Most people in commercial real estate still think Excel macros are for “the IT guy down the hall.” You underwrite, you manage rent rolls, you crank out lender packages in Excel all day… but the moment someone says “VBA,” you are out. That used to make sense. Writing macros meant learning a programming language on […]
On a recent live follow-up workshop, we took the Multiplier Framework out of “high level theory” and applied it to the most requested target in commercial real estate: Underwriting, the number one task CRE professionals said they want to automate. The goal was simple. Show exactly how AI overlaps cleanly with your existing underwriting workflow, […]
On January 15, over 700 commercial real estate professionals joined me live (nearly 1,400 registered) to learn a simple idea: Any CRE professional, regardless of technical skill or AI knowledge, can multiply their output. Not by working longer hours. Not by hiring a bigger team. But by taking a disciplined, systematic approach to the work […]
I’ve spent the past few weekends working on a purpose-built Self Storage Acquisition Model, and I’m now happy to share the result of that work with you. This is a model that’s been requested by quite a few A.CRE readers over the past few years. I released a Self Storage Development Model last year, and […]
AI is finally good enough that you can now leverage it to realistically multiply your output in CRE. The AI Multiplier Framework is our method for doing just that. It gives you a structured way to find, rank, and execute automation opportunities so you can actually hit a meaningful multiplier in 12 months. This post […]
If you work in acquisitions, asset management, brokerage, development, portfolio management, or valuation, you probably feel the tension already. On one hand, today’s AI tools for real estate can draft emails, summarize leases, and pull market stats with ease. On the other hand, you would not trust them to run a full underwriting, manage a […]
Today, we’re thrilled to share with the A.CRE community a new timesaving (and free) Excel tool: the ‘Excel 4 CRE’ Add-in! Over the past few years, we at A.CRE (together with various AI coding tools) have been developing and sharing this Excel add-in. The goal? To make real estate financial modeling faster and more efficient […]
Using keyboard shortcuts is essential to improving the speed and efficiency at which you model real estate in Excel. One thing you’ll learn early in your CRE career, the more proficient you become in using your keyboard without a mouse to navigate around Excel, the more valuable you’ll be as a real estate financial analyst. […]
As part of my work at CRE Agents, I recently built a pretty cool demographics tool that I’d like to a) give you access to and b) provide the backstory behind. It started with a skill created at CRE Agents for an acquisitions AI coworker called Deep Location Analysis. This AI-powered process uses vision models […]
When I first published this guide in early 2023, ChatGPT felt like a novelty. It was impressive, experimental, and even a little unnerving. But for most in CRE, it was still just a toy. Fast forward two and a half years, and that’s no longer the case. Today, AI is embedded in the way serious […]
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 […]
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 […]
I’m excited to share my Office Development Model in Excel. This pro forma analysis tool comes as I’ve continued to build and share specialty real estate models, tailor-made for specific investment scenarios and property types. This model is an adaptation of my Industrial Development Model. It’s specifically built to analyze both merchant-build and build-to-core, ground-up […]
So you’ve made it past the HR screening interview. You have the education and experience the company is looking for, but now they want to be sure you possess the real estate financial modeling skills necessary to do the job. They’ve asked you to take part in a multi-hour real estate technical interview. In that interview, they’ll […]
The real estate industry is enormous. In the United States alone, over 2.9 million jobs are tied to commercial real estate, 17% of GDP comes from the real estate industry, and the aggregate value of U.S. commercial real estate is approximately $20.7 trillion. Yet, in spite of its impact and size, there is still a […]