New role in Asset Management: Where do I begin?
I've worked in CRE Property Management for the last five years as an administrative assistant. We have office/indus/flex buildings. With a recent firing, I've been given the opportunity to revamp our (seriously lacking, if at all existing) asset management team. Boss wants me to create a process for tracking leases into production - TIs, CapEx...etc. I have NO educational background in REFi or other. I'm starting with a blank excel sheet. So far I know I want to get ahead of what the process looks like for each property: Leasing team to architects to CDs/MEPs...What works for you? Any advice or maybe software recommendations?
[{"id": "e80d3q0", "text": "I\u2019m on the brokerage side so I\u2019m not sure, but upvote for visibility. Maybe YouTube has some software demos? I\u2019m sure there is asset management software out there. Even if you don\u2019t use it you could demo it and get ideas.\n\nBest of luck. ", "replies": [{"id": "e80dpi9", "text": "Thanks! I have been googling my ass off, but so far I've only found software with AM as an odd add-on. Will keep looking and post if I find anything. ", "replies": [{"id": "e80ej3u", "text": "Check out Buildium or MRI Software, maybe those will help", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e80edlh", "text": "VTS is good lease-tracking software.", "replies": [{"id": "e80isdq", "text": "Yes! We actually use VTS already. I haven't explored it much on my own but my leasing team says it won't help with what I'm trying to do. I will look into it.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e80eiga", "text": "Check out Buildium or MRI Software, maybe those will help", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e80f3gi", "text": "Asotreg.com\n\nAdventures in cre.com\n\nBoth have models for free download \n\nGood luck!", "replies": [{"id": "e80isv0", "text": "Thanks - great reading material. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e818gfw", "text": "If your excel skills aren\u2019t strong, I\u2019d recommend some financial analysis related videos on youtube or a course so you can easily put together quick and dirty lease NPVs (software is good too but excel is super flexible and helps you learn how the math works - software tends to be more black box).  ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e81gaww", "text": "wow!, such a bad decision from your boss to say the least. If your skill set is not building excel models, then your better served doing things that utilizes your skillset- looks like you would be a good project manager, working with the leasing team, general manager, construction team, marketing team etc and make sure everybody is on the same page. Having you stare at an excel spread sheet and build models are not a good use of your time. An analyst out of college typically does that and presents the analysis and findings for the asset manager to approve and sign off on. Frankly, teams especially at the institutional level rarely build their own models. We all use templates and then its just plug and chug for every deal and it eventually becomes just data entry. I am on the banking side and I feel like most of the banks at our level would have used one of the consultants like Situs, Hanover or Spring 11 for some work at one point and gotten a sneak peak into their models, and then would have just copied their models. ", "replies": [{"id": "e88pn9w", "text": "I explained myself poorly, partly because I didn't know where it was going either. It's definitely more project manager role for the time being. \"How does a noob get in front of multiple teams and pretend like they know what they're doing?\" might be a better phrasing. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e81mvua", "text": "Well that's an opportunity but also a tough spot to be in.  Without any disrespect, going from an admin to totally revamping a TEAM of asset managers seems...aggressive.  You clearly have the Boss's trust and are more than capable, but is their a mentor you can pull in?  Maybe one of the older AMs can be assigned to help you navigate this opportunity?", "replies": [{"id": "e88p7nj", "text": "aggressive to say the least. It would be a novel to explain how I got here (or better yet, how my boss got himself here). He'd be my only mentor. We don't have any AMs. HA! I want to fix what i can and get out of here. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e81pao2", "text": "Do an assessment of the deferred maintenance on all of the assets. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e8481x6", "text": "I see several comments here about financial modeling but from your description it sounds like you are being asked to build a team and design a process not to create a financial model.\n\nIf you are trying to organize and track critical dates and such maybe a CRM is a better place to start?\n\nI believe VTS has this, and I think MRI and Yardi do as well.\n\nProb best to work inside the tools you already have rather than just assume that a blank spreadsheet is the best starting point.", "replies": [{"id": "e88pej0", "text": "Yes, this exactly. Not getting into financials just yet, but tracking dates and managing teams in multiple cities. In the next month I have to introduce myself as some sort of authority on this and i don't even know where to begin. I created a massive spreadsheet and started using Microsoft Teams last week. It's a start. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]