Entries by Spencer Burton
ChatGPT Projects vs Custom GPTs (Dec 2024)
At A.CRE, we’re always on the lookout for tools that can streamline our workflow and make our jobs a little easier. As the AI space evolves, OpenAI has rolled out two features that we’ve been putting to work in our day-to-day operations: ChatGPT Projects and Custom GPTs. These two features have unlocked new ways for […]
Real Estate Equity Waterfall Model with Catch Up and Clawback (Updated Dec 2024)
A question came up recently in the A.CRE Accelerator’s real estate waterfall modeling course regarding how to model GP Catch Up (i.e. Sponsor Catch Up) and LP Clawback provisions. I put together a quick video tutorial in response to that question, and in doing so I realized I had never shared to A.CRE a real […]
Excel’s Stale Value Formatting: What It Means and Why It Matters
We recently received an email from an A.CRE reader using one of our real estate financial models with a curious question. He explained that many of the cells in his model suddenly had a strikethrough applied to the text. Naturally, he wondered if a macro had altered a setting in the model or if something […]
A.CRE Apartment Development Model (Updated Dec 2024)
For several years now, our library of real estate models has been lacking a robust ground-up apartment development model. Sure, our All-in-One (Ai1) model has the capability to model multifamily development deals, but it’s more a generalist tool than a specialized one. As a result, I’ve found it wanting when used to model developments. So a few […]
Best Practices in Real Estate Financial Modeling (Updated Nov 2024)
Before you use one of our real estate financial models (i.e. Excel templates), or before you set out to build your own real estate analysis tool in Excel, it’s important to keep in mind a few real estate financial modeling best practices. This list combines industry conventions for modeling in Excel, with various suggestions specific […]
Industrial Real Estate Development Model (Updated Nov 2024)
Allow me to share my Industrial Development Model in Excel. Over the past few years, I’ve been working to add more specialty real estate models to our library. While our All-in-One model certainly has its place, oftentimes really digging into the underwriting of a deal takes a hyper-focused tool. This model has spawned sister Office […]
How to Connect a Google Doc to Your Custom GPT: A Step-by-Step Guide
At A.CRE, we’re always exploring new ways to make our work more efficient for you and for us! Whether it’s building custom GPTs for real estate, experimenting with locally installed LLMs, or finding AI-specific tools for commercial real estate, we love to tinker. Recently, we hit on something we’ve been wanting for a while: a […]
Learning Real Estate Financial Modeling in Excel (Updated Oct 2024)
We’re often asked by our readers how we learned to be proficient in real estate financial modeling. The question usually arises because the person wants to know how to model real estate in Excel to either land a job in commercial real estate (e.g., private equity, development, acquisition, debt) or to analyze their own deals. […]
How the A.CRE AI Assistant Custom GPT is Built
This past week, we held our monthly ‘technical AMA‘ where I answer technical questions from the audience. These questions usually cover nuanced elements of real estate financial modeling or the application of artificial intelligence in real estate. And during this week’s session, we had a hearty discussion about our A.CRE AI Assistant GPT that our […]
Install an AI LLM on Your Computer: A Step-by-Step Guide
This week, I’ll be hosting my monthly A.CRE Ask Me Anything (AMA) where we dive into various technical topics, and AI in CRE often comes up. Last month, someone asked me to show the group how to install a Large Language Model (LLM) on their computer—essentially a personal ChatGPT that runs locally. So, I figured it […]
Watch Me Build a Dynamic Mortgage Amortization Table in Excel (Updated September 2024)
There are a few basic, yet fundamental, real estate modeling skills you must master before anyone will take you seriously as a real estate professional. Building a mortgage amortization schedule is one of them. Virtually every model you create will require this skill – or some variation of what you do when you build an amortization table. […]
Deep Dive – Land Acquisition and Assemblage (Updated September 2024)
This is a topic I’m all too familiar with. You see, I cut my teeth in real estate largely sourcing and negotiating residential and mixed-use land acquisition opportunities. I’ve put land deals together both as a fiduciary and as a principal, both in the United States and abroad. In this deep dive on land acquisition […]
Compensation in Real Estate (United States 2023)
Several years ago, we published a careers in real estate series where we discussed the various job sectors, business fields, and job functions that exist in the real estate industry. Additionally, we broke down compensation in real estate (salary + bonus) by position and level for 2014. Since then, each year we’ve followed up that […]
Watch Me Build a Residential Land Development Model (Updated Sept 2024)
Over the years, we’ve created a sizable library of Watch Me Build videos covering Excel models for various real estate investment and property types. However, we’ve yet to create a Watch Me Build involving for-sale product. So this weekend, I thought I’d sit down and record myself building a residential land development model. The exercise […]