Argus vs Excel
Why do most people use Argus to develop cash flows and then export to their own excel model for debt/s&amp;u/IRR etc? Does anyone use ARGUS from soup to nuts?
[{"id": "dl1ucqg", "text": "So basically in my previous career (real estate investment banking) we did exactly what you described. Our client would provide us with Argus and we would then plug in the financials into our own model for calculating things like capital structure, IRR, valuation, etc.  \n\nHowever, we had the opportunity to create Argus from scratch for a large multi tenant property (think a skyscraper) and I can give you a sense for why you use Argus for cash flows.  \n\nThe amount of lease detail - including calculation of expiration and renewal prospects - would be too much for a multi tenanted property to do in Excel.  Basically, Argus is a software built to take into account many more variables than you can feasibly take into when building an Excel model.  It then rolls them all together into a nice neat package that you can download and plug into your existing model.  I believe the Argus software basically models out every single lease and square footage for a building. \n\nWhat Argus does poorly is financial structuring, IRR calcs and valuation.  I definitely trust my spreadsheet more for that then an Argus output. \n\nNow, a word of warning, from my perspective.  Unless you have many tenants in a building, learning and building Argus might not be the most efficient use of time.  I had a client who for corporate reasons used Argus for his NNN portfolio (which was kind of a waste).  But if you have a multi tenant building / portfolio and that's what you are invested in and managing - I think it makes sense. ", "replies": [{"id": "dl25mar", "text": "Interesting. I have a quick question for you. I'm prepping for a REPE 2nd interview and have primarily a consulting background. Any tips on what I should study for a modelling interview? Would it make sense to run through the Argus website to get reacquainted with the software?", "replies": [{"id": "dl2jdl9", "text": "If it's an entry level role they probably won't really expect you to know Argus but would prefer it. Either way, the Argus website will be of no help to you ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "dm3ltvz", "text": "Man.  I work in investment sales.  I've been trying to get my counterparts to focus on those calculations for clients.  Mine don't give a shit about IRR because of the type of real estate I sell, but there's a significant delta there for the guys that are good advisors in that respect.  I just think they don't understand the numbers like I do.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dl22ad3", "text": "Makes sense, thanks. We buy office so we get Argus runs from brokers and then have to audit it and adjust assumptions. We're still tweaking our excel model but the shell around the cash flows ends up being a pretty simple model.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dl6dro8", "text": "I need to get experience with Argus, anyone know if I can find online classes anywhere?  I have looked everywhere and come up empty.,", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]