Posts

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Real Estate Financial Modeling Accelerator (Updated Apr 2021)

Since starting A.CRE, Michael and I have 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 topics in our blog,…
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Keyboard Shortcuts I Use Constantly When Modeling in Excel (Formatting)

The more you model real estate in Microsoft Excel, the faster and more accurate you become - and hopefully as a consequence the more valuable you become to real estate employers and investors. Part of the process of mastering real estate financial…
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Using Boolean Logic to Model Multiple Generations of Tenant Improvements

Arguably the most powerful, and least appreciated and understood, functionality in Excel is its use of boolean logic. Or in other words, the use of TRUE and FALSE binary logic. This form of logic can be used to dramatically simplify formulas…
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Create Printable and PDF Reports in Excel for Real Estate Financial Modeling

A common question we've been getting recently is, how do I create printable reports from a real estate financial model in Excel? In this written and video tutorial, I share the three basic steps for creating printable and PDF reports in any…
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Using Excel’s New LAMBDA Feature to Create Custom Functions for Real Estate Financial Modeling

In December 2020, Excel rolled out a new featured called LAMBDA as part of the Office Insiders (i.e. beta) program. This feature allows the user to create custom functions, which can greatly reduce duplicative formulas and reduce errors. Well…
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The Definitive Guide to Microsoft Excel for Real Estate

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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DateDif: The “Secret” Excel Formula (Updated 11.14.2020)

For one reason or another, there is a perfectly functioning and pretty valuable formula that can be utilized in Excel that Microsoft has chosen to exclude from Excel's list of functions: the DateDif function. This function is a valuable…
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Use the A.CRE Geocoding Excel Add-in to Auto-Populate Latitude and Longitude in Excel

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…
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Custom Function to Auto-Populate Latitude and Longitude in Excel (Updated 2020)

When analyzing real estate investments in Excel, it's often necessary to include the latitude and longitude coordinates of the properties we're modeling. To do this, most of us open up Google Maps, or some other mapping tool, and find the…
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Setting Up a New Real Estate Financial Model – Date and Period Headers Plus Formatting

We've spent a lot of time here discussing and sharing different real estate models, and we've received a ton of feedback from our readers as a result. In some of that feedback we've received, several people have asked what period and date rows…
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Create Dynamic Sub-Property Type Drop-Down Menus in Excel

A few years ago, I created a tutorial on building smart drop-down menus in Excel using dynamic named ranges and data validation lists. This offered a great way to have drop-down menus in your model that could be easily changed by the user to…
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Using VBA to Hide Rows in Excel

Over the next few minutes, I will show you two techniques for automatically hiding and showing rows in Excel using VBA code. These techniques I use regularly in my real estate financial models to make for a more intuitive user experience. In…
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Using SUMPRODUCT to Calculate Weighted Average in Real Estate

In my experience, using the SUMPRODUCT function in Excel to calculate weighted average is one of the most oft-used Excel techniques in real estate financial modeling. I learned this technique on day one of my first real estate internship and…
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How to Create Dynamic, In-Cell Buttons and Toggles in Microsoft Excel

Creating intuitive, user-friendly, visually appealing models is one aspect of mastering real estate financial modeling. One way to make your models easy for people to use and more attractive in general is to use dynamic, theme-appropriate, in-cell…
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Using Conditional Formatting in Real Estate Financial Modeling

Your real estate financial models are only as good as their ability to be used by others. Or in other words, if others can't figure out how to use your model, it isn't worth much! So when building real estate financial model templates, besides…
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How to Run Monte Carlo Simulations in Excel

So you want to run Monte Carlo simulations in Excel, but your project isn't large enough or you don't do this type of probabilistic analysis enough to warrant buying an expensive add-in. Well, you've come to the right place. Excel's built-in…