Question 1

What is a virtual data room?

Accepted Answer

A virtual data room is a secure online workspace used to share confidential documents with external parties during a deal. In commercial real estate, it is where acquisition teams share offering memorandums, rent rolls, T-12 operating statements, inspection reports, and lender packages with investors, buyers, and lenders. MotionCRE builds virtual data rooms into every deal workspace so you can share a curated subset of files with access controls, expiration dates, and a full audit log of every view and download.

Question 2

What goes in a data room for commercial real estate?

Accepted Answer

A commercial real estate data room typically includes the offering memorandum, current rent roll, T-12 trailing twelve-month operating statements, historical financials, property condition reports, environmental Phase I and II reports, title commitment, lease abstracts and estoppels, tax records, insurance policies, lender quotes, and the pro forma underwriting model. The exact contents depend on the deal stage. A sourcing data room is lighter than a full due diligence data room, which is lighter than a closing package. See the stage-by-stage breakdown above.

Question 3

What is the best virtual data room software for commercial real estate?

Accepted Answer

The best virtual data room software for commercial real estate is the one built specifically for CRE deal workflows. Generic enterprise data room providers like Intralinks, Datasite, Firmex, and SmartRoom are feature-rich but priced for M&A and private equity transactions with annual contracts starting in the five figures. MotionCRE includes unlimited data rooms on every plan starting at $249 per month, organized around the CRE deal as a first-class object so the same documents you use for underwriting are already in place when you create a data room for a lender or investor.

Question 4

How much does a virtual data room cost?

Accepted Answer

Traditional enterprise virtual data rooms like Intralinks, Datasite, and Firmex typically cost $15,000 to $50,000 or more per year on annual contracts, with setup fees and per-user pricing layered on top. Budget providers and per-deal services can run $500 to $3,000 per deal. MotionCRE includes unlimited data rooms in every plan. Team is $249 per month for 3 users, Plus is $399 per month for 5 users, and Power is $699 per month for 10 users. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial with full access.

Question 5

What is the difference between a data room and a deal room?

Accepted Answer

In commercial real estate the terms are often used interchangeably. Data room typically refers to the document-sharing workspace used during due diligence, while deal room is broader and can include the pipeline view, the workspace holding all deal context, and the external-sharing surface. MotionCRE uses both concepts: the deal workspace is where your team works internally, and a data room is a scoped external view of that workspace shared with a specific lender, investor, or partner.

Question 6

How do you create a CRE data room in MotionCRE?

Accepted Answer

From inside any deal workspace, click Share and create a new data room. Select the files and folders to include, choose which deal economics fields to expose, set a password or leave the link open, pick an expiration date, and invite the external party by email. The entire setup takes under two minutes. You can update the file selection, add new parties, or revoke access at any time without affecting the underlying deal workspace.

Question 7

Is MotionCRE's data room secure enough for institutional lenders?

Accepted Answer

Documents are stored in encrypted cloud storage with per-workspace access control. Only the specific team members and external parties you invite can see the data room. Access is audit-logged at the file level so you can see every view, every download, and the IP address of every session. Access can be revoked in one click and all expired links return a 404 without leaking metadata. For institutional lenders who require additional security review, the underlying infrastructure is standard S3 encryption at rest with TLS in transit.

Question 8

Can I use MotionCRE as a data room for investor pitches?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Many GPs use MotionCRE as the data room for LP meetings and investor pitches. You create a data room scoped to the subset of deal documents the LP should see, send the link with a password, and track exactly which files the LP opens and when. The audit trail is useful for follow-up conversations because you know which materials the investor engaged with before the call.

Question 9

How is MotionCRE different from Intralinks, Datasite, or Firmex?

Accepted Answer

Intralinks, Datasite, and Firmex are mature enterprise virtual data room platforms built primarily for M&A and private equity transactions. They are feature-deep and priced accordingly. MotionCRE is a commercial real estate deal management system with data rooms built in. The value is not the data room in isolation. It is that the same workspace where you run underwriting, track DD, and manage financing also generates the data rooms for external parties. The documents are already organized and current, not pulled together from folders at the last minute.

Question 10

Do MotionCRE data rooms support due diligence workflows?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Data rooms integrate with the deal workspace's DD task list, so the document upload that satisfies a DD task is also the document available in the data room. When the lender asks for the updated rent roll, uploading it to the deal task automatically makes it available to every data room that includes rent rolls. No duplicate uploads, no stale versions, no manual sync work.

Question 11

Can I track who has viewed my data room?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every data room has a real-time activity log showing which parties have opened the link, which files they viewed, which they downloaded, and when each event occurred. The log includes IP address and session duration. You can see at a glance which lender is actively reviewing the package and which one has not opened it since Tuesday.

Question 12

What should a CRE data room for investors include?

Accepted Answer

An investor-facing CRE data room should include the offering memorandum or investment summary, the pro forma and underwriting model, the rent roll and T-12 operating statements, property photos and site maps, the property condition report and environmental reports, lease abstracts and tenant information, sponsor track record and bios, proposed capital stack and returns sensitivity, and any market research backing the thesis. The investor wants to see the deal the way the sponsor sees it. The data room is where that shared view lives.

Capability	MotionCRE	Intralinks	Datasite	Firmex
CRE-native workflow	Yes	No	No	No
Included with deal management	Yes	No	No	No
AI document analysis	Yes	No	No	No
Unlimited data rooms	Yes	Per-deal pricing	Per-deal pricing	Per-deal pricing
Password + expiration + audit log	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Setup time	Minutes	Days	Days	Hours
Annual contract required	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Starting price	$249/mo	$15K+/yr	$30K+/yr	Per-deal

The commercial real estate deal room, built into your deal workspace

What goes in a commercial real estate data room

Sourcing

Underwriting

Due diligence

Closing

Create a data room in minutes

Share it with anyone, anywhere

The best data room for investors and LPs

GP to LP sharing

Lender packages

Co-invest pitches

Track, manage, and revoke access anytime

Virtual data room software comparison

Virtual data room software pricing

How to create a CRE data room in MotionCRE

Open your deal

Click Share, create a new data room

Select files and deal fields to include

Set access controls

Share and track

Three levels of access control

Anyone with the link

Password protected

Invite only

Everything included

Common questions