New Analyst Struggling with Argus
Hey guys - I am a first year analyst straight out of college working in real estate AM. I started in late June and for the first month that I was on the job basically had very little responsibility. Recently, the team I am working with has decided to throw me into the water and I feel somewhat incompetent. The place where I feel weakest is in Argus and am afraid that I will not do well on assignments that are Argus related. We did have a 2 day Argus training, but I still feel that I am not as well versed as I should be.
Do you have any recommendations on how to quickly ramp up my Argus skills so I can do well in the upcoming "busy season."
I know that you are going to hate me for saying this, but make a copy of an ARGUS run, print out the original supporting schedules, and then change single assumptions to see how it affects the model. Always look at the resulting supporting schedules.
For example, if you add 1 extra month to the Months Vacant input cell in the MLA table, see how it alters the numbers for the size of absorption and turnover vacancy and the TI. If you are unable to understand the change, try to recreate the math for that line item in Excel. It doesn't have to be dynamic, just good enough to provide you with greater transparency.
AE is unfortunately a black box and could be initially intimidating, however by truly delving into a model, you will be fine in no time.