RE-Analytics Review

RE Analytics Overview

The best real estate investment firms need a comprehensive analysis of their properties, their important portfolio information and documents accessible at the touch of a button, and a platform to present their portfolios to potential equity partners and lenders. This is where RE Analytics’ proprietary platform and team of seasoned real estate professionals come in.

RE Analytics’ platform and analyst services help real estate firms make informed investment decisions and attract capital to grow their portfolios. Accountants and property managers use customized software, but software for principals, CFOs, and asset managers does not exist – until now, with the RE Analytics platform.

Principals, CFOs, and Asset Managers need more than a software program; they need a strategic partner. RE Analytics’ platform and services provide the expertise that can consistently offer financial analysis and data management services at a lower price than another full-time analyst.

RE Analytics’ services layer on top of any existing accounting and property management software platform.

Pros Explained

RE Analytics is a partner, not a software provider: RE Analytics provides a proprietary tech platform, but it goes beyond that. The company has a team of seasoned commercial real estate financial analysts and asset management professionals who value the transparency of trusted Excel cash flow models when doing financial analysis. RE Analytics’ platform provides a glimpse at reams of important asset management information and data, and their team of analysts maintains the information and provides reports at the click of a button. 

The platform saves real estate firms time and money: One of the most valuable resources for small and mid-sized real estate investment companies is time. For internal employees to operate strategically, they need to make decisions based on reliable data. Unfortunately, most of these companies do not have an internal platform to manage their portfolio data, except for some disparate Excel files that constantly need to be updated. Excel files can be adequate to manage portfolios of one to three assets but become highly time-consuming to manage as the company acquires more properties. The result is that internal employees spend an extraordinary amount of time each month and each quarter gathering data from multiple sources to assess the portfolio.

RE Analytics’ platform and service frees every team member to adopt a more strategic approach in their roles and focus more on what makes the company profitable. With all critical portfolio information aggregated in one place and available at the click of a button, investment teams have an extensive look at all of their assets in a more cost-efficient manner. RE Analytics’ products and services eliminate the need for more in-house junior analysts and the turnover and training costs that come with that.

Extensive property data organization and analysis: There are between 15 to 20 critical documents with valuable information for each commercial and multifamily property. Most companies have a shared folder with PDFs of these documents. Having a shared folder is helpful, but it:

• still requires the internal team to access these individual documents to look up critical data repeatedly.
• can also become overwhelming and time-consuming to access and analyze, especially for portfolios larger than five assets.

Financial data organization and analysis: Most real estate investment firms have property management and accounting teams that generate a monthly reporting package for each property. These reports consist of rent rolls, operating statements, and balance sheets. Although this information is essential, it:

• Is not in a format that CFOs and Asset Managers can easily digest.
• can become overwhelming and time-consuming to analyze, especially for portfolios larger than five assets. 

RE Analytics tech-enabled services provide both the platform and the expertise to do detailed analytics that allow their clients to be more efficient in managing their portfolios.

Cons Explained

Relying on a third party to analyze important asset data: Aggregating your portfolio data in one place is a huge benefit. However, handing off the analysis and upkeep of that data to an outsourced provider requires a certain level of trust. While RE Analytics’ platform and services are more cost-efficient than overseeing a team of analysts to do the work in-house, some real estate investment firms may prefer the control of having their own employees handle important asset data and information.

RE Analytics is a newer company founded in 2020: RE Analytics has been in operation for four years, making it a very young and growing company. However, the founder, George Burchlaw, has more than two decades of commercial and multifamily real estate experience on the principal side of the business. He started his real estate career at a private equity investment firm in Dallas, Texas, as an acquisition and asset management associate. During ten years with Forest City Enterprises, Mr. Burchlaw led three large-scale mixed-used development projects in Dallas. As the Executive Vice President for a family office, Mr. Burchlaw was the lead developer on a 66-acre super-regional mall redevelopment project.

Mr. Burchlaw developed the RE Analytics platform for a private equity company in Dallas that successfully used it to manage a portfolio of over 70 assets. 

To mitigate the risks of partnering with a startup, RE Analytics offers:

• A free trial period where they’ll analyze one to two properties at no cost to demonstrate the value and scope of the service.
• There is also no long-term contract. RE Analytics works monthly.

