Any company worth its salt will strive to improve their products or services… or die. The Tract-PIE Team continues to invest time and capital to deliver the most flexible, easy-to-use, versatile real estate investment cash flow projection software on the market. The Tract-PIE suite of systems has been benefiting large and small real estate residential and commercial builders and land developers for more than 20 years… and we plan to continue doing just that!
We have just released the latest version of Land-PIE, version 7.6 which includes:
Budget Analysis Report:
The Budget Analysis Report presents the results from a Primary Report showing all revenues, costs and profitability by Product Type, Grand Total, Per Unit Average, Per Acre, Percent of Sales, and Percent of Cost. This report also provides some other key analytical information.
The presentation of this report has been enhanced to be much more functional in terms of categorizing cost items as Finished Lot Costs with a corresponding sub-total resulting in Gross Profit and Gross Profit Margin-%, followed by Direct Costs with a corresponding sub-total, Miscellaneous Revenues with a corresponding sub-total, and finally Net Profit and Profit Margin-%.
Flexible Identifiers for Loan Categories, Developer & Investor Equity Participants
The Purchase Note and A&D Loan categories now allow you to enter your own descriptor for each loan category if you prefer to change the default descriptor. The Miscellaneous Loan category has always required that you enter your own title to identify the loan (if used). Also, the default descriptors for the Equity Participants (Developer and Investor) may be modified if desired. Maximum Report Periods Expanded to 360
The maximum number of report periods has been expanded from 240 to 360. Report periods may be designated as months, quarters or years. When a report is displayed in the report grid, a menu bar item is presented that allows you to present quarterly or yearly periods for a monthly report or yearly periods for a quarterly report.
Report Presentation Enhancement
Report presentation has been enhanced in that values that represent percentages (i.e., interest rates, discount rates, internal rate of return, (%) of sales, (%) of cost, etc.) are now shown with a percentage sign.
Improved Menu Bars for System Navigation
All information prompting forms now provide a menu bar selection that allows you to immediately return to the Main Menu whereas certain forms previously required you to advance to a prior or subsequent form in order to exit to the Main Menu.
New Analysis Metric – “Equity Multiple”
An important metric for investors to consider is known as the Equity Multiple. This is a ratio calculated as the Total Distributions for the Equity Participation divided by the Maximum Equity Advanced Balance. Land-PIE displays the Equity Multiple for the total equity participation and for the Developer and Investor equity participation on both the Primary Report and the Executive Summary Report.
Flexibility, ease of use and on-going enhancements, coupled with responsive Customer Support are what make the Tract-PIE suite of systems the software of choice for successful homebuilders, land developers, lenders and investors in these challenging times.
Rick McCann, CFO of Southern Home Builders, Shreveport, LA, purchased Tract-PIE about a year ago… but alas, it gathered dust on the shelf amidst the doom and gloom of a discouraged industry. Recently, however, Rick was willing to re-commit to learning Tract-PIE with a quick training session using a deal he was involved with. And what a deal!!
The deal involved 44 Executive Office Condominiums, each ranging from 1,225 to 4,900 SF in 4 – 5,000SF buildings. Pre-construction pricing began in the low to mid $250s. Quickly analyzing the deal in Tract-PIE was a snap and really opened Rick’s eyes to how easy Tract-PIE is. He confessed that “trying to learn a new system is always intimidating and time-consuming but Tract-PIE was incredibly easy!”
What’s exciting for Rick is that this and similar deals pencil out at about a leveraged IRR of over 200% with a Profit Margin about 38% with a short duration, start to finish, of less than 2 years. And with a slowly improving economy, proximity to large residential communities and a growing desire for small ownership versus rental, he’s optimistic about the future of similar projects.
“I’m definitely going to be using Tract-PIE to analyze similar projects because I firmly believe that we have found a perfect product at a great price for these times”, says Rick!
Maybe there are similar projects that you can take advantage of in your area too!
Click here to learn more about Rick’s project.
With banks not actively lending on real estate projects, investment firms like Sunwood & Associates are very busy analyzing and evaluating all the deals that are submitted to them. That’s why Tract-PIE has been so important to them – to analyze potential deals quickly, filter out the viable deals and concentrate on the best ones and then optimally manage them over their life-cycle.
