Why use an outdated approach when better options are available?
Are you a real estate investment manager looking to simplify the tasks of tracking investors and investments, calculating distributions, budgeting, forecasting, valuations easier and more accurate? Try replacing spreadsheets with a single connected technology platform.
Real estate property and investment managers face a tremendous challenge in assembling information from widely disparate sources. Spreadsheets have historically been the technology of choice for that task. However, being labor-intensive, error-prone and reliant on disconnected data sources, this approach has proven largely inadequate to the task and offers no means to drill down to the transaction level or the cause of an under-performing asset.
Spreadsheet users might have to enter data into multiple fields. A single spreadsheet report might contain hundreds of tabs. Users often hit “Enter” and cross their fingers hoping it doesn’t crash. That’s a stressful, error-prone process that hinders business performance.
A recent study shows that about 80% of spreadsheets contain errors. Increasingly, spreadsheets have become outmoded as real estate companies seek to drive efficiency and value into their operations.
Single platform meets the challenge
Fortunately, there’s a better, more efficient way to manage real estate property and investments. Software providers have created innovative solutions that automate property management and investment operations by integrating portfolio information into a centralized data platform. This automation relieves the time and effort required for manual consolidations and returns calculations across complex ownership and deal structures.
Imagine the benefits of a single connected platform to property owners and operators with large portfolios of complex properties, thousands of tenants and a significant volume of lease and license agreement data. They might have dozens of deals and investment actions happening simultaneously. With an automated technology platform, they’re relieved of manually compiling activities into reports.
Automation also supports managers in performing frequent portfolio valuations, since integrated investment management software can calculate current and projected portfolio or single-investment values much more rapidly and easily than is possible with spreadsheets.
Because all the property and lease data is available in real-time, exposure analysis can be run instantly, with varying conditions and assumptions applied for immediate effect. The result is much faster assessment, driving timely decision-making. Furthermore, since all the data is already present in real-time, asset managers are assured of accuracy because the margin for error inherent in manual data transfer has been eliminated. This provides assurance to investors that investment decisions, including those that involve multiple tax and accounting rules, language translations and currency conversions, will be reliable and timely.
San Diego-based MG Properties Group is one company that replaced spreadsheets with the Yardi® Investment Suite to gain faster reporting, drives investment strategies, satisfies investors and enables full transparency from investor through to operation. The solution “transformed our ability to deliver outstanding service to our investors and grow our business,” said Joe Anfuso, CFO for MG Properties Group, which acquires, rehabilitates and manages apartment communities in the western United States. “Being able to answer investor questions immediately has impressed our clients.”
Los Angeles private real estate investor Cohen Asset Management Inc. also uses Yardi Investment Suite solutions to compile its portfolio performance into a single database that automatically tracks information on prospects, investors, activities, tasks, correspondence and more. The solution “helps us have more meaningful conversations with our investors,” according to Scott McGinness, Cohen Asset Management’s principal and CFO.
With economic conditions remaining precarious in the pandemic era, property and investment managers need every possible advantage. MG Properties Group and Cohen Asset Management are among the companies that have mitigated risk and driven efficiency with investment management technology that leverage automation and data centralization.
The benefits include more efficient internal performance, reporting, valuations and increased investor confidence than is possible with spreadsheets, along with higher NOI and asset value NOI, which in turn creates better value for the asset and the investor. Such a platform offers a formula for long-term success.
Learn how your peers have benefited from replacing spreadsheets with Yardi Investment Manager.