9. Building an Acquisitions Model from Scratch

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is the 14th course in the 16-course Accelerator, and the first of three capstone courses. In this case-based course, you will put in practice what you learned in the previous courses to build an institutional-quality, single-tenant acquisition model from scratch.

In this course you will rely heavily on the following concepts learned from previous Accelerator courses:

1. Use the inputs –> calculation modules –> outputs concept to build a fully dynamic real estate model
2. Create a direct cap pro forma to derive a purchase price
3. Model operating cash flows, applying appropriate growth rate, recovery percentage, and vacancy assumptions
4. Create a direct cap pro forma to derive a reversion value
5. Layer in debt, modeling debt service, loan payoff, and various risk metrics
6. Build a discounted cash flow model, summing to unlevered and levered net cash flow lines
7. Calculate property-level return metrics
8. Model a partnership waterfall to arrive at partnership-level returns
9. Use proper formatting and layout convention

CASE DESCRIPTION – 10000 Fitness Way

You own a small real estate investment firm. Your firm, consisting of just you and an administrative assistant, largely sticks to a value-add multifamily investment strategy. Over the past nine years, you have bought and sold 12 class B and C multifamily properties totally over 1200 multifamily units. Your strategy has been simple. Buy underperforming, older apartment projects in good locations, renovate 70% – 80% of the units, and then sell the properties at a profit.

However, as the cycle has matured, it has become ever more difficult to find profitable apartment flips. You are now convinced the market has reached peak pricing and you’re considering putting your gains into a more conservative long-term strategy while you wait for the buying opportunities to return.

In addition to placing your own capital in a longer term real estate play, you have limited partners from previous deals who are anxious to redeploy their capital. You worry that if you don’t find a smart opportunity or two in the next 6-12 months, they may place their capital elsewhere.

This evening you head to a local CCIM networking event. There, you bump into your old friend and former classmate from business school, Trey Fishman. Trey mentions that he is about to bring to market a great single-tenant acquisition opportunity. The tenant, a BBB-rated fitness operator, recently signed a 15-year absolute NNN lease with 2% annual rent bumps. He remarks that this asset would be a great place to park capital through a market downturn.

You’re intrigued. While you don’t have direct experience in retail, the single-tenant NNN nature of the lease would make managing this asset simple. Which in turn would both allow you to place a portion of your capital in a steady investment and still have time to seek opportunistic investments.

He offers to send you the book, and you gladly accept.

PROPERTY TYPE

• Retail; most concepts apply to all property types

SOFTWARE RECOMMENDED/REQUIRED

• While we recommend using Microsoft Excel, as that is the industry standard, this course will work with most other spreadsheet software such as Google Sheets and OpenOffice Calc
• This course was built using the Google Chrome browser, thus we recommend you use Google Chrome for optimal view experience
• This course is best taken on a desktop computer, although the platform is compatible with tablet and mobile devices

EXCEL PROFICIENCY REQUIREMENT

• The course assumes you have at least a basic proficiency working with Microsoft Excel