CoStar Real Estate Manager is where a corporate real estate team runs lease administration and ASC 842 accounting, but every lease still has to be read and turned into structured fields before it can be loaded. That abstraction is the slow part. Upload any commercial lease and get the base rent and rent schedule, the commencement and possession dates, the options and critical dates, and the CAM and recovery terms pulled into clean fields, each citing its source page, then export them mapped to the CoStar import template. Free to try, no demo, no minimum lease count.
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CoStar Real Estate Manager needs each lease abstracted into fields before it can run administration and accounting on it. There is more than one way to do that abstraction, and they differ on how fast you get data in, whether you can test the output yourself first, and who the approach fits. Each row states the method, its speed, whether you can try it self-serve, and who it suits.
| Method | Speed | Self-serve / free to try | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LeaseAbstractors This tool | AI abstraction, then export to the CoStar import template | Minutes per lease | Yes, free, no demo | Teams that want to fill CoStar fast and check the output first |
| CoStar abstraction service | Managed, human abstraction and data validation by CoStar teams | Days to weeks per batch | No, sales-led engagement | Large one-time migrations you want fully outsourced |
| Visual Lease AI engine (CoStar-owned) | AI lease scanning powered by CoStar's Lease LLM | Fast once implemented | Sales-led / demo | Existing Visual Lease or CoStar accounts |
| Manual data entry | Staff read each lease and key the fields by hand | Slow and error-prone | Not applicable | Very small portfolios only |
CoStar Real Estate Manager, Visual Lease, and CoStar's abstraction service reflect each company's public product information. CoStar acquired Visual Lease in a deal that closed in November 2024. CoStar does not publish pricing; treat any third-party figure as unverified.
CoStar Real Estate Manager runs on the same fields every lease administration and ASC 842 calculation needs. The job is to pull them out of the lease accurately, tie each to its source, and hand them over in a shape CoStar can import.
The dates CoStar keys every schedule and notice off, including possession, commencement, and rent start, extracted and separated so the accounting starts on the right day.
The full stepped rent schedule, escalations, and free rent, structured period by period so the amortization CoStar builds matches the lease.
Renewal, termination, expansion, and purchase options with their notice windows, pulled into dated fields so no option lapses after the data is loaded.
The operating expense recovery method, base year or expense stop, caps, and pro rata share, so the reconciliation CoStar runs is set up right.
CoStar lets you define the fields you capture and add unlimited custom ones. Export your abstract to Excel or CSV and map it to whatever field set your CoStar instance uses.
Each extracted value links to the page and clause it came from, so the person loading CoStar can verify a number in seconds instead of rereading the lease.
From a lease PDF to a CoStar-ready file, with a source citation on every field so review is fast and the load does not reject.
Add the base lease plus every amendment, renewal, and side letter. Scans and older documents are fine.
The model returns the possession and commencement dates, the base rent and rent schedule, the options and critical dates, and the CAM and recovery terms as structured fields.
Each field links to its source page, so you confirm the rent steps and option dates in minutes and fix anything before it reaches CoStar.
Download an Excel or CSV file, line the columns up with your CoStar Real Estate Manager import template or custom fields, and load it through the data import tool.
Last updated July 2026. What CoStar lease abstraction means, whether CoStar does it for you, how lease data gets into CoStar Real Estate Manager, and how to speed up the part that actually slows a rollout.
CoStar lease abstraction is the work of reading each commercial lease and turning its key terms into the structured fields that CoStar Real Estate Manager needs to run lease administration and ASC 842 accounting. Those fields include the possession and commencement dates, the base rent and full rent schedule, the renewal and termination options with their notice dates, and the CAM and operating expense recovery terms. CoStar Real Estate Manager is the system of record; the abstraction is what fills it. You can do that abstraction with CoStar's own managed service, with AI, or by hand, but the data still has to be accurate and tied to the lease, because every schedule and journal entry CoStar produces is only as good as the fields it was loaded with. The field set is the same one captured on the commercial lease abstract template.
Yes, in two ways. CoStar has a long-standing managed lease abstraction and data validation service where its teams read the leases and populate the fields for you, which fits a large one-time migration you want fully outsourced. Separately, since CoStar acquired Visual Lease in a deal that closed in November 2024, Visual Lease offers AI lease scanning powered by CoStar's Lease LLM. Both are sales-led: you engage a team or buy the platform first. What neither is, is a free self-serve tool you can point at one lease to check the output before you commit. That is the gap LeaseAbstractors fills. Upload a lease, see the abstract in minutes, and export it to load into CoStar yourself, then decide. The background on the acquisition is covered in what CoStar buying Visual Lease means.
