Entries by Spencer Burton

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Por Qué Elegí una Maestría en Bienes Inmuebles en Lugar de un MBA

Volver a la escuela es un compromiso enorme. Primero está el proceso de admisión, que implica pasar horas y horas estudiando para el GMAT o el GRE, rellenar largas solicitudes de admisión, escribir docenas de ensayos sin sentido, preparar y hacer entrevistas de admisión informales y formales, y soportar el estrés de no saber si […]

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Using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Create Complex Excel Logic

The fourth blog post in this series on how to use ChatGPT in commercial real estate. As real estate financial modeling professionals, we’re often tasked with creating complex logic in Excel. Depending on one’s Excel proficiency, that task used to take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. In fact, I remember certain […]

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Why I Chose a Masters in Real Estate over an MBA (Updated 2023)

Going back to graduate school is a huge commitment. First there’s the admissions process, which means spending hours and hours studying for the GMAT or GRE, filling out lengthy admissions applications, writing dozens of mindless essays, preparing for and doing informal and formal admissions interviews, and enduring the stress of not knowing if you’re in, or […]

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Student Housing Acquisition Model (Updated Apr 2023)

I’ve spent a fair amount of my career analyzing privately-owned student housing investments. Nevertheless, I’ve yet to share a purpose-built, institutional-quality student housing acquisition model. So, I thought I’d take some time and build a model for this very purpose. To do this, I took my Value-Add Apartment Acquisition model, which has been used by […]

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Using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Research Real Estate Data

The third blog post in this series on how to use ChatGPT in commercial real estate. The first step in real estate underwriting is the collection and aggregation of data or information. That data or information is then process, analyzed, and used to help make an investment decision. OpenAI’s GPT language model can be used […]

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Using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Quickly Draft Real Estate Business Terms

Another blog post in a series on how to use ChatGPT in commercial real estate. As a real estate professional, we’re often tasked with drafting and modifying non-binding business documents such as letters of intent (LOI) and memorandums of understand (MOU). These documents spell out business terms, that attorneys then formalize in binding JV agreements, […]

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Using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Create an Excel Macro for a Real Estate Model

At some point in the past few months, you’ve undoubtedly heard about ChatGPT. It seems everyone is talking about it. But how useful is the tool actually? And in particular, how useful is it to real estate financial modeling professionals? In this tutorial I show one very real, very helpful application for the engine that […]

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We Need Your Help – Survey for A.CRE Events (2023)

We need your help to improve our event programming! Last year the A.CRE team organized a combined 43 events, including virtual webinars, in-person meetings, conference keynotes, student speaker events, an A.CRE retreat to Mexico, and various happy hours. During our in-person trips to New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, the unanimous feedback we received […]

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Tenant Sales and Occupancy Cost in Retail Underwriting (UPDATED JUNE 2022)

When underwriting a retail investment, rollover risk is an incredibly important consideration. You, as a prospective debt or equity investor in the property, need to understand how secure the cash flows you’re buying are; or in other words, how likely each tenant is to renew their lease at the end of their lease term. This is […]

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Scenario Analysis Tool using the Equity Waterfall Model (UPDATED MAY 2022)

I received a question this morning asking how to use scenario (or sensitivity) analysis with our Real Estate Equity Waterfall Model. I started to answer the question via email, decided to build an Excel file to go along with my answer, and ultimately concluded that a video would be the easiest way to walk you through […]

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Physical Occupancy Calculation Model for Real Estate (UPDATED MAY 2022)

As many of you know, I’m in the midst of moving my family from Milwaukee to Dallas, and quite frankly I’m getting sick of eating out and sleeping in hotel rooms. So what better way to unwind from hours of whining kids and tiresome travel, than to build a quick real estate Excel model for calculating the monthly physical […]