Entries by Spencer Burton

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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, let alone how the various capital sources work together to get a real estate deal done. In […]

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All About Careers in Real Estate Consulting

Real estate consulting jobs include work in a variety of areas such as appraisal and valuation, entitlement services, portfolio strategy, enterprise M&S, workplace strategy, location footprint strategy, site acquisition and analysis, among others. Professionals who take positions at real estate consulting firms typically possess expertise in a specialized area of real estate for which they’re hired […]

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Hold-Sell Analysis in Real Estate (Updated June 2024)

In course 3 of our A.CRE Accelerator, we use a case study that revolves around a hold-sell (i.e. hold vs sell) analysis scenario to teach the anatomy of the real estate DCF. In that scenario, the student is an asset manager working for an open-end core fund. The fund is trying to determine whether it […]

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Case Study #7 -The Cellon Group – Asset Management Analyst Test (Case + Solution, Updated June 2024)

This is the seventh in a series of commercial real estate case studies shared by A.CRE. These case studies are meant to help you practice to master real estate financial modeling. The Cellon Group – Real Estate Asset Management Analyst Test puts you in the role of a analyst candidate seeking a real estate asset […]

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A.CRE Geocoding Excel Add-in to Auto-Populate Latitude and Longitude in Excel (Updated Jun 2024)

The A.CRE Geocoding Excel Add-in uses the Google Geocoding API to automatically convert a given address to latitude and longitude coordinates, or to convert a given latitude and longitude coordinate to an address. The add-in makes auto-populating latitude and longitude (or address) in Excel easy. It includes various features to help add or change the […]

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All About Careers in Real Estate Finance and Debt (Updated June 2024)

Real estate debt and finance jobs encompass a wide range of roles and responsibilities, but generally professionals working in this area are responsible for originating, managing, sourcing, and/or assessing debt investments. Roles might include originating new senior, secondary, and mezzanine debt; servicing existing loans; and seeking out financing for one’s own equity investments. Search our list […]

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Case Study #6 – Hamilton Park Phase VIII (Case + Solution, Updated June 2024)

This is the six in a series of commercial real estate case studies shared by A.CRE. These case studies are meant to help you practice mastering real estate financial modeling. Hamilton Park VIII puts you in the role of a development associate at an international industrial development firm, tasked with assessing the fair value of […]

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Using Generative AI to Outperform Humans at Financial Statement Analysis

Researchers at the University of Chicago recently released the results of an important study that evaluated GPT-4’s financial analysis capabilities by predicting future earnings from financial statements. By using Chain-of-Thought (CoT) reasoning, the AI model (i.e. in this case a GPT-4 powered custom GPT) not only was capable of analyzing financial data, but also actually […]

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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 two methods, the simpler of the two is the Direct Capitalization method, which this post will cover. The […]

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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 passing or spending more time on – investments is crucial to managing an efficient pipeline. Thus, being able […]