How to Extract Rent Roll from OM into Excel Using AI

Extracting rent rolls from offering memorandums is one of those tasks everyone in CRE hates—but does constantly.

You open the PDF, squint at the formatting, manually copy data into Excel, fix the columns that broke, double-check the numbers, and 30 minutes later, you’ve got a usable spreadsheet.

I found a way to do it in about 30 seconds. No exaggeration.

Using Claude Desktop with a voice command shortcut, I extracted a rent roll from a Taylor Vacan OM (shoutout to our boy—best brokers in the business) and had a clean Excel file before I finished explaining the process to someone watching.

Here’s the full breakdown of how it works and how you can set it up yourself.

The Old Way vs. the AI Way

Everyone reading this knows the old way. You get an OM as a PDF. You scroll to the rent roll. And you try to copy the table. Half the columns break.

You spend 20–30 minutes:

• Reformatting in Excel

• Fixing merged cells

• Re-entering numbers that got garbled

• Praying you didn’t miss a unit

For a 7-unit property, it’s annoying. For a 300-unit deal, it’s a full afternoon.

The AI Way

You:

1. Open the OM on your screen

2. Hit a voice command

3. Say:

   “Extract the rent roll and put it into Excel.”

4. Send a screenshot

Claude builds the spreadsheet.

The 7-unit property I tested took seconds. It was literally finished before I could explain what was happening.

The Workflow: Step by Step

Here’s exactly what I did.

1) Opened the OM on My Screen

I had a Taylor Vacan offering memorandum open and scrolled to the rent roll page. Nothing fancy. Just the document is visible on my monitor.

2) Hit My Voice Shortcut (Option + C)

I set up Option + C as a global keyboard shortcut for Claude Desktop. One press, and Claude is ready to listen.

(I covered how to set this up in another post—it takes about 2 minutes.)

3) Said My Instructions Out Loud

“Please extract the rent roll here and put it into an Excel file.”

That’s it. Spoken in normal, conversational English.

4) Sent a Screenshot

At the top left of Claude Desktop, there’s an option to send a screenshot with your message.

I clicked it, selected the window, and hit Send.

5) Claude Did the Rest

Claude:

• Read the screenshot

• Identified the rent roll data

• Activated its Excel skill

• Built the spreadsheet

By the time I looked back at the screen, it was already finished.

6) Downloaded the File

One click to download. Opened it in Excel. Clean data. Proper columns. Ready to use.

Why This Works So Well for CRE Document Extraction

The magic is the combination of voice commands and screenshots.

Uploading files works, but it adds steps:

• Find the file

• Drag it in

• Wait for the upload

• Type the prompt

With voice + screenshot:

• You’re already looking at the document

• You talk about what you see

• Claude matches your instruction to the screen

It feels natural and fast.

The Excel Skill Is the Other Key

I set up a Claude skill that tells it:

• How to format Excel outputs

• Proper column headers

• Clean formatting

• Correct data types

Because of that, every extraction comes out ready to use—no manual cleanup.

Scaling This to Bigger Properties

My demo used a 7-unit property. Fast job. But the same workflow works on much larger deals.

100-Unit Properties

• Send multiple screenshots (one per rent roll page)

• Say:

  “Extract the rent roll from these pages and combine into one Excel file.”

Claude stitches everything together.

300-Unit Deals

Same process. Same voice command. It takes longer to process—but the workflow doesn’t change. And this isn’t limited to rent rolls.

This also works for:

• P&L extraction

• Operating statements

• Unit mix summaries

• Any structured data trapped inside a PDF

What You Need to Get Started

Just four things:

1. Claude Desktop (download from Anthropic)

2. A keyboard shortcut set up for voice commands (I use Option + C)

3. The Excel skill is configured in Claude (optional, but highly recommended)

4. Any document you want to extract data from

Initial setup takes about 5 minutes. After that, every extraction is a 30-second process.

Time Savings Add Up Fast

One rent roll extraction saves 20–30 minutes.

Do that five times a week:

• 2+ hours saved

Over a month:

• That’s a full workday back

And that’s just rent rolls. Add P&Ls, lease abstracts, and operating statements, and the time savings compound quickly. The voice command part makes it feel effortless. You don’t even think about it. You just talk to your computer—and the data shows up in Excel.

Try It Yourself

Set up the voice shortcut, open your next OM, and give it a shot. I’m consistently impressed by how clean the outputs are—especially once the Excel skill is configured.

If you want the full video demo and the exact skill file I use, join the AI for CRE Collective. I post these workflows with everything you need to replicate them.