Please email powerbrokers@costar.com to request a replacement.