Real Estate Investing and FinanceCornell

Certificate Program

Real estate investment is a popular way to accumulate wealth, but you don't have to be rich to get started. That's because there are many ways to finance real estate investments to raise the equity you need and structure debt beneficially. In this course, you will explore both sides of the financing equation to understand what equity and debt partners want, how to structure financing for a high likelihood of approval and rate of return, and how to perform analyses that are critical to success. Not only will these analyses upgrade your skills, the sophisticated spreadsheet tools you use can be applied immediately to real-life opportunities.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Real Estate Investment Decisions

Is the value of your proposed property greater than its cost? Can you confidently forecast revenues for both new and existing properties? The ability to produce accurate estimates of rents, occupancy, and absorption is essential in making real estate investment and financing decisions.

In this course, you will explore the process of accurately forecasting real estate occupancy for properties facing significant new competition. You will forecast revenues and expenses using contemporary techniques, including real estate cash flows and benchmarking analysis. Given that forecasts are only as accurate as starting assumptions, you will also investigate how to use data to support your forecasts.

By the end of this course, you will have the strong foundation needed to create a successful and rigorous feasibility study and to use your skills to produce accurate, supportable forecasts.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Real Estate Investment Decisions
• Financing Real Estate Investments

Without well-established rights to acquire, charge rents, and sell real estate, investors will not invest. Legal systems create these rules and institutions that facilitate the efficient identification and transfer of real property rights. So how do you tackle the legal aspects of real estate?

In this course, you will explore the various estates in real property, including how property ownership is registered or recorded, how real property interests are transferred, and how ownership can be shared. You will understand the vocabulary of real property rights, identify the limitations on property rights, and examine the major contracts that surround real property transfer.

By the end of this course, you will have the knowledge needed to connect financial and property rights, setting you up to increase the value of your property and transform fundamental property rights to your benefit.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Real Estate Investment Decisions
• Financing Real Estate Investments

No survey of real estate as a financial asset would be complete without a discussion of appraisal. Understanding this critical piece of the process will set you up for success when you make complex decisions.

In this course, you will explore the classic triad of real estate valuation methods: the cost approach, the sales comparison approach, and the income approach. The appraiser's task is to produce an estimate of the value of the real estate using each approach then reconcile these values in a final market value estimate. You will not become an appraiser in this course, but you will understand how to use appraisals to make better investment decisions and potentially increase the value of your real estate.

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to use appraisals to make better decisions in a variety of areas in real estate. In the field, you will be able to use appraisals to support real estate investment decisions, asset management decisions, disposition decisions, refinancing decisions, and more.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Real Estate Investment Decisions
• Financing Real Estate Investments

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are becoming an accepted equity structure around the globe, and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) create liquidity and lower the cost of borrowing for real estate developers and owners. Understanding their vocabulary and importance can set you up for successful, forward-looking strategies in your future projects.

In this course, you will consider public real estate structures and their markets with a focus on the practical aspects of public equity (REIT) and public debt (CMBS) structures and markets. You will concentrate on the impact that REIT legislation has on the operation of REITs and how CMBS is designed to manage the risks of default and prepayment.

By the end of the course, you will have a deeper understanding of real estate public markets as well as an ability to analyze how real estate performs as a security in the secondary market.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Real Estate Investment Decisions
• Financing Real Estate Investments