Multifamily Underwriting and Analysis

[Account Closed]

Question for all the amazing BiggerPockets members.

I have underwritten a few small apartment deals (10-30 unit space) and am looking to further develop my skills in this area and being able to identify the profitable from the unprofitable. With little experience I end up spending a lot of time looking at and trying to figure out what expenses are realistic.

Is there any recommended training that focus on underwriting?

Open to paid seminars, books, specific podcast episodes, or free proven web resources.

Thanks all!

Wade

[Evan Polaski]

@Account Closed: when you want to get better at underwriting, do you mean building the excel models?  Or are you unclear on the assumptions you should be putting into your model?

If the former, as Danny mentioned, you can search google and/or YouTube for "how to build a cash flow model" "build discounted cash flow model in excel" "real estate valuation model". I also recommend Adventure in CRE. They have prebuilt models and lots of excel training videos.

If the latter, you will need to be studying the market and trying to pull as many financials as you can from active listings. For this, I would go to Loopnet, CBRE, other commercial brokers and start getting into the war room for T12 numbers on properties in the markets you are interested. Searching for rental growth rates, apartments.com for competitive property rent levels, etc.

In my opinion, the actual building of a model is a very learnable skill.  Creating formulas, pivot tables, etc are all relatively easily learned on line and with the Help menu.  The art is in the assumptions, and in my experience, you gain that through lots and lots of research in the markets you are interested, and ultimately through experiences.