Argus Software

Think of Excel with a vagina, an inflated sense of self worth and eternal PMS. That's Argus. The best way to learn it is to play with it. It's very temperamental and touchy. See if you can find a way to get the student trial version is practice is what you're interested in. You'll need a school code. Overall, a shitty program, but definitely the industry standard.

Well...if it walks like a duck and quack like a duck...

Yeah, you're right it's pretty U.S. specific as far as I know and definitely skewed towards property management. That having been said if there's a lease of any kind involved, this is the program likely being used. I wouldn't drop a dime on it, if you think you'll need it in the future, definitely work on your boss. Last I checked it was in the low 4's, but still not worth it, IMO.

I have used it and play with it regularly at school. Just a big black box added onto excel. I guess it simplifies the DCF process and makes things easy to read and visualize. I would call up some business schools in your area and see if any of them have it installed.

it will be an issue if you dont know argus. almost every repe will expect you to have significant argus experience. by that i mean you dont need to know the program like the back of your hand (nobody uses argus to its full potential) but you will be expected to have underwritten a hi volume of deals on it. also, there are certain features that make the program valuable, and you will need to know those features.

its stupid that argus is a requirement. it took me a couple of days to become efficient at it. something re employers dont understand is that our generation picks up computer programs very fast because we do everything on a computer.

i recommend you get familiar with argus quickly.

Agree with mr1234. I was messing with it last night, pretty easy to pick up. A professor friend of mine runs the RE department and is certified on it. I will see if he has any PDF documentation for it and pass it along.

thanks anthony, that would certainly be helpful.

The problem with going to "mess around on it" is that I doubt anywhere in my neighborhood (a major city in CHINA) happens to have it installed... if one of the universities does have it, it's probably the Chinese language version - which would add another layer of complexity because my written chinese is still only 70% fluent at last.

I guess if I really get serious about switching jobs before MBA (I've been out of college/working in RE PE for two years now) then I'll pay for some of the training modules etc... presumably if I wait until MBA (which is the likely scenario anyway) I can use it at my comp lab there. Say for example I went to Wharton or Columbia and did a concentration in RE, would I have classes that included argus training?

I recently purchased the ARGUS Valuation - DCF Starter Package directly from Argus. It's not listed on their website, but you should still be able to purchase it from them. It includes a functioning 6mo. license for the software, all the online training modules, a case study book, and the certification exam. It's pricey at $995, but a whole lot cheaper than the sum of the parts. I've spent a couple weeks on practice and plan to take the cert. exam in a week.

As far as using the software... on the face it's pretty easy, but once you work through some more complex scenarios, you realize that the software is a little finicky and not entirely intuitive.

PM me if you want the contact over at Argus to get the Starter Package.

[quote=International Pymp]Currently working in RE PE in an emerging market and we only use excel for modeling. As I consider moving back to the US in the next 12-18 months (I've already been here 24), many of the pre-mba associate positions I'm looking at in RE IB and RE PE say that you'll need to know ARGUS.

I'm guessing that the software they mean is "Argus Valuation - DCF" (there are other Argus software sets I think), is the only one that would be essential for IB and Acquisitions in RE PE? Is the best way to learn that stuff by paying for the official eLearning guides online? Are there any particular modules that are more/less important?

Here's the link to what I'm talking about:

http://customer.argussoftware.com/s.nl/sc.39/category.2179/.f[/quote]

If you want to learn ARGUS I have posted several ARGUS tutorials (free for now) Google ARGUS DCF Tutorial and you will see my blog "Learn To Analyze Commercial Real Estate Using ARGUS DCF" The tutorial will go through how to down load the free version of ARGUS and guide you through building a basic model. I have worked in REPE for a couple years, and I have taught several ARGUS courses. This tutorial focuses on the practical applications of ARGUS. As you may have heard, a ton of the functionality within ARGUS isn't used in practice... Hope this helps My contact is on the blog if you have questions/comments