Back in the Saddle

I’m pleased to say that I’ll be teaching Real Estate Finance 1 again at Columbia University’s MS in Real Estate Development program this Summer. I’ve taught there since 2005 every year as an Adjunct Associate Professor and in that time...

Months and Days of Foolishness

I’ve been teaching real estate finance for years, and as a result, people like to send me things that are screwed up and then ask me for my opinion. See below. It’s an example of how not to write a waterfall structure. Depending on how you read it, you’re either...

Two More Times, but With Feeling

In addition to my regular Excel for real estate analysis class that I do in New York City, I’ll be doing a 1/2 day basic class for non-financial professionals at two locations in March and April. Both are sponsored by the Urban Land Institute. I do this for them...

Complexity and Excel

I’ve been teaching Excel for real estate financial modeling for years. Periodically, someone will say something to me like, “I can do everything I need to do on a napkin. Why would I need to take a class?” In concept, I agree. There’s nothing...

Excel Passwords are a Joke

I can’t tell you how often someone asks me how to “unprotect” an Excel workbook. Rather than send out the same email again, just do the following: Instructions on How to Break Excel’s Workbook Protection Personally, I wonder why people even...

Model Wireframes

One of the more common questions that I get from students is: “What is the first step to building a financial model?” The first step to building a financial model in Excel can be scary. You don’t want to spend time going down the wrong path and then...

On The Road Again

We just delivered an Excel for Real Estate modeling class for a private equity client in Nairobi, Kenya. This isn’t to say that we haven’t done international classes before; I did a lot of them back in 2007 (Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Dubai, etc.) before...