The freedom of Excel, without building,
auditing or maintaining the formulas
Underwrite, manage and share commercial real estate deals. Templates handle the typical 80%. Every assumption is yours to take over.
LEVERED IRR
12.0%
84-month hold
EQUITY MULTIPLE
2.01x
$26.7M peak equity
YIELD ON COST
6.41%
$5,004,265 stabilized NOI
MIN DSCR
1.34x
year 4
TOTAL COST
$78.1M
$250,223 per unit
Model outline
| Line item | Method | Input | $ / unit | Stabilized |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insurance | Default | $525 / unit | $541 | $168,714 |
| Utilities | Default | $780 / unit | $798 | $248,836 |
| Payroll ◆ | Hardcode | $1,180 / unit | $1,211 | $377,824 |
| Replacement Reserves | Default | $250 / unit | $256 | $79,755 |
| Management Fee ◆ | Hardcode | 3.00% of EGI | $699 | $218,090 |
| Real Estate Taxes ◆ | Custom formula | millage × assmt | $2,131 | $664,947 |
| + 4 more lines | Default | $1,626 | $507,242 | |
| Total operating expenses | $7,261 | $2,265,408 |
Inspector
Real Estate Taxes
opex.real_estate_taxes
= IF( timeline.month < timeline.stabilization_month, …millage_rate × …assessment_ratio × …land_and_improvement_basis ÷ 12, … )
Impact if reverted
◆ deviation logged — Dana, today, “reassessed at stabilization”
6 · Operating expenses · selected line
Real Estate Taxesopex.real_estate_taxes◆
Method
Custom formula
Applies to
All periods
Millage
0.6451 / $100
Assessment ratio
100.0%
$ / unit
$2,131
Stabilized
$664,947
Custom formula, committed. Reverting to the template default takes stabilized taxes to $462,579 and levered IRR to 13.4%.
Excel breaks when you change it. ARGUS won’t let you.
A downloaded model is someone else’s logic. One inserted row and the tax line sums the wrong range, with no record of what changed. Institutional software fixes the auditing by taking the flexibility away.
Row 40 was inserted below the range. The total is short by $202,368 and nothing says so.
The line item is named, not addressed. Inserting anything anywhere cannot change what it sums, and every change is logged.
The template said $462,579.
The reassessment says $664,947.
Real estate taxes on a Charlotte development are not $1,450 a unit grown at 3%. They are millage on the assessed value the building will carry once it stabilizes: $202,368 a year the template never saw. Taking that line over takes a minute, and the consequence is 1.4 points of IRR, 13.4% to 12.0%.
= IF( timeline.month < timeline.stabilization_month,
opex.real_estate_taxes.millage_rate × opex.real_estate_taxes.assessment_ratio × capital.land_and_improvement_basis ÷ 12,
opex.real_estate_taxes.millage_rate × opex.real_estate_taxes.assessment_ratio × ( revenue.noi_before_taxes ÷ opex.real_estate_taxes.reassessment_cap_rate ) ÷ 12 )
Reads as: before month 34, millage of 0.6451 per $100 on 100.0% of the land and improvement basis, monthly. After stabilization, the same millage on the value implied by NOI before taxes, capitalized at 5.50%.
STABILIZED TAXES
$462,579 → $664,947
LEVERED IRR
13.4% → 12.0%
YIELD ON COST
6.67% → 6.41%
MIN DSCR
1.34x → 1.34x
◆ deviation logged with who, when and why
Min DSCR holds because the permanent loan is LTV-constrained and re-sizes with value.
01
Default
The template's method. $1,450 per unit, grown with expenses.
02
Hardcode
Your number, in your unit: $/unit, $/SF, % of EGI, lump sum, growth rate.
03
Alternate method
From the library. Reassessment on sale: millage × assessed % × value at stabilization.
04
Custom formula
Excel syntax over any variable in the model, with a plain-English readback.
The same four levels, in the same place, on every line item of every deal.
Page 2 of 9 · the extracted row is highlighted where it was read
Market study
$1,180 / unit
Template
$1,100 / unit
Stabilized
$377,824
The GC budget carries no operating payroll; the market study's staffing note gives $1,180 a unit. The template would have used $1,100.
Template
$1,450 / unit
Underwritten
$2,131 / unit
Method
Reassess at stabilization
Mecklenburg County: 0.6451 per $100 on 100.0% of assessed value. The template's $1,450 a unit grown at 3% would understate stabilized taxes by $202,368.