RE Analytics Product Offerings

The RE Analytics team utilizes a proprietary platform that is Microsoft-based and comprised of three components:

• Microsoft Excel for financial analysis
• Microsoft Access for data management
• Microsoft Power BI for data visualization and dashboards

All three components are seamlessly integrated so any change in an Excel model, through a data refresh process, will automatically update the data platform and the dashboards.

Financial Analysis

RE Analytics creates an Excel-based cash flow model for each property in the portfolio. Each financial model has the actual financial data to date, along with the current projections provided by the client, to assess the profitability of each asset throughout the entire hold period.

The financial models calculate the traditional financial metrics, such as:

• Trailing 12-month Unlevered and Levered Yield
• Unlevered and Levered IRR
• Gross Multiple and Equity Multiple
• Unleveled Net Cash Flow and Levered Net Cash Flow
• Debt Service Coverage Ratio and Debt Yield
•  Monthly NOI and Below-the-Line Variance calculations and explanations
• Exit Cap Rate

Since all the financial calculations are done in Excel, all the calculations are transparent and can be easily validated.

Data Management

The data platform contains abstracted information for over 20 asset-related documents per property. By having between 15 to 50 key data points from each of these documents, RE Analytics generates highly specialized reports to give their clients a unique perspective of the risks and profitability of each asset in their portfolio. The platform can also track business plans and “To-Do” items for internal employees. In addition to the abstracted data, the platform also serves as a document management tool.

Data Visualization

The user can generate an “Executive Dashboard” consisting of 16 pages and 44 charts/graphs by selecting nine different asset criteria. This allows the user to drill down to specific subsets of assets in the portfolio to assess key critical asset data, key dates, financial performance, and other asset-related data points.

Reporting

In addition to the Executive Dashboard, more than 50 detailed reports can be generated from the data in the platform. For example, there are four Real Estate Tax-related reports (RE Tax Protest Deadline Dates, RE Tax Payment Due Dates, a Metrics report with RE Taxes per SF or RE Taxes per unit, and Historical RE Tax Data).  

Also, the platform stores the data from assets that have been disposed of, so the company’s historical financial performance can be assessed based on multiple criteria such as year acquired, year disposed of, property type, state, and cost basis.

Email Notifications

RE Analytics has up to eight emails that can be sent to their clients as reminders for upcoming critical dates. For example, an email containing the upcoming Loan Maturity Dates can be sent to specific internal team members at a specified frequency.

User Experience

During a free trial, RE Analytics will provide the prospect with a document checklist with the information they need to analyze one to two assets. The trial period can last one to two months, depending on the portfolio size.

Once RE Analytics completes the initial analysis, they provide the client with login information to access their proprietary platform to review the data, analysis, and reports. RE Analytics will have periodic calls with the prospect to review the platform and their initial analysis.

After the free trial period, if the client decides to engage RE Analytics services, they will work with the client to determine the desired level of analytics and pricing options. There are different service packages with varying levels of pricing.

Set-Up

At the beginning of the engagement, RE Analytics provides the client with a document checklist for the remaining assets in the portfolio. RE Analytics can onboard approximately five assets weekly, depending on how quickly the internal team can provide the requested documentation. The RE Analytics team is in constant communication with the internal team on the status of all the data and documentation submitted and analyzed.

Depending on the portfolio size, the client would review the analysis of individual assets or groups of assets as the analysis is completed.

On-going Analytics

Each month, RE Analytics receives the monthly accounting statements, property management reports, the escrow and loan balances, and any other data that had changed from the prior month and updates the cash flow models and data platform.

RE Analytics will have regularly scheduled calls with the client to discuss any questions they have on our analytics and reports.

RE Analytics data platform is intuitive and easy to navigate. The layout is clean and straightforward, making it easy to learn. The intuitive search and reporting functions give many filter options to search for properties in the portfolio. You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use the platform.

Customer Support

RE Analytics assigns an analyst for each client. The analyst works with the client’s internal team to gather the information monthly and is available for video calls to discuss the analysis. For larger clients (over ten assets or $100 million AUM), a Relationship Manager is also assigned to the client to provide additional guidance and support. 

Pricing

Pricing is a subscription model determined by the level of analytics and data tracking.  

