Which program is better? Break into CRE vs A.CRE accelerator vs REFM?
I am a senior associate in a PE firm (more reporting ish) but want to make a change and switch to Real Estate at the deal level. I consider my general modeling skills to advanced but I feel that I would need to master the Real Estate specifics (income statement items, important ratios). I would need to practice on some real life cases or just practice cases. I was thinking about one of the programs above, any suggestions to which to buy? Is it useful for someone with 5 years experience in modeling just not on the buy side and real estate side? Any other suggestions? I would like a crash course to get confident on landing a RE opportunity.
[{"id": "if5fedg", "text": "Fwiw, I work on the commercial bank side and the majority of the pro formas I get from developers look like what you build in A.CRE.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "if5hioy", "text": "Also there is NAIOP real estate finance course but more so fundamentals and not so much on modelling. There is also ULI proforma courses.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "if5l7j6", "text": "I\u2019m currently on level 3 of REFM, it\u2019s a bid difficult to follow the way he teaches imo. Ive found Break into CRE to be way more digestible and covers a lot more. \u2014 just a regular Joe Shmoe trying to break in and learn the modeling side", "replies": [{"id": "if5ryrb", "text": "and that voice, he needs to do a bump of blow and get some excitement going", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "if5mj0s", "text": "A.CRE", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "if5rsp3", "text": "I have done both, and hands down, 100%, do ACRE if you want to be able to pass an excel based interview.\n\nYou will not learn enough from REFM to be confident to model deals independently. It is way too fast, you will kind of know what is going on, and will take some tests to show you have a grasp, but you won't be ready to work.\n\nHe also seems to overcomplicated a lot of topics. Also, his voice may put you to sleep.\n\nACRE, you will build dozens of models step by step, and understand what you are doing. It is also bigger time commitment. REFM can be done in a week or a few days. ACRE will take you much longer than that.\n\nNow, the REFM people have a new cert called REFAI, which is based on Linneman's text, and that I would recommend (which incidentally includes REFM). This course forces you to comb through the \"blue bible\" and there is a lot of solid foundational info there.\n\nACRE to learn modeling, and REFAI to make sure you know your shit on real estate as a whole.  Even for someone that did grad school for real estate, I learned a lot from that book and reference it quite a bit.", "replies": [{"id": "if5szqs", "text": "Wow thanks so much for this. Great feedback. I only have fews days / a week or two maybe before the interview. Will I have enough time to get the essentials in ACRE? Have you heard on break into cre?", "replies": [{"id": "if666oo", "text": "If you have 5 years of experience building models in excel, then you should be able to breeze through ACRE in a week or two, just do it and you'll be well prepared. \n\nI have heard of breaking in, some people say its great, I have no feedback on it. \n\nPersonally I find the Justin guy really annoying.", "replies": [{"id": "if6xkp6", "text": "Thanks. Break into CRE has a monthly subscription option which is interesting in my case. Its about $80 vs a full year membership of $579 at A.CRE. I will consider my options. Thanks again for your feedback.", "replies": [{"id": "if7247f", "text": "I grabbed break into CRE on Udemy for $18/20 days per course. You can buy every module he has including advanced for like $250-300 or just the ones you want to focus on and have them for a lifetime.  \n\nREFM certification did help my resume though, few firms liked that I had that \n\nReally want A.CRE but I need a discount code", "replies": [], "depth": 5}, {"id": "if84y9e", "text": "Just for shits and giggles, send a post to the sub and let us know what you did and how it went, I think a lot of people have this same dilemma. \n\nWould be interesting to hear your opinion considering that you are not green to modeling.", "replies": [{"id": "if8nlex", "text": "Sure. I started with Break Into CRE and so far I am disappointed. With my modeling level I need case studies more than anything. Watching someone building a model is cool but I am not learning. I need to practice. There is a lot of free stuff on A.CRE so practicing on this. Best is case study with solution but there ain\u2019t a ton. I might ask for my money back on Break Into CRE if I don\u2019t find more relevant stuff.", "replies": [], "depth": 6}, {"id": "ifl2m15", "text": "There are no case studies, which is the first reason I wanted to join such a program. However, there are exercises that makes you practice on lots of the RE components but it\u2019s not as interesting as doing a real life case.", "replies": [], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "if7pi97", "text": "Whats the lineman book?", "replies": [{"id": "if849qz", "text": "The \"blue bible\" from Peter Linneman @ Wharton\n\nhttps://textbook.getrefm.com/\n\nLiterally a whole masters degree in a book, written in a no bullshit style that actually teaches the material. They have excellent excel examples in the text that you can work through to master the concepts. \n\n&amp;#x200B;\n\nContrast with Fisher and Brueggeman, which is very much a \"text book\" kind of book that reads as such. Yeah it has the material, but no, you probably aren't going to learn very well from that style.", "replies": [{"id": "if87cfj", "text": "Thank you sir. Dont think I will ever go back for the masters so this could be helpful.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "if70zbm", "text": "You should never break into any real estate. Get permission from the owner instead. I hope the helps.", "replies": [{"id": "if711dc", "text": "Nice one!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "if7cred", "text": "A.CRE. Hands down.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "if8ijad", "text": "REFM sucks", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]