Argus Enterprise (AE) Certification
I am currently taking the Argus Certification course using the e-learnings. Does anyone know how difficult the certification exam is?
Has anyone taken the exam?
I got through the material without much trouble but I would appreciate any insight/help I could get.
I really would prefer not spending the $149 for the 14 additional case study's considering the course already has cost over $1k, but would you happen to know if its absolutely necessary?
Finally, how close is the difficulty of the prep exam to the real thing?
Please share, and thank you!
I've only taken the DCF exam and it was actually pretty tough (because of time). You need to have a good understanding of real estate concepts and know your way around software pretty well....Hopefully someone can chime in on the AE exam.
Oh and I would suck it up and get the case studies. Without them it was basically impossible to pass. Again this was for DCF.
Plan on it being more difficult than it should be. I took the DCF class with my program and regularly finished early, with no errors, and in just a few days could crank out Argus like it was my job. The test had barely anything to do with that though and was more nitpicky questions about how Argus runs their calculations as well as general finance problems I had to whip out the HP12C for. Really stupid way to test, IMO.
Is getting the Certification worth it? Has it helped your career? Is it still worth it to get a DCF cert or would it be better to just get the AE cert?
I would just go for the AE cert at this point. Not sure why my program put us through DCF instead.
As far the certification's value - I'm in multifamily right now so I don't use it at all, but it's still on my resume because employers certainly take notice.
Definitely worth it. One of the main reasons I got hired at my current company was because I was AE certified. However we are mainly using DCF. I think there's only been one job in the past 4 months where the client asked for AE. But like everyone else I have been hearing we are transitioning to AE in about a year.
I took an Argus Enterprise class (as a part of my program) a little while ago. Our instructor (who is a pretty seasoned professional in real estate) said that the certification doesn't necessarily prepare you to use it well. Apparently his experience has been that AE-certified folk have often underperformed to his standards.
I am not fully sure whether having the certificate will be a determining factor between passing and not passing the initial HR filter that there may or may not be.
Perhaps not HR, but I've been told by two executives that it gets your resume placed into one "pile" versus another.
I'm taking it this weekend. I'll update everyone then. The practice exam was chock full of nit picky questions that mainly dealt with what values go in which tabs/sections, and other seemingly ancillary stuff.
So I ended up taking the exam last week. I passed by a decent margin. The extra case studies are not necessary if you are comfortable enough by the end of the course. I now am trained on both DCF and AE however as Debtlift said, go for AE as the industry will be moving in that direction over the next two years (a few executives in the NYC CRE industry confirmed this).
We just switched to AE. DCF will be completely phased out next year. This is coming from Argus itself as they are no longer renewing licenses for DCF at all (we tried).
Did you just take the intro/beginner course or whatever it is and nothing in addition?
Trying to revive this old thread. I am almost done with AE certification and wanted to know if there is any value add to getting Argus developer software certification as well? I am trying to break into the Capital Advisors/RE IB groups for FT, currently interning as a Summer (MBA) Intern at one of the top CRE firms (think CBRE, JLL, Cushman etc) in their facilities management side.
No, you would not use the development function in that role.
I got my certification (enterprise) through a class in college. Case studies were definitely a help.
I took this exam about two years ago - you definitely have to know your way around AE, and I had used it mostly in an an academic setting at that point and thought it was relatively difficult (but still passed). Honestly, you can learn most of it on the job, but I do think that it makes a pretty big difference on your resume when applying for analyst/associate jobs - employers just like to see that "stamp" of approval from ARGUS.
I took it about a 1.5 yrs ago. It not difficult but you have to be pretty familiar with it. All in I spent about 50 hours in it in an academic setting running through cases from the training manual and tracing my errors. No you cant google everything for the test and it helps to have all resources available and in front of you for the multiple choice
I study materials are awful and do not prepare you for the actual certification exam. The actual test is 90 questions, the prep exam is 45 questions. Many questions you review in the learning modules are different than what is in the actual test. I am asking for a refund or a better set of study materials from the Argus.
Did you take the test? Planning to take the test in the next few days..
ARGUS Enterprise Certification during Senior year (Originally Posted: 01/30/2018)
Since I'll be graduating with a non-business/finance related degree, I've thought it may be helpful to pick up the Argus Enterprise certification prior to graduation to help my chances of landing somewhere reputable. Any thoughts on this? Would this really stand out?Cost would be totally out of pocket.
What does cost look like? I got it during my undergrad studies and def was a nice talking point when meeting with people and interviews. It just shows a sense of understanding, even if you arent a master at it.
Cost would be about $1200.
Check if your school has some program. I go to a very non-target state school and they offer it for $300. I know UCLA Extension offers it for $885 (I'm in SoCal so this may not be applicable to you, but I'd imagine other schools offer it too). https://www.uclaextension.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?metho…
I don't think there are many jobs out there that will require argus but won't also require 1-3 years of work experience. The reality is argus is just software and can be learned to relative competency in a few days, but actual experience is much more rare/valuable. I think it would be rare for you to land a job that wouldn't train you on argus but would hire you with zero RE experience and an unrelated degree.
I understand the goal of differentiating yourself and proving your intent to persue real estate, but I think something more hollistic would be better serving than a very specific and expensive software cert.
That said, for $300 or even $500 I would bite the bullet.
Thanks for the reply. I have experience multiple internships in real estate, so it's not a total crapshoot. The unrelated degree is what I think is really holding me back. I reached out to Argus directly and they said that students can get the certification for $570. Makes the decision a little in their favor.
How Much Does an Argus Cert Help Hiring Chances? (Originally Posted: 02/10/2017)
I just finished the first day of the Argus Enterprise certification course (my school's RE institute hooked members up with a next to nothing rate to take it), and I'm hoping to see a noticeable impact in my summer/spring job search.
Short story is that I'm a junior in my first year at a 4 year school from a CC, previous work experience is in a manual labor capacity at a road construction company, and I haven't been successful in my spring/summer job hunt.
I have applications out to a lot of the big name firms (JLL, CBRE, Estadil, C&W), a few Texas based development firms, and a few REITS (publicly traded and small shops).
I have a few Excel certs, and am working getting my Texas RE license, and will have the Argus cert on my resume soon.
Am I likely to stack-up well, from a resume standpoint, with successful applicants now, or is it likely still too thin of a resume?
Is this for an intership?
For internships its going to be all about personality and fit. My company interviews ivy league kids for internships all the time and they all are either way too nervous or act like they know everything because they go to Wharton. Certs won't hurt but you are far from being a skilled Argus user with a cert. It takes time and reps to get good at it. Same with excel modeling.
In my experience, for full time jobs, employers (developers) are generally impressed with you getting it and then make some comment to the effect of "but you won't really use that here."
I'll second the sentiment that internship interviews are almost entirely fit though.
If it is cheap, you are interested in the principal side or investment sales, and you have the time and drive; might as well do it.
According to an SMD at HFF. For internships, it shows initiative, but ultimately, he said it doesn't show much other than you know how to open the program and save files.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Somewhat relieved that it's generally a fit thing, although I tend to get nervous before interviews.
Certification in Argus DCF or Enterprise? (Originally Posted: 02/10/2015)
Hi all,
I'm looking to get a job as an investment analyst for a real estate firm. To help stand our from the crowd, I am considering completing an Argus certification and can't decide between DCF or Argus Enterprise.
I spoke with Argus and they said do AE (naturally), but which certification would be more valuable to a perspective employer? Which version are people actually using?
Thanks!
Took a real estate class, we only used Argus. Spoke with Starwood and they talked about Argus too.
So 2/2 data points for Argus. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
Do you know which version of Argus you were using?
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