“Receiving an initial submission in a spreadsheet is typical, but we rely upon Tract-PIE to more accurately forecast revenues and expenses and structure the deal to make it a win-win situation”, says President Erendira (Eri) Cervantes. “Obtaining a cash flow projection already in Tract-PIE or working with a partner using Tract-PIE sure makes the evaluation and monitoring process that much easier and faster. And the fact that they are using Tract-PIE makes us more comfortable that the projections are correct”, she adds.
Under the experienced leadership of Don Knox, Don Faye and Erendira Cervantes , Sunwood & Associates is a privately held real estate investment firm that specializes in acquiring desirable real estate properties that will deliver solid returns on investment for their partners and associates. These purchases often represent residential land parcels where the hard and soft costs of the properties exceed their present market value. Sunwood primarily targets its acquisitions across the western region of the United States — including California, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada.
The Sunwood & Associates team offers over 70 years of collective real estate and business experience. Throughout their careers in finance and real estate, the partners have amassed exceptional expertise encompassing:
- Executive Investor Management
- Executive Developer Management
- Executive Bank Management
- Commercial Experience
- Acquisition Management
- Private Placements
- Strategic Planning
- Equity Raising, Foreign and Domestic
- MAI Appraisers
- Lending Experience
At Sunwood & Associates, they take pride in maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards with their partners, lenders, jurisdictions, consultants and associates. They value the relationships that are established, and recognize the importance of integrity, trust and responsiveness in ensuring successful, mutually beneficial transactions.
They also value Tract-PIE service and support… because in a fast moving industry such as real estate capital funding, you need the flexibility to handle every twist and turn that comes your way in a very competitive marketplace. Tract-PIE delivers big time!
We were recently contacted by someone who wanted to evaluate our Tract-PIE financial analysis system for a proposed Midwest residential project. As we connected our PCs (me on Windows, him on a Mac) and began the live demo by inputting his "real life" assumptions, I started to sense naivety and a lack of seriousness with this prospect. The project involved more than 100 homes on partially developed property (to be actually purchased in a week at auction!!), but it became apparent that not much thought had been put into the accuracy and detail of the assumptive parameters… even going through what we call the Quick Feasibility (back of the envelope) module. Trying to make the presentation as worthwhile as possible, we probed deeper regarding the assumptions, the experience of the builder and the knowledge of the individuals who would be advising this person.
After comments such as "the family has been in real estate for years" and "we’ve done lots of projects on a handshake and didn’t need anything this detailed", I quickly realized this prospect was living in a completely different world. This was then confirmed when he shared that "he was bored and wanted to sign-off and get together with the boys for a beer!"
Why share this story? While marketing and supporting our financial analysis software for more than 20 years, we have never encountered such a response from anyone! We have found, without exception, that those who endeavor to be successful in this industry are hardworking, passionate about what they do, willing to make sacrifices to accomplish prudent goals, are realistic (for the most part) about the expectations of lenders, investors and homeowners and are open to using the most efficient tools available whether for construction or financial analysis purposes.
It has been a distinct pleasure supporting the real estate industry with our financial, feasibility analysis software and we’re proud to be associated with those who work in, support or serve the industry. I praise you for your consistency and courage as you labor in these challenging times. I also wish this unrealistic prospect good luck - he’s going to need it!
I just got off the phone with Ruben Aguirre of Community Builders International of Las Cruces, NM. I smiled while hanging up the phone after hearing the "confessions of a spreadsheet guru"!
Prior to using Tract-PIE, Ruben had created many spreadsheet models for generating cash flow projections and doing the financial analysis for all their building projects. After using Tract-PIE for more than a year, he recounts how much easier, faster …. and more accurate Tract-PIE is compared to his prior models. Additionally, he’s more efficient and able to thoroughly analyze existing projects as well as do the prudent feasibility analysis for new projects and communities.
And vital for any company, their lenders are more receptive and responsive now to their presentations because the reports are professional-looking and endorsed by their accountants at one of the best recognized CPA firms in their area.
According to Ruben, "we can present reports to our accountant and respond to their suggestions much faster and confidently than when using a spreadsheet." "I make better use of my time with Tract-PIE. It frees me to analyze a deal from more angles instead of spending my time double-checking and triple-checking formulas for errors and omissions. And when I have a question about how a feature in Tract-PIE works, their customer support calls me back the same day, and always within 24 hours."
