Commercial real estate underwriting: a buyer's reference

Excel vs underwriting software for commercial real estate: the Reddit question, answered

Why this page mentions Reddit. People add "reddit" to a search like this because they want an answer from someone with nothing to sell them. We do have something to sell, and we say so plainly below. We also did not read Reddit while writing this and we quote no post, user or thread. What follows is the straight answer to the question you were actually asking, with our conflict of interest stated up front and every vendor claim linked to the page we read it on.

Published 16 September 2026 by Altyst, which sells one of the tools compared here. Full disclosure below.

Why the honest default is Excel

Vendors open by treating Excel as a liability. For much of this market that is wrong, and the reason is structural: CRE deals rarely share a shape. A single-tenant industrial sale-leaseback and a ground-up self-storage development have little in common at the line-item level. Excel lets you invent a line item at 11pm because the seller has just disclosed a percentage rent clause you have never modelled, without waiting for a vendor to ship the feature.

It also carries advantages that rarely appear in feature grids. The skill is portable, and the marginal cost of one more model is zero, which matters if you look at far more deals than you buy. Whether your lender, your LPs and your valuer will accept a spreadsheet is a question to put to them, not to a vendor's website, and it is worth asking before you assume the answer is no. If you buy one or two properties a year, your bottleneck is deal flow, and software does not fix deal flow.

Five signals you have actually outgrown it

The useful question is not whether Excel is good enough but what specifically is breaking. One or two of these is normal. Four or five is a real case for changing tools.

1. Volume and time to first number

Count the hours between receiving an offering memorandum and holding a first-pass number you would defend. If that is a full day and you screen several deals a week, you are paying for transcription, not analysis. Re-keying rent rolls and T-12s is the part of an Excel workflow that software removes most reliably. Whether it is your single biggest cost is a question only your own timesheet can answer.

2. Concurrent editors

The usual vendor pitch here overstates its case, so here is the correction. Microsoft 365 co-authoring lets several people work in one workbook at once. Microsoft's own support page documents Version History, and a Show Changes pane that reports what others changed "including previous cell values (if any have changed)". Excel is not the audit-free void it is sold as.

The real failure mode is human and sits above the file. Two defensible versions of the truth arrive at an investment committee, built from workbooks that diverged weeks earlier, and nobody can say which assumption moved. Excel can tell you that a cell changed. It cannot tell you the change was wrong, and it cannot see the copy somebody emailed out.

3. Version control and audit

If your file naming has reached a second "final", you are managing versions by hand. Version History in OneDrive or SharePoint covers more of this than most pitches admit. What it does not cover is the workbook a colleague forwarded, which is the copy that reaches an LP and the one you will be asked about when an LP or lender wants to know why the exit cap moved 25 basis points between the teaser and the committee memo.

4. Breakage rate

Track how often a model returns a number you have to fix. The usual culprits: hardcodes pasted over formulas, ranges that stopped extending when rows were inserted, circular references in debt sizing, and rollover logic that quietly re-lets space at the wrong year's market rent. Finding these after the model has left your desk costs more than time.

5. Who has to read the output

A model only you use can be as idiosyncratic as you like. A model a credit committee, outside investor or valuer must trace is a communication document, and must be legible to someone who did not build it.

These thresholds are our judgement, not a study. Treat them as a starting point for your own arithmetic.

What the alternatives actually are

"Underwriting software" covers several categories that get compared as though they were one. What follows is drawn from each company's own website, checked on 16 September 2026.

ARGUS, and what a requirement for an ARGUS file actually means

Altus Group's site says its ARGUS software "is recognized as the industry standard and is taught in more than 200 universities and colleges worldwide", and describes ARGUS Enterprise as "a leading commercial property valuation and cash flow forecasting software solution". Those are Altus's words about Altus's product, and we have no independent measurement to offer for or against them.

