CoStar prices out most boutique CRE firms. And most boutique firms only use 20 percent of what they pay for.
Every boutique CRE broker has had this conversation. CoStar quote comes in at $1,500 to $2,500 per broker per month. Firm has 8 brokers. That is $12,000 to $20,000 per month, $144,000 to $240,000 per year, for a subscription the team uses maybe two hours per broker per week. Meanwhile the deals happen in Outlook, comps live in spreadsheets, and the CRM is a contact database nobody trusts.
According to publicly available reporting from real estate industry sources including Bisnow's coverage of CoStar pricing, per-user costs vary widely by market and firm size but frequently land in the $600 to $2,000 per user per month range for full access. For boutique firms, that spend is often the largest single line item after payroll.
What CoStar actually does well
Credit where it is due. CoStar's dataset is unmatched. Property records, ownership data, tenant rosters, historical comps at scale, particularly for major metros. If your firm's deal volume justifies the spend, CoStar is a legitimate tool. But most boutique firms with 3 to 15 brokers doing regional deal flow do not need or use most of what CoStar sells.
Where boutique firms actually lose money without CoStar
The three real needs are: comps for pricing and negotiation, market intelligence for prospecting, and deal management for the active pipeline. CoStar addresses one and a half of those. Deal management is a separate tool (usually AscendixRE or REthink), and market intelligence for boutique regional work is often better sourced from local relationships than CoStar's national dataset.
So a boutique firm ends up paying CoStar for comps they only use occasionally, then paying AscendixRE or Salesforce for the CRM, then paying Excel to manage the actual pipeline because the CRM does not model deal flow.
What MiOpsAI does instead
MiOpsAI is an operations platform built for how boutique CRE firms actually work. Deal flow is native (not sales-pipeline forced onto CRE reality). Comps come from your own closed deals stored as structured data automatically, plus you can integrate with third-party comps providers if needed. Market intelligence flows from your active deal pipeline, which is often the freshest data your firm has anyway.
Seven AI chairs run alongside your team. Lizzi handles the inbox including landlord and tenant correspondence (included free). Marcus tracks prospecting pipeline and re-engages cold contacts with targeted outreach. Milo manages active-deal coordination from LOI to lease execution. Jerry handles data integrations, comps management, and market data. Julia reviews leases and LOIs. Mac tracks commissions including multi-party splits. Sally handles property marketing and BOV production. Additional chairs are $250 per month each.
The comps solution for firms without CoStar
Every closed lease or sale your team touches becomes structured comp data automatically. Property type, submarket, square footage, rent per SF, term, TI allowance, tenant concessions, escalators, all captured from the deal record. Over 12 to 18 months, a boutique firm accumulates hundreds of comps that are actually relevant to their submarkets and asset classes.
When a broker needs comps for a new tenant rep engagement or listing, Jerry searches the firm's comp library in seconds. Filter by submarket, size range, asset class, and date range. Export to a client-ready comp package or embed directly in a BOV that Sally drafts.
MiOpsAI versus CoStar plus a separate CRM
| Capability | CoStar + CRM | MiOpsAI |
|---|---|---|
| Per-user monthly cost | $800 to $2,400 | Flat firm plans |
| Comps from your own deals | Manual, in spreadsheets | Automatic, structured data |
| National property dataset | Extensive (CoStar strength) | Via integration where needed |
| Deal flow management | Separate CRM tool | Native, phase-based |
| AI on every email | Not included | Lizzi drafts every reply |
| Lease review AI | Not included | Julia flags every clause |
The economics for a 10-broker boutique firm
A 10-broker boutique firm on CoStar at $1,500 per broker plus AscendixRE at $100 per broker plus attorney fees for lease review at $60,000 to $150,000 per year is spending $240,000 to $360,000 per year on tools and legal review that a full operations platform can consolidate.
Moving to MiOpsAI can reduce that spend by 60 to 75 percent while adding capabilities like AI drafting, phase-based deal management, lease review, and commission tracking that were either add-ons or missing entirely. The bigger win is broker productivity. If each broker gains 6 to 10 hours per week of deal capacity from reduced administrative work, that alone justifies the switch several times over.
When you should stay on CoStar
MiOpsAI is not the right answer for every CRE firm. If your firm needs institutional-grade national property data for underwriting, deep tenant roster intelligence, or historical ownership records at national scale, CoStar remains the gold standard. Large firms doing national portfolios, REITs, and institutional advisory work often need both platforms. MiOpsAI plus CoStar (via API integration) works too.
The firms MiOpsAI serves best are boutique regional firms with 3 to 25 brokers doing deal flow that CoStar is overkill for. That is where the spend disparity is greatest and the operations gain is highest.
Related reading
See our CRE deal flow management page for the operations platform view, or our AI lease review page for how Julia handles leases.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can we integrate CoStar with MiOpsAI if we keep our subscription?
Yes. Firms that need CoStar's dataset can integrate via CoStar API. Property records and comps flow into MiOpsAI deal records automatically. Some firms keep CoStar for national data while using MiOpsAI for deal flow, comps management, and AI operations.
How long does it take to build up our own comp library?
Comps accumulate immediately from every deal your team closes. Historical closed deals from the last 24 to 36 months can be imported during onboarding if you have the records. Most firms have a robust submarket-specific comp library within six months of active MiOpsAI use.
What about firms that focus on investment sales rather than leasing?
Investment sales workflows are supported. Deal phases include OM production, buyer outreach, offer solicitation, BOV review, PSA negotiation, DD coordination, and close. Mac handles complex commission structures common in investment sales including tail-end pay-outs and referral splits.
Does MiOpsAI work for CRE firms outside the US?MiOpsAI is available for firms in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and other English-speaking markets. Multi-currency and multi-jurisdiction support is available for international firms. Julia's lease review is calibrated for US commercial lease conventions by default and can be configured for UK, Canadian, or Australian lease structures.How does MiOpsAI handle data security for confidential deal information?
Every firm's data is tenant-isolated. No deal information is shared across firms, and MiOpsAI does not train models on customer data. MiOpsAI is working toward SOC 2 (on the 2026 roadmap) and runs on AWS infrastructure that is SOC 2 Type II certified. Encryption at rest and in transit is standard. NDAs and confidentiality agreements are supported at the deal record level.
What is the cancellation policy?
MiOpsAI requires 60-day written notice for cancellation. This gives both teams time to close active deals cleanly and export comp libraries without disruption. Given the multi-year nature of CRE deal flow, the 60-day window is essential for a clean transition.
If your boutique CRE firm is paying CoStar prices for enterprise features you barely use, it is time to consider an alternative built for how you actually operate. Request access to see MiOpsAI for your firm, review the full commercial real estate platform, or explore flat firm pricing.