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real estate financial modeling courses

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Real Estate Financial Modeling Accelerator (Updated September 2026)

Before launching the Accelerator program, Michael and I received countless emails requesting a more structured, step-by-step real estate financial modeling training program. Over the years, we've covered hundreds of real estate modeling…
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The Road to Stabilized NOI – Loss to Lease in Multifamily Property Underwriting (Updated Sept 2026)

The calculation of stabilized Net Operating Income for a property is synonymous with building a stabilized proforma. This modeling process starts by estimating revenues and then the expenses, which means we must adjust the anticipated revenues…
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The Definitive Guide to Microsoft Excel for Real Estate (Updated Aug 2026)

Microsoft Excel is the primary tool used by real estate financial modeling professionals. Even while numerous non-Excel alternatives have attempted to de-throne Excel, the 35+ year-old software has shown to be surprisingly resilient to competition.…
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How the Bets Outgrew the Market: 2008 Crisis, Part 4

Part 4 of my series working through the 2008 financial crisis from a real estate perspective, and the part where credit default swaps enter the story. If you're new to the series, in Part 1 I looked at why the mortgage was trusted, in Part 2…
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There Has Never Been an Easier Time to Stand Out in CRE

A student reached out to me a couple weeks ago with a question I get some version of almost every week. He is a rising junior, interning at a firm any of you would recognize, attends a good school, and has already done the work to become…
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Best Practices in Real Estate Financial Modeling (Updated August 2026)

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…
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How the Tower Was Built: 2008 Crisis, Part 3

Part 3 of my series working through the 2008 financial crisis from a real estate perspective. If you're new to the series, Part 1 I looked at why the mortgage was trusted, and in Part 2 I followed a single mortgage payment down the chain and…
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A.CRE Hotel Valuation Model in Excel (Updated July 2026)

I am excited to introduce our new Hotel Valuation (Acquisition) Model to underwrite both stabilized and value-add hotel opportunities. This hotel pro forma is designed to allow users to do everything from a quick back of the envelope exercise…
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How the Chain Began to Rot: 2008 Crisis, Part 2

Part 2 of my series working through the 2008 financial crisis from a real estate perspective. In Part 1, I looked at why the mortgage was trusted for so long. Here I want to trace how mortgage securitization worked in the years leading up to…
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2008 Financial Crisis From the Ground Up: Why We Believed Houses Were Safe

The first in a series examining the 2008 financial crisis from a real estate perspective: where it started, how it spread, and what it left behind for the professionals who underwrite property today. If you work in real estate, you already…
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S-Curve Forecasting in Real Estate Development (Updated June 2026)

One of the reasons Michael and I blog, is to force ourselves to be continually learning. I built the first version of my real estate waterfall model, because I wanted to better understand the mechanics of modeling an equity waterfall with IRR…
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IRR vs Discount Rate: Two Sides of the Same Coin (Case Study + Model) (Updated March 2026)

In the discipline of commercial real estate financial modeling, certain principles serve as foundational pillars, essential across all valuation, acquisition, and investment analyses. Few concepts are as omnipresent, yet as frequently misunderstood,…
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Watch Me Build A Construction Draw Schedule (Updated Feb 2026)

In the following video, I record my screen and narrative my steps as I build a basic construction draw schedule. I've also included the template and completed worksheets from this Watch Me Build exercise. Are you an Accelerator member? See…
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Vision Reveals Hidden Value in CRE. Math Captures It.

In real estate, value is rarely static. It evolves with income, with execution, with time. Yet most pricing decisions in the market ignore the hidden value in CRE, focusing instead on what's already visible: trailing NOI, current occupancy,…
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Create Your First Excel Macro with AI

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…
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Deep Dive: Understanding the Time Value of Money in Commercial Real Estate

In commercial real estate, nearly every investment decision boils down to a key question: What is the present value of uncertain future cash flows? The answer exists because money has a fundamental property: its value changes over time. The…