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real estate financial modeling courses

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Real Estate Financial Modeling Accelerator (Updated June 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…
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…
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Single Tenant NNN Lease Valuation Model (Updated May 2024)

I originally built this single tenant net lease (NNN) valuation Excel model back in 2016. Based on some feedback from a few of our readers, I've since made quite a few updates (see v2.0 updates video below). This model is an attempt to re-think…
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Insights from Spencer’s Cornell Real Estate Distinguished Speaker Series Interview

Recently, our own Spencer Burton was invited to participate in the Cornell Real Estate Distinguished Speaker Series, a platform renowned for hosting leading voices in the real estate industry. During this prestigious event, Spencer had the opportunity…
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Terminology Guide for Build-to-Rent Investment

We recently released a Build-to-Rent (BTR) Development model to help students and developers better analyze this emerging investment type in commercial real estate. As we explored this type of analysis, it became clear that terminology is often…
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Glossary of Commercial Real Estate Terms (Updated Apr 2024)

Glossary of Commercial Real Estate Terms Welcome to the A.CRE Glossary of Commercial Real Estate Terms, a practitioner's guide to the most common terms in CRE. This is an ever-growing list of commercial real estate terms and definitions that…
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Modeling a Property Tax Abatement in Real Estate (Updated Jan 2024)

We often field questions about how to model property tax abatements. It's a concept we cover in our the 'Advanced Modeling - Property and Portfolio' endorsement in our Accelerator real estate financial modeling training program and something…
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Understanding Untrended vs Trended Returns in Real Estate Analysis

We recently received an intriguing question in the Q&A section of the A.CRE Real Estate Financial Modeling Accelerator regarding the calculation of untrended and trended returns. As such, I’d like to take the opportunity to discuss it. First…