We at Pereview believe the same as many of you: Excel is the world’s best modeling software, but it’s the world’s worst database. Previously, we’ve addressed the reputational and operational risks of real estate investment managers using Excel, but what does Excel Hell really mean? Why does the real estate industry stay with the Excel hell status quo?
Most real estate investment management firms receive monthly and quarterly financial and operational data from operating partners, JVs, and Borrowers in PDF and Excel. Even those firms with in-house property management and general ledger software still dedicate countless hours and resources manually extracting, converting, and entering data into another series of spreadsheets. These spreadsheets then drive asset management, portfolio management, reporting, valuation models, annual business plans, amortization schedules, and more.
On top of that, every firm has those rogue one-off spreadsheets that bypass established processes to answer specific questions. Over time, these workarounds introduce errors, missing data, and broken links, leading to inefficiencies and miscalculations. #REF! errors, duplicated efforts, and siloed data slow down decision-making and increase risk.
And guess what? Investor and key stakeholder reports haven’t even been compiled yet, meaning more employees and more hours will be needed to track down answers at the property level.
What can you do? Escape, of course!
Rather than forcing firms to abandon Excel, Pereview enhances your Excel models by integrating data into a secure, centralized platform. This eliminates manual processes while still allowing teams to leverage their trusted Excel models.
I spoke recently with the head of asset management for a client firm in Southern California that manages four opportunistic funds across all asset classes with an AUM of almost $2B.
When did you finally say it was time to escape?
She responded by saying, “Once we topped $1B in AUM years ago, we swore we would start looking into more efficient ways to manage our property-level info received from, at that time, a handful of select operating partners on two different PM/GL systems. Then, as you can guess, we got busy, we got so overwhelmed that we just threw more and more employees at the ever-growing problem. ‘Excel is free,’ we told ourselves, never thinking of what the grind was truly costing us. Then suddenly, we almost hit $2B in AUM, where we needed even more processes in place only to realize we were almost at a point of no return. Mistakes were being made and the grind was too much to continue to ignore. We learned about Pereview from an industry peer who had come across you at a NAREIM event and we reached out to learn more. The rest is now happily just history, as we are so much more efficient now from property through to the fund to our investors.”
How did Pereview create an escape for you?
She replied, “Pereview connects directly to our now 11 operating partners’ Yardi, MRI and Entrata platforms, pulling all of our data automatically into our user, property, and portfolio dashboards. Our reports are automated and trusted because all data is clean. We focus on enhancing the property’s value and driving returns now without interruption. The grind is over. But it is far more than just data aggregation and collection; we now have all of our data in one location, which we never dreamed was possible in real estate.”
Rapid ejection from Excel Hell.
In speaking with another client firm in Chicago managing almost $6B in AUM across multiple value-add and opportunistic funds, their head of portfolio reporting stated they quickly hit the famous easy button – rapid ejection style from Excel Hell by implementing Pereview with Data Management Services.
He said, “It was a no-brainer for us to engage Pereview and their team of real estate professionals who know and understand the intricacies of a trial balance with variances and rent rolls to not only receive but to also collaborate with our operating partners on ensuring quality, accurate data is received month in and month out, freeing up our team to do what we do best in making our next strategic decision based on our past and present data with forward looking assumptions.”
What are the immediate indications of ROI by implementing Pereview
He responded, “The fractional amount of money we pay for Pereview’s professional Data Management Services as opposed to what a handful of full-time employees would cost is amazing. It is probably our most successful investment, outside of our properties, of course. Excel usage has been greatly diminished and replaced with Pereview custom reports built to my requirements. In fact, I think we only use Excel for our modeling now, which Pereview also connects to.
Schedule a demo today to learn how Pereview can enhance your firm’s real estate asset management strategy. We’ll show you how to optimize your reporting, reduce risk, and make better decisions – without giving up the Excel functionality you rely on.