You abstract each lease into the fields CoStar expects, put them in a spreadsheet that matches your CoStar import template, and load it through the platform's data import tool. CoStar lets each customer define the fields captured and add unlimited custom fields, so the exact columns depend on your instance, but the core set is always the same: possession and commencement dates, rent start, the stepped base rent schedule, option periods with notice dates, and the recovery terms. The two things that make a load stall are dates that were never separated cleanly and rent steps that do not reconcile to the lease. Abstracting to a source-linked file first means you catch both before the import. The full walkthrough is in how to import lease data into CoStar Real Estate Manager.
Yes. AI abstraction reads the lease and returns the CoStar fields as structured data far faster than keying them by hand, and a good tool cites the source page for every value so a reviewer can verify rather than retype. The accuracy that matters is on the fields CoStar runs accounting on: the commencement date, the rent schedule, and the option notice dates. Every accuracy figure published in this category is self-reported, so the honest test is to run your own worst-scanned lease through a tool and check those specific fields against the document. LeaseAbstractors does this free with no demo, and the same engine handles the whole portfolio through the lease abstraction software, including the critical date extraction CoStar keys its notices off.
CoStar Real Estate Manager is built primarily for the tenant and corporate occupier side: enterprise real estate teams, retailers, restaurants, and office tenants managing their own leased locations and the ASC 842, IFRS 16, and GASB 87 accounting that goes with them. Landlords and owners more often run a property management and accounting platform like Yardi Voyager instead, which is why getting data into each system is a slightly different job. LeaseAbstractors abstracts from either side of the lease, so a tenant loading CoStar and an owner loading a property system pull the same terms from the same document. The owner-side equivalent is covered on Yardi lease abstraction.
It is the opposite job. A CoStar Real Estate Manager alternative is for a team deciding whether to run CoStar at all. This page is for a team that already runs CoStar, or is implementing it, and needs the leases abstracted and loaded. LeaseAbstractors is not a lease accounting system and does not replace what CoStar does with the data once it is in; it is the fast, self-serve abstraction layer that fills CoStar with accurate, source-linked fields. If you are still choosing a system, the alternative page and the best lease abstraction software roundup compare the options; if you have chosen CoStar, this is how you get your leases into it without waiting on a managed abstraction engagement.
Still have questions? Our team is happy to help.
Talk to our teamYes, through a managed human abstraction and data validation service, and through Visual Lease's AI lease scanning powered by CoStar's Lease LLM after CoStar acquired Visual Lease in 2024. Both are sales-led rather than a free self-serve tool you can test on one lease first.
Abstract each lease into the CoStar fields, put them in a spreadsheet matching your CoStar import template, and load it through the platform's data import tool. Clean, separated dates and a rent schedule that reconciles to the lease are what keep the load from rejecting.
The core set is possession and commencement dates, rent start, the stepped base rent schedule, renewal and termination options with notice dates, and the CAM and recovery terms. CoStar lets you define your own fields and add unlimited custom ones on top.
Yes. AI returns the CoStar fields as structured data far faster than manual entry, and a source-linked tool lets a reviewer verify each value against the lease page. Check the commencement date, rent schedule, and option dates on your own worst scan before trusting any accuracy claim.
Primarily tenants and corporate occupiers: enterprise real estate teams, retailers, restaurants, and office tenants managing leased locations and their ASC 842, IFRS 16, and GASB 87 accounting. Owners more often use a property management platform like Yardi Voyager.
Yes. CoStar Group acquired Visual Lease in a deal announced in October 2024 that closed in November 2024. Visual Lease is now the vehicle for CoStar's AI lease abstraction, marketed as scanning powered by CoStar's Lease LLM.
CoStar does not publish pricing; it is quote and demo only. Third-party directory figures conflict with each other and should be treated as unverified. LeaseAbstractors is free to try with no demo, so you can abstract a lease before committing to any system.
For teams deciding whether to run CoStar at all.
Learn moreThe owner-side equivalent, abstracting into Yardi Voyager.
Learn moreThe field set CoStar imports.
Learn moreThe option and notice dates CoStar keys its alerts off.
Learn moreThe accounting CoStar runs once the data is loaded.
Learn moreThe full overview of our AI lease abstraction tool.
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