Help with an investment thesis for upcoming job interview.
Hello. I'm currently interviewing with a family owned CRE investment shop and have been asked to present an investment thesis for a property in one of their core markets. I can chose the property and aside from the thesis being 1-2 pages, they've left it very open because they want to see my approach.

I have until Thursday to get this done and while I have some experience performing the type of analysis that will be necessary to get this done, I'm not totally sure what I should include. Would anybody be willing to recommend any resources or examples that might be helpful? Any help or advice that you might be willing to provide would be incredibly appreciate. Thank you!

Edit: Adding details in response to questions. The firm focuses on value-add retail, office and multifamily investments. I'm leaning towards selecting a class C multifamily property, rehabbing it into a Class B, and then releasing once higher rents are warranted. Overall, I feel more comfortable with multifamily given my experience in residential, however also considered focusing on a Class C office building and rehabbing it with a similar strategy to that described above.

In either case, I know that I need to demonstrate a strong understanding of the local submarket (competition, vacancy rates, rental rates, etc.), rehab costs (pre-construction, A&amp;E, construction, etc.), and leasing assumptions. I also plan on doing a cash flow analysis over 10-15 years, touching on risks and maybe running some sensitivity analysis around rent growth or vacancy rates. I'm not great at waterfalls but imagine it would make sense to go into the capital stack and eventual profit splits (would definitely need help here).

Is there anything else that would be helpful to include?
[{"id": "ewp4i18", "text": "First you should have an idea of what kind of property you want to focus on wether it be Retail, NNN, multi family etc. Once decided, you can then determine what you want to say about the tenant, location and the investment overall. Good luck", "replies": [{"id": "ewp6rrf", "text": "Good point. I edit the original text to include these details.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ewp4kbh", "text": "What do you plan to do before you get advice on what more to do?", "replies": [{"id": "ewp6w22", "text": "Good question. I tried to answer your question by editing the original post. If you have time, could you look at my current plan and let me know if anything else should be included? Thanks!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ewp73ul", "text": "I would think bigger picture. Don't get too analytical and think long term potential rather than a DCF model with generous assumptions that could inflate the value of the property. \n\nIs the area good?\n\nWhat are the market trends looking like?\n\nThat kind of stuff. From my experience the smaller firms would rather teach the analytical stuff to a person who has a head on their shoulders rather than wanting an excel guru explaining how they should be doing things.", "replies": [{"id": "ewp8jde", "text": "I really like this advice, actually. Fortunately, I'm pretty familiar with one of their core submarkets and could probably lean into that knowledge if I zoom out a bit. Thanks!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ewpnx9b", "text": "When you rehab the units FOCUS ON THE RETURN. If you can't rationalize the necessary rent increase to hit your minimum return threshold, do not do the project, no matter how good the unit will look when you're done.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ewpxvqx", "text": "I had to check your screen name, as I'm challenging a younger kid to do this exact thing for me and I thought this could be you.\n\nI do a lot of value add, C to B apartment investing, so I may be of some help on what I would like to see from you.  I can only speak for myself but I always focus on the few and not the many when it comes to data. Get out of here with a 10-15 yr plan.  They are guesses at best and I hate the time it takes for me to not look at them anyway.  I would focus on purchase price, ARV and what it is going to take to get there, NOI on the ARV numbers, what can we refi at and what can we sell at, and then tell me your gut feeling on the property.  Outside of the numbers what do you see that is good or bad about it ????  This one is important.  It's a crystal clear snap shot into who you are and what you're capable of.  \n\nIf I were you I would find an OM from one of the big firms in the area (CushWake, NAI, MarcusMillichap,etc) and use their work on rental rates and such to back up your own numbers.  I'm partial to Cushwake as every single OM I have used from them over the last 3 yrs has been dead on accurate.\n\nGo about it as if you were the investor.  Step into that role and then get the information that you would want ( hint: I listed it all above)", "replies": [{"id": "ewq5awn", "text": "Oh man, I just spent the afternoon modeling out a five years of revenue, cash flows, NOI, etc. and as you mentioned, so many of the numbers felt like guesses. Although I hope that it was a helpful exercise, I totally get the rationale of sticking to the high level numbers and want to play around with your approach. With that, could you help me with a couple lingering questions?\n\nFirst, in your mind how do \"what we can refit at and what we can sell at\" differ? In regards to refinancing, are you trying to get at the value that a bank might assign to the property? Or is the goal to pull out equity that might have accrued after the rehab?\n\nSecond, while I've had some luck finding big firms market reports that have rental rates, occupancy rates, etc., is there any way to back up the rehab expenses other than talking to a GC? Do any of these firms track/predict construction costs by region/asset type?", "replies": [{"id": "ewqf3e7", "text": "Find out what banks are refi'ing at in that area for that kind of asset.  Then do the same for what competing properties have been selling for.\nYou want to know if a refi is right or a sale.  The refi is to pull out equity but still hold the property and the possible sale price will give you clearer picture, which avenue is better to take.\n\nNo idea if anyone tracks the rehab costs.  It's essentially $9500/unit for interiors (flooring, kitchen, bath, hardware paint, AC, plumb, electric, misc).  Less if you're only doing partial rehabs ... more if the electric, AC, Plumbing is a shit show.  But $9.5k will get you in the ballpark for almost any project.  Exteriors depend on how much work there is to do ... roofs, siding, landscaping, parking lots, pools, playgrounds, misc.  Those can vary wildly but for a C to B re position in Atlanta, I generally look at $4k-7k/unit for exteriors.  Again, depending on the extent of the reno.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ex06ji3", "text": "Just got out of the interview and wanted to thank you for your advice. I did some basic financial modeling but focused on the big picture, which went a long way to building a compelling strategy. Overall, I think it went really well. I really appreciate your guidance!!", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]