Asset Classes
Multifamily
Institutional multifamily underwriting — rent rolls, value-add, affordable, density economics, development, and comp set construction. Written by practitioners, not marketers.
Multifamily is the asset class where institutional underwriting discipline gets tested most often, because the number of moving parts inside a single rent roll is unforgiving: physical vs economic occupancy, loss-to-lease, concessions, bad debt, scheduled vs effective rent, and the renovation premium block that drives most of the IRR in a value-add. The 2026 vintage compounds the problem — agency caps, supply digestion across the Sun Belt, the OBBBA changes to LIHTC, and the RealPage Proposed Final Judgment have each shifted how seller rent rolls should be read.
These seven articles walk multifamily from the smallest deal to the largest. Start with the pro forma calculator if you are sizing a 5–50 unit small multifamily acquisition. Start with the rent roll reading exercise if you are onboarding into institutional underwriting. The value-add and density-economics pieces target deal teams running a 200-unit Sun Belt scenario; the affordable, development, and comp-set pieces are the specialty layers that separate analysts who can model multifamily from analysts who actually close it.
7 articles
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Rental Property Pro Forma Calculator (with widget)
Multi-period rental property pro forma calculator built for 5–50 unit small multifamily — year-by-year NOI grid, agency small-loan debt panel, levered IRR + MOIC + DSCR + going-in cap + exit cap + breakeven occupancy on one screen. Includes a worked 12-unit $1.8M deal and the 2026 small-MF debt-sizing decision.
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Multifamily Underwriting Fundamentals: The Rent Roll Reading Exercise
The institutional rent roll walk-through — current vs market vs scheduled vs effective rent, physical vs economic occupancy, the four-number income leak (loss-to-lease, concessions, bad debt, vacancy), and the 15-flag taxonomy institutional underwriters use to interrogate a seller's rent roll. Worked on a 200-unit Sun Belt garden-style value-add against 2026 cap-rate, agency-cap, and NCREIF context.
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Value-Add Multifamily: Renovation Premium Modeling for the 2026 Vintage
The renovation-premium block is the single biggest IRR driver in value-add multifamily — and the only driver the 2026 vintage controls outright. Cost-per-unit by tier, achievable rent premium against the comp set, the absorption curve in arrears, the bridge to stabilized NOI, exit-cap sensitivity, and the 2021–2022 vintage IRR reset modeled on the same 200-unit Sun Belt deal.
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Market-Rate vs Affordable Multifamily: Underwriting Differences
A translation guide for institutional CRE practitioners crossing into affordable multifamily. AMI rent caps, eligible basis vs qualified basis, 9% competitive vs 4% bond, the OBBBA 2026 changes, HUD MTSP rent limits effective May 2026, and a 200-unit Sun Belt 4% bond + LIHTC worked example at current ~84¢ credit pricing.
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Garden vs. Mid-Rise vs. High-Rise: Multifamily Density Economics
The four-tier density-economics reference institutional multifamily underwriters actually need. Garden, wrap, mid-rise, and high-rise compared on hard cost PSF, achievable rent PSF, NOI margin, target exit cap, target levered IRR, and capital source — with the 2026 construction-cost overlay and a worked 200-unit Sun Belt side-by-side.
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Multifamily Development: From Construction Through Lease-Up
A practitioner walkthrough of the full ground-up multifamily development lifecycle as one integrated modeling problem — construction draw mechanics, the Certificate of Occupancy cash flow inflection, the lease-up absorption curve, agency take-out math, and the 2026 supply environment.
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Rent Comp Analysis: Building Institutional Comp Sets for Multifamily Underwriting
The institutional comp set methodology: subject definition, comp selection criteria, data sources, the unit-mix-weighted market rent calculation, and loss-to-lease validation. Includes a worked 5-comp set for a 200-unit Class B garden-style value-add in Atlanta, plus the revenue management vs underwriting comp set distinction in light of the November 2025 RealPage Proposed Final Judgment.
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