Learn by building, not watching

Start here. What NOI, a cap rate, leverage, MoIC, and IRR actually mean, taught through one small property, one formula at a time, before you build a real model.

Build a complete institutional multifamily acquisition from a near-blank sheet: a four-floor-plan rent roll that produces gross potential rent, the in-place bridge and going-in cap rate, line-item operating expenses, the capital reserve, a full loan amortization schedule you build rather than get handed, the forward-NOI exit, and the equity cash flow behind both levered MoIC and levered IRR.

The same institutional multifamily acquisition, with the line labels gone. Assumptions and year headers are given; column A is empty. You name every calculation row and build it (the bridge, the pro forma, the amortization schedule, the forward-NOI exit and the levered IRR) from memory, graded against the identical answer key.

Underwrite a real value-add business plan from a near-blank sheet: loss-to-lease, a unit-by-unit renovation program, a rent roll marked to market as units turn, a full debt amortization schedule, and the levered MoIC and IRR that come out the other side.

Build a complete retail rent-roll acquisition from a near-blank sheet: a four-tenant rent roll with its lease expiry schedule, the in-place underwriting bridge and going-in cap rate, PSF-based leasing and OpEx ratios, a full loan amortization schedule, the TI/LC reserve tested against the renewal cost the actual expiries imply, the forward-NOI exit, and the equity cash flow that drives both levered MoIC and levered IRR.

Build the complete distressed office lease-up model from a near-blank sheet: the in-place bridge and going-in cap rate, the occupancy ramp and effective-rent roll, the operating pro forma, the leasing capital funded at close, a full loan amortization schedule, the stabilized exit, and the equity cash flow that drives both levered MoIC and levered IRR.

Master LP/GP cash flow distributions using a six-tier European (whole-fund) promote: return of capital, preferred return, GP catch-up, and three escalating IRR-hurdle promote tiers.

Build the complete European six-tier waterfall from a near-blank sheet: capital, the compounding preferred return, the GP catch-up, three escalating IRR-hurdle promote tiers, and LP/GP MoIC + IRR. Every line is linked and tied out (both sides sum to proceeds).

Split three distributions arriving in three different years the way a US deal-by-deal JV actually does: a preferred return account that compounds on unreturned capital, IRR hurdles carried as accrual accounts instead of closed-form watermarks, a promote paid mid-life rather than at exit, and the whole-fund European lookback that computes what the GP has to hand back. Proceeds link to a property model's exit equity, not a typed number.

Model an S-curve construction draw schedule with capitalized interest, defend the stabilized NOI from its leasing drivers, value the finished asset, then refinance the construction loan with a permanent takeout and solve for yield-on-cost, development profit, equity multiple and levered development IRR. Every line must be linked, not pasted.

Build a complete 5-year LBO from a near-blank sheet: Sources & Uses with transaction fees, the five-year operating build, CapEx and working capital, the full debt-paydown schedule off levered free cash flow, and sponsor MoIC and IRR. Every line is linked, dragged across, and tied out.

A sponsor buyout with a Term Loan B (cash sweep), a PIK mezzanine that accretes to principal, and a revolver that covers cash shortfalls. Build sources & uses, the full three-tranche debt waterfall, the PIK accretion, and the sponsor's MoIC and IRR. Every line must be linked, not pasted.

The classic mental-math interview test. Calculate MoIC and IRR with simple numbers and zero circularities.

Build a linked 5-year, three-statement operating model from an empty grid: a bottoms-up revenue build, the full income statement waterfall, cash flow, and a balance sheet that ties out with no plug. Financing is built out, not netted: term debt interest, revolver interest and cash interest income as separate lines, plus the revolver's opening → draw → ending roll, all on the opening-balance convention the course explains. Then two supporting schedules: working capital broken into AR / inventory / AP with a tie-out back to the net line, and a parallel average-balance interest block that prices what the opening-balance convention is worth and shows exactly where a real model turns circular. Years run across the columns, every line is linked to its drivers, and the course won't pass a pasted number. Finishes on the balance check.

