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Based on the most helpful WSO content, here's what you can expect for a 48-hour real estate case study:

  1. Case Study Focus:

    • The case study will likely center around a value-add multi-family or hotel asset.
    • You may be given base assumptions such as current occupancy, rents, stabilization timelines, and other property-specific details.
  2. Tasks to Complete:

    • Build a financial model from scratch. This could include:
      • Property-level cash flow statement.
      • Debt amortization table.
      • Sources and uses table.
      • Equity waterfall (if required).
    • Solve for specific metrics, such as:
      • Purchase price to achieve a target levered IRR (e.g., 18%).
      • Valuation using cap rates.
      • Return metrics like IRR, cash-on-cash return, and equity multiple.
  3. Additional Questions:

    • You might be asked to evaluate a property (e.g., a 100-unit apartment or a shopping center) and provide:
      • Things you like and dislike about the property.
      • Suggestions on how to add value.
      • A final recommendation on whether to buy it.
  4. Interview Discussion:

    • Be prepared to explain your assumptions, methodology, and conclusions.
    • They may test your understanding of the model you built, including your ability to adjust inputs and interpret outputs.
  5. Preparation Tips:

    • Practice building models with similar assumptions (e.g., NOI, cap rates, expense margins, growth rates).
    • Familiarize yourself with key real estate metrics and valuation techniques.
    • Review how to create and interpret equity waterfalls if applicable.

If you can confidently handle these tasks, you'll be in great shape for both the case study and the follow-up interview. Good luck!

Sources: Real Estate Modelling Test Practice, Real Estate Private Equity Case, From Real Estate Finance to Founder of Development Company - Q&A, Good Responses to Common Interview Question: "Why Real Estate?", 2 Hour Case Study?

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 

Hate that 48 hour case studies have become the norm.

Sometimes it’s an OM + instructions, sometimes it’s instructions with assumptions laid out. You’ll have to build a pro forma, growth projections, sale, debt, waterfall, and various metrics throughout (margins, going-in yield, cash-on-cash, DSCR, DY, IRR, MOIC, profit, etc.), most likely from scratch. Make sure you can defend any and all assumptions. With 48 hours, you’ll usually have to at minimum answer some questions and maybe draft up an IC memo.

 

These case studies are pointless.  You can litterally feed the project setup into a free version of Claude and it will build the entire thing for you. All you have to do it go back and review the outputs to make sure they make sense, if you are skilled enough at prompt engineering you don't even need to do that becuase their system is so good that it will be 100% correct 99.9% of the time. 

Shit I haven't created or even modified one of my dozens of models in 18+ months at this point.  It is far more cost effective to generate a brand new one from scratch every time with Claude, this doesn't even take into account that you can create fixed skills and model templates that the system can use to drive down costs even more.

 
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