Customer Reviews

Commercial Real Estate Analysis and Investments (with CD-ROM)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Overall, my favorite real estate book and the one I consult most often.

At the risk of oversimplification, commercial real estate valuation can be broken apart into 3 activities:

1) Figuring out how much cash a property will generate (e.g. pro-forma property financials)
2) Figuring out how to discount that cash for time and risk (e.g. discount/cap rates)
3) Figuring out how to slice this asset value into various claims against it (e.g. mortgages/CMBS, preferred equity structures, etc.)

This book is amazing at #2 and only slightly less amazing at #3. In fact, I find its treatment of some materials (e.g. risk-neutral discounting as it relates to development properties) to be an excellent complement to and in some ways more informative than standard finance textbooks (e.g. Brealey / Myers). The authors do admit that their approach is slightly more academic than rules-of-thumb used in practice, but it never hurts to be more informed than your peers. If you're concerned about being too academic, also pick up the text by Peter Linneman Real Estate Finance & Investments: Risks and Opportunites; (2nd Edition), which covers similar material in a less academic, though still logically sound manner.

I found, and many of you may find, the treatment of #1 (cash flow forecasting) somewhat limited. The book does deal in Part II with urban economics and in Part IV with property-level pro-formas, but these topics fly well above the depth available in other texts.

I recommend that you compliment this text with something on market analysis...I own Real Estate Market Analysis: A Case Study Approach. A text like that gets you up the learning curve on key supply-and-demand metrics for each collateral type. There are also books on real estate operations (e.g. property management and loan servicing) that could compliment the Geltner text if you're into that level of detail.

Side note: make sure to print out the appendices. They are a very useful supplement to the text.

This book is really serious. It gives you data sets, a massive amount of study questions with solutions and sample programs (Argus & Crystal Ball--which is used for probability). This book is like the bible. It goes from simple real estate i.e buy low & sell high all the way to mortgage backed securities, options and derivatives. After reading the book you will know more than most executives.

It may not be for those that are more into urban planning or construction management, but if you need and want a book that blends real estate with the capital markets this is the one.I highly recommend it.

This is one of the most comprehensive, analytical and thorough texts on topics concerning commercial real estate investment that I have come accross. It would be useful for both advanced students with real estate interests and finance professionals, who seek exposure to fundamental real estate (and real estate securities) analysis. Participants in the real estate industry mishgt find the text useful, but basic. The book is also useful as a reference guide for real estate professionals looking for a particular mathematical formula.

The authors cover a very broad range of topics - from urban economics, to fundamental (supply/demand) real estate analysis, to real estate valuation techniques as well as more specialized topics, such as commercial mortgage backed securities and real estate development. The book really stands out in the breadth of its disourse both on qualitative and quantitative topics.

This primer is ideal for the mid-level investor, or more sophisticated individual investor, lender, portfolio manager, or asset manager. Integrates the frontier financial economics into real estate and capital markets. It is an objective and in-depth book with a great deal of content.

Steven Harry Vornea

Although I haven't finished reading this text, I think I can accurately comment on it. The information comes from an economics perspective. that's a good thing, if you have an economics background, which I do. I like the way this book reads. It offers a good deal of information about commercial real estate using both financial and urban economics. I don't believe this book is appropriate for an undergrad student. This book assumes you have a basic finance background and some understanding of urban economics. In short, if you have an econ degree or even a finance degree, I think you'll find this text very useful in helping you to understand what drives the commercial real estate market, how to predict where this market is going, how to analyze it, and how to valuate it.

Just everything okay, considering it had to be shipped from the US to the UK, arrived even earlier than some of the books I ordered same time from UK suppliers.
Small unsubstantial damage on cover of book though, probably caused by transport.