One thing has changed. The ARGUS Enterprise page now reads "ARGUS Enterprise, now part of ARGUS Intelligence Platform", and states that "Every tiered, asset-based subscription to ARGUS Intelligence Platform includes ARGUS Enterprise, alongside ARGUS Asset Manager, ARGUS Portfolio Manager, and ARGUS Assist." Our reading is that it is no longer bought on its own, and that existing customers will face a re-contracting conversation when their term ends. That last part is our inference, not something Altus has stated, and we have no visibility into anyone's contract.

Altus publishes no price. The page says only that "Pricing is flexible, tiered and scales with your business. Please contact us to discuss in more detail what that would look like for your business." We will not repeat figures circulating elsewhere, because we could not verify any of them.

Now the part most comparison pages get wrong. Reading an ARGUS file and delivering one are different problems, and more than one vendor claims the first. Rockport VAL's page offers to "Import ARGUS® exports" so there is "No need to recreate models". U-Rite's ARGUS page says "Unlock any Argus file instantly into U-Rite." Neither of those pages claims to write a file back out in ARGUS's own format. So if a counterparty has said the word ARGUS to you, ask which they mean: do they need to receive a file in that format, or do they need the cash flow that happens to live inside one? Those point at different purchases. Altyst does neither. It cannot open or produce ARGUS files.

Deal-level tools

Rockport VAL, U-Rite, AcquiOS, Archer, Apers, IntellCRE and Altyst all work at the deal level, and they are less alike than a list makes them look. In their own words:

• Rockport VAL is cloud-based valuation and cash flow software, aimed at appraisers, lenders and investors, covering single assets and portfolios.
• U-Rite pitches "An Argus alternative, 100% in Excel" and "The power of the cloud meets the convenience of Excel", with analysis performed "directly in an Excel-based interface with AI-powered workflows and cloud-based calculations".
• AcquiOS calls itself "The Commercial Real Estate Operating System" and says it "populates your existing Excel template", so like U-Rite it leaves the workbook where it is.
• Archer titles itself "Multifamily Underwriting, Parsing & Comps Software" and pairs underwriting with market strategy and deal sourcing.
• Apers calls itself "The AI System for Institutional Real Estate" that "Reads the deal, builds the model, writes the memo, end to end in your deal room".
• IntellCRE calls itself "The AI Deal Flow Engine for CRE" and describes automating underwriting alongside marketing material and deal presentations.
• Altyst is browser-based and takes the model out of Excel, exporting back into it.

The split that matters most in practice is the last one: whether a tool keeps you in Excel or takes you out of it. That is a decision about your team's habits before it is a decision about features.

We have not run a controlled comparison of these products and will not pretend we have. Three things are worth checking yourself on any of them, ours included: whether the model stays editable after import, which asset classes it handles properly, and whether you can trace any number back to a formula and a stated assumption. We will not characterise how a competitor's engine computes internally, because we have not seen inside one.

Adjacent systems, including ones that do underwrite

This is where buyers most often shop in the wrong category, so it is worth being exact.

• Dealpath is deal management software for real estate investing, covering sourcing, pipeline, execution and reporting. Its site mentions comparing underwriting models rather than building them.
• Juniper Square describes itself as "The operations partner for private markets", covering fund administration, fund accounting, investor services, investor reporting and waterfall modelling. Deal underwriting is not what it sells.
• Blooma is lender-side. Its site calls it "the insights engine that augments your current tech stack" and says it is "not an LOS, CRM, or data provider", while listing "Commercial Real Estate Underwriting Software" among its features. So it does underwrite, for lenders.
• redIQ is now part of Radix. Its site states that "Radix acquired redIQ" and that "redIQ is now Radix Underwriting", describing an ecosystem "where underwriting, market analytics, and comp intelligence all talk to each other in real-time", with scenario stress-testing, rehab analysis and NOI projection.

The common mistake is buying a pipeline or fund-administration system and expecting a cash flow model out of it. The opposite mistake is assuming that anything sitting next to underwriting does not underwrite. Two of the four above do.

Cheaper options, and general AI

Not every problem with a spreadsheet needs a subscription.