The lowest level package ranges from $400-$500/asset/month and includes:

• Monthly Excel Cashflow Model Updates
• Real Estate Property Tax Tracking
• Property Insurance Tracking
• Loan Balance and Escrow Balance Tracking

The higher-level packages can range from $1,000-$1,500/asset/month and includes:

• Debt Covenant Compliance
• Monthly Variances to Underwriting
• Estimated Tax Gain/Loss Tracking
• Commercial Lease Expiration Date Tracking
• Commercial Lease Rental Rate Changes
• Gross Potential Rent Summaries
• Interest Rate changes
• Property Management Contract Tracking
• Construction Contract Tracking
• Design Contract Tracking

The setup charge to initially load the data in the platform and create the cashflow models starts at $1,000/asset. Email notifications begin at $250/month.

Competitors

RE Analytic’s main competitors are Real Estate Financial Modeling, Financial Analysis with Real Estate Modeling, and Real Estate Business Analytics.

Real Estate Financial Modeling

Founded in 2009 and based in Atlanta, Real Estate Financial Modeling (REFM) provides financial modeling solutions, training, and consulting for real estate transactions of all types. REFM is also the creator of Valuate, a web-based software platform for property valuation and investment analysis used by thousands of commercial real estate professionals.

REFM can be seen as a competitor for RE Analytics because it provides advanced financial modeling knowledge, tools, and skills CRE professionals need to model their transactions successfully and present them to stakeholders. But while REFM’s educational training and financial modeling consulting and auditing services are valuable, RE Analytics stands out as a tech-enabled service that works more as a partner and not just as a software and educational self-study training provider.

Financial Analysis with Real Estate Modeling

Financial Analysis with Real Estate Modeling (FARM) was founded in 2020 by three students in the University of Florida’s Master of Science in Real Estate Program. All three founders come from various backgrounds in real estate, including private equity and banking, and they saw that many universities lacked the adequate Excel training that the real estate industry requires.

FARM consists of six voice-over levels of intense Excel training, taking students from the basics to building complicated formulas and full models from scratch. While FARM can be considered a RE Analytics competitor, it is more so for real estate investment firms looking for a training solution for their junior analysts. FARM does not offer the same proprietary platform and analyst services as RE Analytics.

Real Estate Business Analytics

Based in Littleton, Colorado, Real Estate Business Analytics (REBA) is a data analytics company whose mission is to change how the multifamily industry uses data. REBA helps executives ask insightful questions about their business by offering them access to all their data in one central location. REBA does this by providing a suite of business intelligence, budgets, and pricing and revenue management solutions that gather data and deliver insights.

REBA’s software solutions are similar to RE Analytics in that they aggregate critical data in one location and provide insights and analysis. However, REBA’s products and services are limited to the multifamily industry, whereas RE Analytics’ services can work for any asset class. In addition, REBA does not offer the full suite of analyst partnering services that RE Analytics does and is more of a software provider than a full partner in financial analysis.

How We Evaluated RE Analytics

When evaluating RE Analytics, we examined several factors, including:

• Product and service offerings: We dug into the depth and breadth of data and features on RE Analytics’ proprietary platform, including the outsourced analyst services that the firm offers.
• Pros and Cons: We weighed what potential clients should watch for against the features they would find that stand out against competitors.
• Ease of use/functionality: We tested how user-friendly and intuitive RE Analytics’ proprietary platform is and how quickly a new user could understand the platform’s functionality.
• Customer support: We evaluated RE Analytics’ support network for response time, training materials, and access to customer service reps.
• Pricing and transparency: We examined how RE Analytics’ products and services are priced and how readily available pricing information can be found for potential customers.

Summary of RE Analytics Review

RE Analytics provides a unique combination of proprietary software and real estate financial analyst services that have proved valuable for many real estate investment firms. RE Analytics’ platform gives principals, CFOs, and asset managers a comprehensive overview of the assets in their portfolios at the macro and micro levels, enabling executives to spend more time on what makes their firms profitable instead of organizing and combing through lengthy reports.

The combination of the RE Analytics platform and analyst services is a rare find in the commercial real estate industry. Founded in 2020, the company acts as both a software provider and a partner, and clients stand to save time and money by partnering with them. Along with gaining insights into their portfolios, clients of RE Analytics can reap these benefits at a lower price than managing the data analysis in-house with a team of junior analysts.

Despite concerns about its relatively short track record, RE Analytics’ team has seasoned real estate financial analysts and asset management professionals assigned to each client. Overall, RE Analytics is an exciting, new real estate technology firm to watch that provides products and services that benefit real estate investment firms, large and small.

Disclaimer

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