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real estate financial modeling courses

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Real Estate Financial Modeling Accelerator (Updated October 2024)

Prior to launching the Accelerator program, Michael and I fielded email after email requesting a more structured real estate financial modeling training program on the site. Over the years, we've covered hundreds of real estate modeling…
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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,…
Real Estate Tokenization
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Exploring Tokenization in Commercial Real Estate

I have always been interested in developing technology trends, and, in the spirit of exploring future possibilities in our industry, I wanted to discuss a developing trend of tokenization in commercial real estate. If you're not yet familiar…
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Property
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A.CRE 101: How To Use The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Method To Value Income Producing Property (Updated Aug 2024)

The Discounted Cash Flow Method is a method to value a project by taking all future projected cash flows of the project and discounting them back to time zero (date of purchase) using a predetermined discount rate (the discount rate when used…
Through The Entitlement Process
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Through The Entitlement Process: Identifying Risks and Strategies For Mitigation (Updated Aug 2024)

Investing in and developing an unentitled site, broadly speaking, is one of the riskiest, yet rewarding, endeavors in the commercial real estate industry. The entitlement process, in particular, is fraught with the potential for setbacks and…
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Analyzing Value-Add Investments in Real Estate Using Yield-on-Cost (Updated Aug 2024)

So a question recently came in around why a commercial real estate investor would use the Yield-on-Cost metric to assess a value-add real estate investment. This question came on the heals of several other questions also related to development…
Using the Cash-on-Cash Return in Real Estate Investment Analysis
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Using the Cash-on-Cash Return in Real Estate Investment Analysis (Updated Aug 2024)

I’ve fielded a handful of Cash-on-Cash (CoC) return questions of late. So, I thought it would be worthwhile to write a post on what the Cash-on-Cash return metric tells me about a potential real estate investment. This article is a primer,…
Loan Debt Yield Calculation
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How to Use Debt Yield to Calculate Loan Amount (Updated July 2024)

In our glossary of commercial real estate terms, we recently answered the question: what is debt yield? As a follow up to that entry, I thought I’d expand on the concept of debt yield by showing you how lenders use debt yield to come up with…
real estate private equity
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Deep Dive – Sources of Capital: Real Estate Private Equity (Updated July 2024)

Capital for commercial real estate investments is generally sourced from one or more of the following buckets: public equity, public debt, private equity, or private debt. In my experience, few people fully understand these four buckets of capital,…
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Understanding Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Investments

In this article, we explore Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) investments, a key component in the affordable housing sector. Established to encourage private investment, the LIHTC program offers tax credits to developers for creating and…
Development Spread
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Using Development Spread in Real Estate Analysis (Updated Jun 2024)

Real estate developments carry inherent risks, making them one of the most challenging investment opportunities. However, the potential for profit can justify the risks involved. Have you ever wondered how to assess the profit potential…
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Underwriting a Tenant with Private Credit (Updated June 2024)

Recently, we had an Accelerator member ask a question about how to accurately determine a credit rating and spec income discount rate for a private tenant in a single tenant net lease deal. While the scenario specifically involved a medical…
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A.CRE 101: How to Use the Income Capitalization Approach to Value Income-Producing Property (Updated May 2024)

In commercial real estate, there are a few generally accepted methods for appraising (or valuing) real property. The three most common are the Cost Approach, the Sales Comparison Method, and the Income Approach. The Income Approach includes…
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Quick Thoughts on Evaluating Real Estate Investments Without Opening Excel

In our industry (commercial real estate), the ability to quickly evaluate investment opportunities is crucial for staying competitive. I know I've found in my professional career, that having a clear framework for evaluating - and then either…
after-tax cash flow analysis
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Forecasting After-Tax Cash Flow in Real Estate Analysis (Updated May 2024)

When modeling real estate investments, industry practice is generally to stop at before-tax cash flow, rather than after-tax cash flow. And this makes sense in most instances. No two owners of real estate have the exact same tax situation and…
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Using Geometric Mean (or CAGR) as an Alternative to IRR (Updated May 2024)

The internal rate of return (IRR) and compound annual growth rate (CAGR) are both metrics used to analyze investment returns. They're both commonly used in commercial real estate financial modeling, but what's the difference? When should you…