Insights
Written from the models.
Technical essays on underwriting mechanics, waterfall structure and the errors that survive review. No market takes, no filler.
Technical essays on underwriting mechanics, waterfall structure and the errors that survive review. No market takes, no filler.
The most expensive mistake in JV modeling is not a broken formula. It is a waterfall that calculates cleanly and allocates wrongly.
Every investor says they underwrite the downside. Here is what that means when it has to be a procedure instead of a sentence.
The errors that survive review are not dramatic. They are small, structural and directionally biased. These are the five we look for first.
The eight checks we run when we rebuild a sponsor's underwriting model in a second engine, and the specific error that each one is built to catch first.
AI can draft an underwriting and it cannot decide one. The difference between those two verbs is the whole answer, and it decides where to start.
A construction loan is sized three times: by your model, by the lender's screen and by reality during the draw. How to make all three agree first.
Every term sheet quotes three constraints. Your proceeds are set by whichever one binds, and you do not know which one binds until you run all three.
A building can be 95 percent full and 86 percent paid. Both numbers get called occupancy in the deal package, and only one of them pays the mortgage.
A waterfall that allocates 99 percent of a dollar is broken and one that allocates 101 percent is worse. What to trace before you sign the agreement.
The assumption doing the most work in your model is usually the one with the least underneath it. What the exit cap is really worth, priced in dollars.
Every deal deserves five minutes and few deserve a week. One deal walked through our free screener, assumptions stated, with the verdict included.
In place rents are 100 dollars under market, which is upside. The first half of that sentence is usually true. The second half is a claim to check.
How to calculate NOI in real estate line by line on a 100 unit building, from gross potential rent to 676,242, and the 25,000 error worth 385K of price.
Two partners can agree on the pref, the split and the promote, sign the same document and still argue at exit. The order of operations is the machine.
Same building, same tenants, five different truths depending on which report you were handed. The five polite lies, and how to force one honest format.
Every month another shop announces it is AI powered, and every month another investor asks us to audit a model nobody in the building can explain.
The spreadsheet that decides whether millions of dollars move is a trade secret. The deal it evaluates gets a glossy memorandum. That is backwards.
We use an essential cookie to remember your preferences and privacy-first analytics that collect no personal data. By continuing you accept our Cookies Policy.We use one essential cookie and privacy-first analytics. Read the Cookies Policy.