PropertyMetrics sells browser-based analysis tools alongside self-paced courses covering "investment analysis, valuation, underwriting, development, lease analysis, Excel, and waterfall modeling". Its PMX Proforma is described as building "a complete multi-tenant proforma, model development costs and loan draws, run DCF and sensitivity analyses, and calculate partnership returns". If what is wrong is your understanding of the model rather than your throughput, a course is cheaper than any software on this page.

CREmodel is worth naming for one reason: it publishes a price, which when we checked most of this category did not. Its site describes browser-based modelling with a free plan ("Free, no card") and a paid plan "from $129/mo" adding document reads, branded reports and Excel export.

ChatGPT and Claude are genuinely useful for reading a long offering memorandum and telling you what is in it. Asking one to produce the cash flow itself is a different request, and a worse one: what comes back is numbers in prose, with no formula behind any cell that you or a credit committee can follow, and no guarantee of the same figures on a second run. Use them to read. Compute somewhere you can audit.

When the honest answer is not us

Some situations have a clear answer, and it is not Altyst.

• A counterparty needs to receive a file in ARGUS's own format. We cannot produce one, and neither of the ARGUS-compatible tools we checked claims to write one back out either. Ask the counterparty precisely which file they need before anyone buys anything.
• Your team has to stay inside Excel, because that is where your templates and your habits already live. U-Rite sells itself as "100% in Excel" and AcquiOS says it "populates your existing Excel template". Look at that shape of product before any browser tool, ours included.
• Your problem is understanding rather than throughput. PropertyMetrics sells courses in precisely the topics that break models, and a course is cheaper than a subscription that reproduces your error faster.
• You want multifamily underwriting sitting next to market analytics and comps. redIQ, now Radix Underwriting, sells that combination directly.
• Deals fall through the cracks between people rather than break inside the model. That is a pipeline problem, so shop for deal management software, where Dealpath sits.
• You want to evaluate before you pay. We have no trial and no free tier. CREmodel's site offers a free plan with no card, and Apers' offers "Start for Free". They will get an evaluation from you that we cannot.

Where Altyst fits, and where it does not

Altyst is browser-based commercial real estate underwriting software. It ingests an offering memorandum, rent roll, T-12 or lease, or a pasted listing link, extracts the figures and builds a live, editable model. The calculation engine is deterministic and purpose-built; the AI does extraction, not arithmetic, so every number traces back to an assumption or a source document.

• Model: unit and tenant-level rent roll, T-12 normalisation, rent and expense growth, vacancy, lease rollover with TI and leasing commissions, debt sizing, equity waterfall, DCF, IRR, equity multiple, DSCR, cash-on-cash, exit assumptions, scenarios, sensitivity tables.
• Exports: Excel workbook, PDF report, PowerPoint deck.
• Property types: multifamily, office, retail, industrial, self-storage, hotel, medical office, mixed-use, land, ground-up development.
• Pricing: Individual $12/mo, 5 deals, $4 per extra. Professional $24/mo, 15 deals, $3 per extra. Team $99/mo, 75 deals, 5 seats, $3 per extra.

The real limitations:

• No free tier and no free trial. You pay before you evaluate, and some readers will stop reading right here.
• New in 2026, bootstrapped and small, with no long institutional track record behind it.
• Cannot open or produce ARGUS files, and is not an institutional system of record.
• No property management, lease administration, CRM, brokerage listings or debt origination.
• Closed source.

Free, no account required: ten calculators, embeddable versions of them, a free multifamily Excel model, a 60-term glossary and a set of plain answers on underwriting.

How to evaluate quickly

Test on a deal you have already closed and compare line by line against your own model. Four checks are worth running on any tool in this category, ours included: does the rent roll import at the right scale, does rollover re-let at the correct year's market rent with TI and leasing commissions, does debt sizing resolve without a circular reference, and does the Excel export contain live formulas rather than pasted values. Run them yourself. Do not take a vendor's word for any of the four, including ours.

Frequently asked questions