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real estate financial modeling courses

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Real Estate Financial Modeling Accelerator (Updated June 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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LBO vs CRE Acquisition Models and Using LBO Structure to Acquire CRE

In the world of investment and finance, models play an integral role in guiding decision-making processes, evaluating risk, and forecasting returns. Two such influential models are the Leveraged Buyout (LBO) Model and the Commercial Real Estate…
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Introducing Weighted Equity Multiple: An Alternative for Dynamic CRE Investments

Across a 22+ year career in the industry, I've encountered a range of complex scenarios that traditional metrics sometimes struggle to accurately capture. A case in point that has been top of mind for me recently is a weakness in the Equity…
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Exploring Optionality in Commercial Real Estate (Written by AI)

The term "optionality" may evoke thoughts of financial derivatives, stock options, or complex trading strategies. However, in the context of commercial real estate, optionality is a far more nuanced and potent concept. Simply put, optionality…
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Calculate Residual Land Value in Excel (Updated Jul 2023)

Here's the scenario. You're a real estate developer. You spot a prime parcel of land that would be perfect for your real estate project. So you approach the owner of the land about selling and she says, "Okay, bring me an offer." How much do…
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The A.CRE Method for Doing Cap Rate Math in Your Head

In this post, I'd like to share a method that, with a little practice, will enable you to quickly do cap rate math in your head; whether it’s quickly figuring out what the sale or purchase price would be of a property based on the NOI and…
a shopping center with robust sales and low occupancy cost
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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,…
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Construction Draw Schedule: Accounting For True LTC (Updated Apr 2022)

When lenders provide debt for a development project, they lend based on a Loan-to-Cost ratio (LTC), which is simply the percent of the total budget the lender will agree to lend to the borrower. So, if a project costs $10MM, and a lender loans…
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Could You Be Exiting Too Early? Don’t Forget to Analyze Your Reinvestment Rate

When attempting to maximize the value of your money invested in real estate, the timing of your exit is key to maximize your return. Exit too early, and you might leave money on the table. Exit too late, and you might have better used that capital…
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How to Quickly Evaluate Real Estate Opportunities (Without Opening Excel)

We regularly respond to questions from A.CRE and Accelerator members as it relates to analyzing and evaluating real estate investment opportunities. Recently, in an Accelerator forum post a young professional marveled at how certain individuals…
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Deep Dive: Understanding Acquisitions: The Letter of Intent (LOI)

The Letter of Intent - Legal Issues The letter of intent is a critical document that is written up at the beginning of a potential real estate transaction between either a prospective buyer and seller or a prospective tenant and landlord.…
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Understanding Treatment of Time 0 in the All-in-One Model

I received a very astute question/concern from a user of our All-in-One(Ai1) model in our Ai1 Support Forum late last month. I initially set out to answer the question in writing, but the more I thought about my response, the more I concluded…
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All About Cap Ex

In this post, we are going to take a deeper look into capital expenditures. What it is and how we account for it in cre underwriting. Capital expenditures, commonly referred to as Cap Ex, are expenses that occur outside of normal operating…
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The A.CRE Method For Doing Cap Rate Mental Math – Practice Tool

At the bottom of this post is a downloadable practice tool for the A.CRE Method for doing cap rate mental math. The tool will generate an endless number of random cap rates and NOIs to practice with and will walk you step by step through how…