Acquisition · Multifamily
Multifamily Acquisition Model
A complete underwriting model for stabilized and light value-add apartment acquisitions. Build revenue from the rent roll, size debt the way a lender actually sizes it, and see levered returns across a hold period you choose.
What you get
- Eight tabs: rent roll, assumptions, an 11-year cash flow, debt sizing, returns, exit-cap sensitivity, and a one-page summary.
- Revenue built from gross potential rent down through loss to lease, vacancy, concessions and bad debt — every deduction traceable to a T-12 line.
- Debt sized as the binding minimum of LTV, DSCR and debt yield, with the constraint that binds called out by name.
- Unlevered and levered IRR, equity multiple, and cash-on-cash by year.
How this model was built
Most freely available apartment models are a single sheet that starts at collected rent and multiplies by a cap rate. That is fine for a back-of-envelope, and useless for anything you would put in front of a lender or an investment committee. This one is built to the standards those audiences check.
Revenue is built up, not assumed
The model starts at gross potential rent — every unit at market — and works down through each way that revenue actually falls short:
| Line | Why it’s separate |
|---|---|
| Loss to lease | The gap between in-place and market rent. On a value-add deal this is the clearest single indicator of upside — a property at 15% loss to lease has that much income sitting uncaptured in the rent roll. |
| Vacancy | Physical vacancy only, kept apart from economic losses so you can compare it to the rent roll directly. |
| Concessions | Free rent and move-in incentives, which a T-12 often buries in “other”. |
| Bad debt | Credit loss. Separating it from vacancy is what lets you see whether a problem is leasing or collections. |
| Other income | Parking, laundry, pet fees, RUBS — grown on its own rate, because it rarely tracks rent growth. |
Together these are economic vacancy. Modeling them as one blended percentage hides which lever is actually moving, which is exactly the question an investor will ask.
Two things most models get wrong
DSCR is calculated on Net Cash Flow, not NOI
Fannie Mae defines underwritten net cash flow as effective gross income less operating expenses including replacement reserves, and DSCR as that figure over annual debt service. A model that divides NOI by debt service overstates coverage by the entire reserve amount — on a 200-unit deal at $350 per unit, that is $70,000 a year of coverage that does not exist.
The loan is sized against three constraints, not one
A lender sizes to the lowest of what LTV, DSCR and debt yield will support. This model computes all three and takes the binding minimum, then tells you which one bound. Sizing on LTV alone — the most common shortcut in broker-built models — routinely produces loan amounts no lender would issue, and every return downstream inherits the error.
Operating expenses include recurring costs only. Capital expenditure is handled separately as replacement reserves, because historicals frequently bury CapEx inside repairs and maintenance and inflate the expense load.
Using the model
- Unit Mix. Enter unit types, counts, square footage, and in-place versus market rents. The model computes weighted average rents and your loss to lease from this — you do not enter it separately.
- Inputs. Work top to bottom. Blue cells are inputs; black cells are formulas. Property and acquisition first, then revenue, expenses, debt terms, and exit.
- Summary. The one-page output: going-in cap rate, year-one NOI and NCF, loan amount and binding constraint, DSCR, equity required, and returns.
- Cash Flow, Debt, Returns. The full workings, if you need to trace a number or show your math.
- Sensitivity. Levered IRR and equity multiple across a range of exit cap rates, with the scenario cash flows shown rather than hidden.
Fill it from a real deal
This is the part a downloadable spreadsheet normally cannot do. If you connect IntellCRE to Claude, ChatGPT, or Codex through our MCP connector, your assistant can read a property straight out of your pipeline — unit mix, current and market rents, tenants, comparables — and populate the model with it.
Once connected, ask for it in plain language:
No retyping a rent roll, and no transcription errors between your pipeline and your underwriting. Setting up the connection takes about a minute and needs no API key — see the connector documentation.
Compatibility
Excel 2013 or newer, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice. The model contains no circular references, no iterative calculation, and no macros, which is a deliberate design decision rather than a limitation — it is what lets the workbook compute identically in all three, and it is why this model ships with a true Google Sheets version.
Download Multifamily Acquisition Model
Free. Tell us who you are once and every model in the library unlocks.
Frequently asked questions
Is this really free?
Yes, and there is no upsell attached to it. We build software for commercial real estate teams; the models exist so that people who do this work know who we are. Register once and the whole library is available.
Why is DSCR lower here than in other models I’ve used?
Because it is calculated on net cash flow after replacement reserves, which is the lender’s definition. If another model shows a higher DSCR on identical inputs, check whether it is dividing NOI by debt service — that overstates coverage by the full reserve amount.
Can I use it for a value-add deal?
Yes, for light value-add. Enter your renovation budget as upfront CapEx and set the loss-to-lease burn-off period to reflect how quickly you expect to reach market rents. Heavy repositioning with phased unit renovations and interim occupancy loss needs a dedicated value-add model — that one is coming.
Does the Google Sheets version behave identically?
It does. The model deliberately avoids circular references and macros, so every formula evaluates the same way in Sheets as in Excel. Models that need capitalized construction interest — development and waterfall models — cannot make that promise, and we will say so on those pages.
What do the default numbers represent?
A 200-unit illustrative asset. They are starting assumptions to show the model working, not market data. Replace every one with figures you can support from the T-12, the rent roll, and verifiable comps.
How was this validated?
Every formula in the workbook is evaluated by an independent calculation engine and compared against the same underwrite rebuilt from scratch, on every release. Twelve outputs — including NOI, loan sizing, DSCR, IRR and equity multiple — have to agree exactly before the file ships.
Version notes
| Version | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | September 2026 | Initial release. Eight tabs, 11-year cash flow, three-constraint debt sizing, exit-cap sensitivity, MCP data fill. |
A note about models
Verify the formulas and methodology before basing an investment decision on this or any model. If you find an error, tell us and we will fix it and publish a new version.