Real Estate Finance and Investments: Risks and Opportunities

Edition 5.2 of this book, co-authored with long-time colleague, Bruce Kirsch of Real Estate Financial Modeling, is an exploration of the key concepts of real estate finance and investment strategy. The book (published in 2022), is based on Dr. Linneman’s Wharton classes and was written in response to his frustration with texts that concentrate excessively on theoretical detail and literature, while ignoring “real world” considerations. This book not only covers the key theoretical and mathematical underpinnings of real estate finance, but also stresses the ambiguity of investment decision making. The book is designed to help you understand that there is no singular, simplistic, or formulaic answer to any real estate finance problem. Rather, real estate finance is fundamentally driven by judgement and experience, with an eye to the numbers. The goal is to help you evaluate the risks and opportunities of real estate assets and investments as you embark upon the long and unending road of strengthening your judgement. The formulas and templates found in the book are intended to help the reader assemble and organize information. Understanding and mastering the tools included in the book will provide you with a strong foundation in real estate finance. This book focuses on what to do thereafter. Knowing how to build a financial model and calculating the internal rate of return in a spreadsheet is not the same as making a profitable real estate investment. Judgement comes one mistake at a time.