What does "advanced financial modeling" really mean in real estate?

I see this in just about every job posting. Having worked at a multifamily shop for a short amount of time and only within the constraints of a single multifamily model used on every deal, I wonder what other major components of "advanced financial modeling" am I missing sitting in my cube as a multifamily analyst at a mid size owner/operator that invests with JV capital. Obviously I am missing out on the other asset classes (hotel, office, retail....) But how much more should I know about waterfalls etc to be competitive or within the ballpark of candidates with "advanced financial modeling" (those I assume to be shoe-ins for REPE positions).

In short: Can someone describe to me--a newbie to real estate investment--in detail what kind of scenarios I should be able to model and to what degree of ground-up modeling I should be able to command to be competitive for top investment positions in the future?

4 Comments
 

It means nothing. Most firms have their own templates. You need to know enough to know how to put in the proper inputs (e.g. the right vacancy rate, the right rental amount, etc.) and to manipulate the template. There are few jobs in this biz that require true high level modeling skills. You won't build much from scratch. You will need to know how to make nice Excel graphs/charts.

 

I have seen a posting (and by that I mean only one, ever) for a job at a fund in NY that mentioned VBA/macro skills. Seems overkill to me, though.

 
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