GC budget
$19,908,000
Draw
months 3–18
Hard costs
$53.1M
Read from the GC budget's trade summary. Hard costs total $53,146,800 with 5.0% contingency and escalation over the 24-month build.
04 · CRE Build AI
Review the model before it opens
Describe the deal in a sentence, or upload the documents it actually produces — a GC budget and market study on a development, an OM, T12 and rent roll on an acquisition. Every value arrives with the page it came from, its confidence, and a choice.
Nothing silently overrides your template. Where the AI departed from it, the screen says what the template would have done.
05 · Pipeline
Every deal, from sourcing to closed
Board, table and map over one list, with one filter and one set of saved views. Cards show returns once a deal has been underwritten, and the two facts that change behaviour: deviations and shares.
—
Camden Row
Nashville, TN
Not yet underwritten
—
Junction 40
Greenville, SC
Not yet underwritten
$190M
The Skyline
Charlotte, NC · 312 units
Shared with Meridian Bank
The Meridian at Frisco Station
Frisco, TX · 312 units
Site plan resubmittal overdue
$45.8M
Parkview Gardens
Raleigh, NC · 240 units
IC memo circulated
$67.5M
Union & Main
Portland, OR · 180 units
Best and final requested
$223M
Sunbelt Six Portfolio
Austin, TX · 1,450 units
LOI expires in 9 days
$8.23M
The Lofts at Midtown
Nashville, TN · 58 units
Tracking actuals
—
Harbor Point
Norfolk, VA
Seller re-traded
Scroll the board sideways for the remaining stages →
06 · Share and propose
Send the model, not the PDF
A lender opens your deal on a free account and works in a private copy. They change what they can see, build their own case, and send back two groups: the terms they are offering, and the underwriting they disagree with. You price each group separately.
STEP 1 · RECIPIENT
Meridian Bank works in a private copy
Equity, waterfall, sponsor-level returns and the deviation log are withheld on this share, so they are absent from their copy rather than greyed out.
STEP 2 · PROPOSAL
Two groups, priced separately
The terms stand whichever way the sponsor lands on the assumptions, so the two groups are sent and priced apart.
STEP 3 · SENDER
What each group costs
Their terms cost 0.6 points of IRR; their underwriting another 4.0, and because 2.25% rent growth and 6.0% vacancy lower stabilized NOI, yield on cost falls from 6.41% to 6.28%. Accepting either group creates a scenario rather than editing the base.
| LINE | YR 4 | YR 5 | YR 6 | V-FINAL YR 6 | YR 6 VS V-FINAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effective gross income | $7,358,544 | $7,616,094 | $7,882,657 | $7,768,966 | +1.5% favourable |
| Real estate taxes | $804,220 | $832,838 | $862,470 | $709,636 | +21.5% unfavourable |
| Other operating expenses | $1,614,117 | $1,667,253 | $1,722,157 | $1,718,746 | +0.2% unfavourable |
| Net operating income | $4,940,208 | $5,116,003 | $5,298,030 | $5,340,585 | −0.8% unfavourable |
| Debt service, actual | $3,760,123 | $3,760,123 | $3,760,123 | $3,760,123 | — |
| DSCR | 1.31x | 1.36x | 1.41x | 1.42x | −0.01x |
07 · Asset management
Hold the deal to the underwriting you closed on
Variance runs against the version the deal closed on, not the live model, so later edits never move it. Favourable and unfavourable are written out, because no one should have to learn a colour.
08 · Exports and trust
It leaves as a live workbook
Named ranges mirror your variable handles, so the formula that ran in CRE Build is the formula in the workbook. Change an assumption in Excel and it still recalculates.
=IF(timeline_month<timeline_stabilization_month,((opex_real_estate_taxes_millage_rate*opex_real_estate_taxes_assessment_ratio)*capital_land_and_improvement_basis)/12,((opex_real_estate_taxes_millage_rate*opex_real_estate_taxes_assessment_ratio)*revenue_noi_before_taxes)/opex_real_estate_taxes_reassessment_cap_rate)
Every handle becomes a named range with underscores. The deviation log ships as its own sheet.
same formula
same names
= IF( timeline.month < timeline.stabilization_month, …millage_rate × …assessment_ratio × …land_and_improvement_basis ÷ 12, … )
$664,947 stabilized · feeds NOI, sizing, value and returns
Multifamily now. Eight more coming.
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- Lot development
- Homebuilding
- Office
- Retail
- Industrial
- Self-storage
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