Any company worth its salt will strive to improve their products or services… or die. The Tract-PIE Team continues to invest time and capital to deliver the most flexible, easy-to-use, versatile real estate investment cash flow projection software on the market. The Tract-PIE suite of systems has been benefiting large and small real estate residential and commercial builders and land developers for more than 20 years… and we plan to continue doing just that!
We are wrapping up the latest release of Tract-PIE, version 7.6 and I wanted to give you a sneak preview of what will be released shortly. While this is not an exhaustive list, it will provide you an expectation as to what will soon be available.
- User defined titles for all expenses
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No more being limited to pre-defined titles
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- Permits and Fees based upon different fees by plan types
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These different fees affect the profit margin of each plan type
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- 4 additional User Defined Expenses
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Combined with the above User Defined titles on existing expenses, you have many more expenses available to describe your project
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Used to describe your unique funding source
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- Budget Analysis Report Expansion
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Now reflects expenses allocated to Lot cost, Construction cost (leading to Gross Profit), reduced by Direct Costs leading to Net Profit. Loan fees and interest are also assigned to the appropriate categories
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This Tract-PIE release is scheduled for the Summer 2010.
Flexibility, ease of use and on-going enhancements, coupled with responsive Customer Support are what make the Tract-PIE suite of systems the software of choice for successful homebuilders, land developers, lenders and investors in these challenging times.
While “sustainability” is a word that if often flung around in today’s society, hearing it in the world of building and development is becoming more common. According to Ian Gillis of Urban Community Partners, LLC, “Everyone has their own definition of sustainability. For me I prefer the word “walkable. We want to create a community where people can walk to work, to the store and out for dinner.” Not only is this idea something that is environmentally friendly, cutting back on use of cars, it is also much healthier for individuals. “Studies have shown,” he continues, “that people who live in mixed-use communities are actually healthier than those who don’t. They are using the two legs God have them, instead of their cars.” Continue reading Walkable Communities Are a Winner for Urban Community Partners
While there is much talk about having reached the economic bottom for the real estate market and that a possible upturn is right around the corner, developers and builders still may have uncertain times ahead. Our latest interview was with Jeff Daley, a 36-year old Assistant Vice President for a regional developer in the southeastern United States. Jeff gave us another look into those surviving the economic downturn. Daley was brought on as an analyst six years ago. Before the real estate crisis, his main responsibilities included sourcing and underwriting land deals along with the associated due diligence. Today his responsibilities have increased in light of the needed layoffs to cut overhead. “Like everyone else, we have had to downsize, and I’ve had to reinvent myself,” explains Daley. “I’m doing everything now from Power Point presentations to Real Estate Tax analysis.
As far as Daley’s project analysis is concerned, he strictly uses Land-PIE and Tract-PIE; “I can’t tell you how pleased I have been with the power and flexible capabilities of both Land-PIE and Tract-PIE. The ‘goal seeking’ element of the programs has been really beneficial. These systems are truly amazing and took my analysis to a whole new level,” praises Daley.
In regards to the economy, “I can’t say when there will be a turnaround. I have a theory that those who make a prediction, would be better served to simply say, ‘I don’t know.’ There’s just too much political risk,” surmises Daley. As far as personal growth is concerned, he has learned to be glad with the job he still has. “My wife and I have learned to cut corners. Well, I have had to. My wife comes from a more frugal-minded culture and I’ve learned a lot from her.” While admitting that this is his first economic “down stroke” experience, it has been more valuable than sitting in school earning his Masters. Apparently the school of hard knocks has another well-educated graduate.
Since beginning our interviews last year, we have come across one amazing story after another. While no one is enjoying, necessarily, the changes in the present real estate market, they are welcoming the creative opportunities rising from the ashes. Our latest interview with Michael Barnes was an exciting glance at new unforeseen opportunities and investments.
Situated in Reno, Nevada, Barnes was co-owner of Copper Canyon Development, a master planning developer from 2000-2005. Unlike many of his real estate contemporaries, Barnes and his company were able to sell at what turned out to be the height of the market and walk away with not only a profit, but an opportunity for a personal year - long sabbatical that led to a renewed enthusiasm for real estate potential.
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