The Latest Adventures in CRE Initiatives
As has been our habit since starting Adventures in CRE a few years back, we try to keep our readers updated on our progress and direction. Many of you have been with us since the start and we’ve personally communicated with hundreds of you. So we think its important to regularly cue you in on the various A.CRE initiatives we’re working on. Well, Michael came to Dallas last weekend to visit and discuss where we should focus our efforts in the coming months, so allow me to share what we have planned for the rest of the year.
Michael Belasco left, and Spencer Burton, right – September 2017 – Dallas, TX
A.CRE’s Three Areas of Focus
Adventures in CRE’s focus has always been on sharing quality content around three main areas our readers care most about: 1) learning and using advanced concepts in real estate financial modeling, 2) researching and gaining admission to top graduate real estate and business programs, and 3) preparing for and advancing your career in commercial real estate. Any initiative we undertake generally falls into one of those three categories, with a few exceptions of course.
Going forward, that focus will not change. We hope that the initiatives we have underway and the new initiatives we have planned, will help you be a better commercial real estate professional.
New Initiatives for the Coming Months
A.CRE 101 Series. Up until now, we’ve generally endeavored to share advanced concepts in real estate financial modeling (e.g. stochastic modeling, limitations of IRR in CRE, comprehensive real estate DCF in Excel, etc). This is what we find most interesting and what we’ve seen to be missing from the public domain. Unfortunately, this has come at the expense of the beginner and intermediate content – the Real Estate Glossary perhaps being the one exception – that many of our readers are asking for. And so, to fill the void and provide more of the building blocks necessary to grasp the more complex concepts, we’ve started building out an A.CRE 101 – Basic Concepts in Commercial Real Estate series.
A Day in the Life of a CRE Professional (Coming Soon). You will soon begin to see posts entitled: A Day in the Life of an XYZ Professional. This series will offer our readers, insights into various commercial real estate jobs. The series will profile real professionals, describe what they do on a daily basis, and what it takes in terms of education and skillset to land a job in their area. Michael and I are currently reaching out to individuals to develop this series – if you’d like to share what you do in commercial real estate and what it takes to get there, please get in touch.
Revise and Refresh Old Posts. Our early content could use an update! In the coming months, we’ll be refreshing our years old content, adding new videos and updated models, and making it more relevant to today. These renovated posts will reappear on the home page so that our readers can check out what’s changed and been improved.
Existing Initiatives at Adventures in CRE
In addition to the new initiatives, we will continue to focus on the current projects we’re working on.
Ai1 Updates and Improvements. I’ll continue to regularly update the All-in-One (Ai1) model, our most comprehensive real estate development and acquisition model available. Please continue to provide feedback and alert me to bugs via the Ai1 Support Forum as I work to improve the model.
A.CRE Job Board. We update our commercial real estate job board daily with some of the best jobs in the industry. If you or your firm has a qualified job opening you’d like to share for free with our targeted audience of CRE professionals, post the job here or email it to us and we’ll post it for you.
Glossary of CRE Terms. With the help of UNC MBA, Matthew de Klerk, we’re building a robust glossary of commercial real estate terms. The glossary currently stands at 122 terms and is growing weekly.
Series on MBA and MS Programs in Real Estate. Thanks to the help from many of you, to date we’ve profiled 12 of the top Masters in Real Estate and MBA in Real Estate Programs in the United States. Several are in progress and you’ll see those published in the coming weeks, but we want to add more. If your school’s not on the list and you’d like to help, or you’re at one of the profiled schools and you’d like to contribute something fresh, let us know.
Library of Real Estate Excel Models. As time permits, we continue to share new models and update existing ones. For example, Michael just added a 3-tiered waterfall to his Condo Development model and I shared a pro forma for flipping houses.
Your Support Helps Keep the Content Coming
In addition to the above, on occasion we just post what’s on our mind. When we learn a new concept or come across an idea we’d like to share, we do. All of this is on account of your support. Support varies from messages of encouragement, to financial support via purchasing a model; from requests to connect on LinkedIn, to new content you create for the site. Your involvement keeps Michael and I motivated and engaged. So keep it coming and thank you!
And of course, if you’d like to share insights, offer suggestions, or just say hello, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Note however that we’re busy, and so if you don’t hear from us in a few days don’t fret, we will get back to you.
