Whether you are a real estate professional who works with income-producing properties (or desires to), or an individual investor seeking to invest in real estate, crunching the numbers to ascertain profitability, cash flow, and rates of return is a must.
But it can be daunting without the aid of real estate investment software.
When I first started selling multifamily property long before computers and any kind of software, the numbers were crunched manually.
This was not only time-consuming, but it necessitated a clear understanding of what data was most important for a buyer or seller to make a wise investing decision along with the knowledge of the formulas needed to compute that data.
And then, of course, there was the issue of presenting the data.
The earliest reports I created for the presentation of multifamily properties to investors required pains-taking hours of virtual cutting and pasting and copying.
That is, I had to type out the data, cut it out with scissors, glue it unto another piece of paper that resembled a report (which I also created by hand), and finally run it through the copy machine.
Yes, this will sound archaic to anyone who entered the real estate investing arena within the past fifteen years because using computerized and automatic machines and real estate investment software's is a current way of doing business, but in reality this outdated process of creating rental property presentations was not so long ago.
Computers and spreadsheet software naturally made it easier.
Formulas could be programmed in, reports could be formatted, and data could be posted in and subsequently printed with the click of a mouse.
No more scissors or glue or hours at the copy machine.
Nonetheless, spreadsheets, as helpful as they are, also present a challenge.
Not only must the user learn how to use the spreadsheet software correctly, it takes untold hours to properly create a cash flow presentation that looks good with the inclusion of all the right analysis data and formulas.
In fact, it's safe to say, having made this commitment myself, that most brokers and investors would find it far too time consuming and arduous a task to deal with it.
That's the benefit of real estate investment software.
Rather than reinventing the wheel or worse yet, ignoring the need to crunch the numbers altogether, agents and investors can work through and evaluate multifamily property cash flows, rates of return, and profitability easily and quickly.
There are no formulas to learn or reports to format; in most cases the software solution provides user-friendly forms for you to simply enter the property and revenue data and print.
Here's what you should look for.
A solution that's easy-to-use, with ample computations for rates of return, ratios and measures, quality reports, and a good customer support policy.
Other features you might look for (depending on your individual business needs) are computations for tax shelter and time value of money, analysis and marketing presentations, both USA and Canadian loan amortization, and the ability to use a currency symbol other than the dollar symbol.
Best of all, thanks to the web you can locate, purchase, and download an investment software solution without leaving your desk at an affordable price.
Using real estate investment software is just a smart way for anyone seeking to crunch income property numbers.
It's easy, concise, and it will free you from countless hours which you can spend planning new ways to invest and grow your real estate business.