what tools do property fund managers use?
Hi everyone,
I am a student studying property economics, which covers a lot of aspects of property (both residential and commercial), I am looking at working in property funds management (REITs) when i am graduate. Since the course is so wide, i am wondering what specific knowledge i would need, particularly for roles such as analysts, and even being a portfolio manager. Also, for when using applications such as excel, what functions i would need to know.
Thanks!


[{"id": "ccynbza", "text": "Commercial analysis is often done in ARGUS.  ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ccytrpu", "text": "I strongly recommend you get experience in Argus if you can. You should look into seeing if your school has an academic license for the software that you could use. Also, get certified in the use of Argus. It might cost you a little bit but this will be a huge plus on your resume. Almost all CRE firms require that you be able to use ARGUS proficiently.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cd2gsx2", "text": "Argus is a must, however, Excel knowledge is just as crucial.  Argus' shortfall is its lack of sensitivity analysis.  It gives you a sensitivity matrix based on discount and cap rates, which imo, fails to fully model real estate risk.  In an ideal world your model inputs, rents, renewal rates, etc, would be dynamic that vary similar to the real world.  I've only been able to make dynamic inputs and run monte carlo analysis in Excel.  What Argus lacks in sensitivity analysis, it makes up in rollover analysis.\n\nIn terms of Excel musts: lookup functions, pivot tables, finance formulas, be able to build cash flows and waterfalls from scratch.  I regret not learning VBA.  I recommend picking up some VBA programming\nskills prior to graduation.  It will help you stand out when competing for that first year analyst spot.\n \nI would recommend you read Real Estate Finance &amp; Investments by Peter Linneman.", "replies": [{"id": "cd67pzw", "text": "I live in Australia, and I haven't heard of Argus before. When i look  at job applications online, one of the job criteria is to have a good knowledge of excel. I am at the end of my first year in my degree, and so far the course has been teaching me things such as valuation, and investment analysis (using formulas to find the present value; future value etc. and methods such as Discounted Cash Flows)", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cdi8vcc", "text": "I had an internship a couple of years ago in real estate PE in Canada. We used Argus for modelling, but we used an Excel VBA to run sensitivities.\n\nArgus does provide trial software but its a bit of a wait: https://forms.netsuite.com/app/site/crm/externalcustrecordpage.nl?compid=630809&amp;formid=95&amp;h=242fd3073ae6836eb550&amp;custrecord_event_leadsource=MC10044%20Web&amp;custrecord_event_signup_product=ARGUS%20Valuation-DCF%20(ARGUS)&amp;redirect_count=1&amp;did_javascript_redirect=T", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]