Best Real Estate Investment Analysis Software

Best Real Estate Investment Analysis Software

Cupertino, CA · Member since 2012 · 20 posts · 6 votes

I am looking for real estate investment analysis software that will work well for a beginner, but has enough depth that it will serve me well as I become more knowledgeable and gain multiple properties.   I'm starting with single family homes for rent.   To put a scope on this, I want software to analyze the purchase or sale of the home.  I am not asking in this thread about administrative applications, contact managers, tax software, etc.

I use Microsoft Windows, and after some review of the market, I bought Realty Analytic's software.  It looks great, unfortunately it only works on older versions of Excel.   I'm trying to find an older Excel to install, but in the meantime I am willing to consider other products. Realty Analytics posts no phone number, and they never respond to any email inquiry.

Another product I bookmarked that looked good was Proapod "Executive 10".  I went with that version (they have three levels and Executive 10 is the highest) because I want to consider all of the tax aspects as well as the time value of money.

I am sure I do not know enough yet to even know what I need to ask for.   Having said that, I want software that is extremely good at calculating internal rates of return on the investment over its full life cycle.   I want to understand cash on cash returns over time.  I want to test different assumptions for home appreciation over time, and I also want to test assumptions about inflation rates (those are different things in some cases, as when home prices go up by 40% in two years due to limited supply in a low-inflation-rate environment).

I understand that many experienced investors use nothing but Excel.   It might be that the software I am buying is simply training wheels for using Excel alone, but I suspect that well done software will save me a lot of time in developing my own Excel templates.

I would like to spend under $300 for the software.

What are my best options?

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Member since 2018 · 1 post · 6 votes
7y

i am sorry i am new to bigger pockets this thread is old and just happened to do a google search to bring me here. But the man asked for software recomendations why is every comment everything but a software recomendation? The man didn't ask about coding a new software. He didn't ask about understanding the fundamentals of deal anaylsis. He asked for a software that if you input certain "raw data" it will be able to process the necessary formulas to give you what you need to know. It may even prompt you to input missing information. This is the purpose of software. Are you going to tell a construction estimator they are supposed to code their own software? No! So why would you do it here? 

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  • Jersey City, NJ · Member since 2015 · 280 posts · 98 votes
    11y

    I will say the real estate deal analysis has to do with how good your raw data is rather than what software it runs on.

    ie. Incomplete data yields bad/incomplete analysis, no matter which platform you choose.

    Find a way to get good data (e.g. where can you find your most relevant sales in your area to run comps?). Most of the time, it's going to be MLS (Multiple Listing Services), alongside with some Zillow and/or County Records website (if your county has moved records online already).

  • Specialist · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2014 · 528 posts · 226 votes
    11y

    @Will E.

    Software is only good if you know what's behind the output. Like previously said, if the data going in is now good then the data coming out isn't any better.  There is so much more to a deal then just putting in some numbers and getting a result. 

    Read, listen, watch and learn and soon you will see that analyst software is only a small part. 

    I use excel and I built a very detailed spreadsheet to provide the things I'm looking for in a deal. 

  • Cupertino, CA · Member since 2012 · 20 posts · 6 votes
    11y

    Logan and Che Chiu: with any software tool, the quality of data is primary.   If I want to buy tax software, then it goes without saying that bad input data results in bad output data.   How is that an argument against buying tax software?

    I completely respect an advanced real estate investor telling me they developed their own Excel tools to evaluate deals.   But part of the reason that I as a beginner prefer to buy into an established tool is that it might help to educate me about what issues are important.

    I have also developed enough Excel tools to believe there are better uses of my time if someone has solved the problem for a few hundred dollars.

  • Investor · Madison, WI · Member since 2012 · 242 posts · 61 votes
    11y

    I'd suggest making your own, no matter what it is.  Then you understand what is behind it.  I wrote my own software that crawls local reality sites for data, so I can flag places I'm interested in makes notes, do quick analysis and see the potential returns.  If a property passes my software tool, then I hit the spreadsheet to dive deeper into the numbers.  Having a way to organize / sort potential properties is a huge help - especially keeping an eye on ones that you like when the asking price drops.

  • Investor · Woonsocket, RI · Member since 2008 · 46 posts · 24 votes
    11y

    Assuming you are doing buy and hold - have you looked at Landlord's Cash Flow Analyzer? It is under $100 dollars and runs on top of Excel.

    I have used it for the last 4 years (version 9) and have no affiliation with the developer.

  • Cupertino, CA · Member since 2012 · 20 posts · 6 votes
    11y
    Originally posted by @Fred Grant:

    Assuming you are doing buy and hold - have you looked at Landlord's Cash Flow Analyzer? It is under $100 dollars and runs on top of Excel.

    I have used it for the last 4 years (version 9) and have no affiliation with the developer.

    Thanks Fred, and I have bookmarked that one.   The reports look good.

    Is there any option to do a 20 year analysis (or at least more than five years)?

  • Investor · Woonsocket, RI · Member since 2008 · 46 posts · 24 votes
    11y

    In the version I have most of the reports are showing 20 years and the report tab has a drop down box at the top that let's you select 1 - 20 years.

  • Miami, FL · Member since 2015 · 30 posts · 2 votes
    9y

    I am searching on google for software and also BP and nothing unanimous came out. Thanks guys.

  • Rental Property Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2018 · 2 posts · 0 votes
    8y
    What do you guys think about the real data analysis software tools? They seem extremely detailed. I am wondering how it compares to other analysis software.
  • Rental Property Investor · Rio Rancho, NM · Member since 2013 · 314 posts · 816 votes
    8y

    @Will E.

    I realize this is an old post, but I would second what many others have mentioned here - once you find a tool/software that you're comfortable, don't forget that accurately estimating market rent, vacancies, operating expenses and cap ex is extremely important.

    No matter how good or accurate the calculator you use is, if you're providing it unrealistic or unverified inputs, the output "analysis" that you get back will be very suspect.

    I also always suggest running analysis on a few dozen properties in the city/area you're interested in for practice. Even if you don't plan to buy these properties, this will give you the experience and confidence that you're doing things correctly.

  • Member since 2018 · 1 post · 6 votes
    7y

    i am sorry i am new to bigger pockets this thread is old and just happened to do a google search to bring me here. But the man asked for software recomendations why is every comment everything but a software recomendation? The man didn't ask about coding a new software. He didn't ask about understanding the fundamentals of deal anaylsis. He asked for a software that if you input certain "raw data" it will be able to process the necessary formulas to give you what you need to know. It may even prompt you to input missing information. This is the purpose of software. Are you going to tell a construction estimator they are supposed to code their own software? No! So why would you do it here? 

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