Tech-Savvy San Francisco Broker, at the Tender Age of 83, Wins $25,000 for Being CoStar's Millionth Listing
by Randyl Drummer Cyrus Weiss was on the bus in downtown San Francisco when he got the call from CoStar Group, Inc. The caller said a century-old building he listed this week on CoStar was the record one millionth listing in the commercial real estate information provider’s online database.
"I was overwhelmed," said Weiss, 83, who describes himself as one of the oldest active real estate brokers in America. "I didn’t believe them at first. But it's been a delightful series of events."
Those events unfolded quickly soon after Weiss added his newly listed retail/office property on San Francisco's Lombard Street to CoStar's real estate information platform. By Thursday, Weiss received a visit from CoStar Group (Nasdaq: CSGP) founder and CEO Andrew C. Florance, who thanked Weiss for being a longtime customer and informed him that, by virtue his listing being the one-millionth added to CoStar's online information system, he had won a new Toyota Prius hybrid car.
There was just one hitch. Weiss no longer drives. But being a broker and experienced at thinking quickly on his feet, he asked Mr. Florance if the company would consider awarding his prize in the equivalent of CoStar stock. The company agreed to deposit $25,000 into an account of Weiss’s choosing, which he will use to purchase CoStar shares.
The 1 million-plus listings represents an all-time high-water mark for CoStar, and is believed to be the largest number of commercial real estate listings ever assembled by a single information provider. Florance said the record listings underscores how far the industry has progressed from primarily a paper-based information exchange to a sophisticated, more-efficient, and more-transparent digital marketplace.
"CoStar pioneered the concept of commercial real estate firms outsourcing their property information functions 20 years ago, fundamentally changing the way commercial real estate professionals access, use and share property information," he said. "The astounding number of listings being accessed today across CoStar’s information platform throughout the U.S. and U.K. is a clear indication of how far the industry has changed from the outmoded and inefficient exchange of paper-based information to the greater efficiency, increased productivity and cost-savings that accrue to brokers who use CoStar."
Weiss is a product of that paper-based era, but he’s no technophobe. The longtime CoStar client logs onto the service daily, asserting that "it’s invaluable" as a tool of his trade for research.
"I hit [CoStar] a minimum of two or three times a day," he said. "As a broker, you need all the help you can get today. CoStar provides many, many tools. Business is not as it was, and you need to get out and hustle. Otherwise, you’re not going to survive in this fast ballgame."
The World War II and U.S. Coast Guard veteran first "retired" 13 years ago after a successful sales career. But he acknowledges that he "almost went nuts." Weiss called his friend John Ritchie, president and founder of San Francisco-based brokerage Ritchie Commercial. Thus begin a new career in commercial real estate.
Weiss was in his early 70s.
"I love working downtown and being with the young people; it’s very therapeutic," said Weiss, who still volunteers with the Coast Guard Auxiliary and is a ham radio operator, business broker and former chess promoter who years ago tried to bring a championship match between Boris Spassky and the late Bobby Fischer to San Francisco. Like many San Franciscans, "I don’t take a car to work and live in a three-story walkup flat. I do a lot of walking."
Weiss’s listing is a three-level storefront retail and office building at 1674-76 Lombard St. in San Francisco, built in 1908, two years after the devastating earthquake and fire. Thus, with a single call to a CoStar researcher, a listing for one of the oldest buildings in the city by one of the oldest brokers was made almost instantly available to CoStar’s online audience through the new CoStar Showcase, including the 1.3 million unique visitors who go to www.CoStar.com each quarter for information and industry news. --------- 
About CoStar Group, Inc.
CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP) is the leading provider of information services to commercial real estate professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom. CoStar's suite of services offers customers access via the Internet to the most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information on 66 major U.S. markets and the United Kingdom. Based in Bethesda, MD, the Company has approximately 1,000 employees throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, including the largest professional research organization in the industry. Article used by permission. Copyright 2008 CoStar Group.
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