Let's be honest: we love data. But how useful is it, really? The truth is numbers can lie, argues CPEX co-founder and managing partner Timothy King. He points out that even information like price per buildable SF, vacancy rates, and comps have many variables that can influence outcome. For instance, a motivated buyer or a specific location could make a difference in price that might not accurately reflect market value. There's also the issue of small or selective sample sizes. Services like CoStar offer more comprehensive research than most, but are still based on participating brokers, owners, and tenants, King says. It's important to really know the sources and methodology behind the statistics to truly be informed, especially since so many are using the same incomplete "data dump," because as King states, one in three statistics in commercial real estate is misleading. [CO]