Course Review
It is said that the barriers to entry in real estate are low but the barriers to success are high. Most analysts or investors think very intuitively about real estate and that might work some of the time. But if you need consistent success, you need to treat it like a proper asset class and that comes with a lot of unique features and its own set unique valuation methodologies. That is pretty much the focus of this course. The idea here is to teach you real estate as an asset class and there are few better than Wharton and (Wall Street Prep) WSP who can do that.
Wall Street Prep is essentially one of the top course providers to investment banks and investing firms and have been around for quite a while now. They have partnered with Wharton to bring the best of both world’s to the table and this course is the result of that partnership. You will be hard pressed to find a course that perfectly balances academic theory with real world investment experience. The course is well structured, thorough and delivered by legendary leaders and industry practitioners. This is what institutional investors teach to their hires.
I won’t go too much to the course curriculum and instead will just link it all below, but here is a brief summary of the modules you will be covering. Firstly, you are introduced to real estate as an asset class including valuation strategies, investment goals, investment framework, DCF, comparables, return types etc. Financing and taxation is next followed by the a module on how the deal actually goes through in real time. There are plenty of case studies here as well. Then you have two more modules on real estate investment analysis and modeling. This is followed by analysing risk factors both at the property level and the market level. Lastly, there is an investment case study which is essentially your capstone project.
Real Estate is not just residential properties as most people seem to think. Commercial real estate is what the biggest banks and funds are generally interested in and that is where the mega deals happen. Regardless, both are attractive options and crucial to creating a well-diversified portfolio. REITs have also revolutionized the market and provide investors a much more palatable entry point and greater liquidity. We even have real estate derivatives these days that mimic real estate returns while providing investors with the same liquidity as financial instruments.
As attractive as real estate is, investing in this asset class is still a tricky proposition. Some people have a natural panache when it comes to real estate but for the rest of us, these courses offer a great starting point.