Building momentum for real estate development projects is always a challenge. Developers have to chase after brokers, contractors, lenders, investment partners—a whole constellation of key players in the deal—to keep the ball rolling forward.
All too often, their efforts are slowed or even undermined by the use of old, inflexible financial models.
Often the developer starts with a single-purpose model—something originally put together for a particular deal—and then reuses that model for subsequent real estate projects over a period of years or decades whether it’s a good fit or not.
The result can be what analysts jokingly refer to as “Frankenmodels”: monstrosities that have been awkwardly patched together from a mish-mash of disconnected formulas and tabs. While there might be a Dr. Frankenstein at the company who feels comfortable with the creation, nobody else does.
Such models can become overly static and hard to use, preventing the developer from being nimble. They may also be riddled with suspect calculations—a major concern for lenders and investment partners.
The CRE Suite platform gives developers the ability to quickly and easily reassess any scenario in a model that ensures accuracy, speed and flexibility. You can run quick updates whenever a particular parameter changes or needs to be assessed.
It is a far cry from what happens with calcified tools still in use by so many development entities today. In a common scenario, early models are often created using annual calculations to speed up the analysis, but invariably later on the need arises to use monthly calculations. These old-school approaches force the user to convert from the early annual structure to necessary monthly calculations, a tedious process. As a result, updating only a few values can require tedious edits to hundreds or even thousands of related values in a time-consuming attempt to bring the model up to date.
Making matters worse, there is no way to automatically update and refresh the document.
And yet lenders, developers and investors alike all want to be able to open the model and quickly grasp how the budget relates to lease-up and eventual stabilization.
Your data are fully integrated and easily exportable. The platform eliminates the profusion of disconnected side calculations and hard-coded values that unnecessarily complicate so many analytical models today. As a result, users can locate info or run sensitivity analyses with just a few clicks. These efficiencies empower developers to more quickly identify, evaluate and capitalize on high-impact real estate opportunities.