Rebuild the linked three-statement model with no line labels. Assumptions, Year-0 balances and year headers are given; column A is empty and the statements aren't laid out for you. Name every line, link it to its drivers, and finish on the balance check, using the same answer key as the guided build but none of the scaffolding.

Rebuild the linked three-statement model with interest charged on average balances instead of opening balances, the convention that makes a three-statement model genuinely circular. You'll build the fix the way a bank does with iterative calculation switched off: a five-pass Gauss-Seidel ladder, pass 1 built once with mixed references and passes 2–5 copied down, with a convergence check that measures the residual instead of eyeballing it. Then finish the income statement, cash flow and balance sheet off the converged pass, tie the two constructions of net income and cash to each other, balance the sheet, and price exactly what the convention was worth, since pass 1 of the loop *is* the opening-balance model. Every graded line is the engine's converged circular answer, not a first-pass approximation.

Build a DCF from an operating forecast: unlevered free cash flow, WACC from CAPM, discount factors (end-of-year and mid-year), terminal value on BOTH an exit multiple and Gordon growth, an implied share price under each, and a two-way WACC × exit-multiple sensitivity table. Every line must be linked, not pasted.

Combine two companies in a stock-and-cash deal and build the merger model, not just the EPS test: total uses including transaction fees, the funding mix, new shares issued, after-tax interest on the fee-funded debt, the full purchase-accounting entry through net identifiable assets and the goodwill residual, step-up amortization, and synergies that phase in rather than arriving whole. Then it covers what the EPS analysis alone can't: a contribution table that sums to 100%, pro forma ownership set against it, and a Year 2 build where synergies reach run-rate while the deal costs don't. Every line must be linked, not pasted.

The other half of the merger model. Take the same stock-and-cash deal you ran through accretion/dilution and build the pro forma balance sheet: eliminate the target's equity, write off its goodwill, step its identifiable assets up to fair value, strike the new goodwill as the residual, fund it with debt and shares, and charge the transaction fee against opening equity, since that's the line that never shows up in run-rate EPS yet is still real book value gone on day one. Prove the opening entry balances, then roll it forward three years: earnings, dividends, cash and equity rolling, the step-up amortizing off PP&E, and goodwill flat in every column because US GAAP does not amortize it. Balance check as a formula in every year, and a diagnostic reading of what a non-zero one is telling you.

Build a complete 3-statement + DCF model from a near-blank sheet: a level-pay debt schedule you amortize off a real Year 0 balance, revenue dragged across five years, the income statement waterfall, the cash flow bridge, a Year 0-anchored balance sheet with a real Net Working Capital line and no plug, a WACC decomposed into CAPM cost of equity and after-tax cost of debt at Year-0 book-value weights, and a DCF to a per-share price under both Gordon-growth and exit-multiple terminal values. Every line is linked, never pasted, and every asset is independently built — nothing is solved backward to force the balance check to tie.

Build a real company's income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement from an empty grid, three years running left to right: revenue down to net income, the balance sheet's new balances, the cash flow statement that bridges accounting profit to actual cash, and Cash itself linked back into the balance sheet rather than typed in. Build each line's formula once in Year 1, drag it across Year 2 and Year 3, and get the roll-forwards right. No deal, no LBO, just the mechanics every corporate finance and investments class starts with. Finishes on the balance check.

The same labeled grid as the guided build, the same three years, the same answer key, but the teaching is gone: just the row labels and a bare build instruction. Tests whether the mechanics stuck without also testing whether you remember the statement structure, which is what the blank-sheet capstone after this one tests.

Rebuild the same income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement across the same three years, with no line labels. Assumptions and every roll-forward's Year-0 base are given; column A is empty from the first calculation row down. Name every line, link it to its drivers, drag the formula across Year 2 and Year 3, and finish on the balance check, using the same answer key as the guided build but none of the scaffolding.