Real Estate Finance 101: A New Two-Day Workshop

For most founders, operators, and professionals, real estate finance remains frustratingly opaque: different math, different incentives, different definitions of value, and a completely different language.

That’s why we’re launching Real Estate Finance 101, a two-day interactive workshop designed to finally make sense of how real estate finance actually works—and give you the fluency to speak confidently with developers, investors, lenders, and property owners.

If you want to understand how deals get capitalized, evaluate opportunities with clarity, read a property P&L, and communicate in the financial language the industry expects—you need this workshop.

Tuesday, December 16: 12:00–1:30pm ET
Wednesday, December 17: 12:00–1:30pm ET

Recordings included for all participants.

Sign Up Here

What You’ll Walk Away With

By the end of this workshop, students will have:

A complete mental model of how real estate finance works:
The GP/LP ecosystem, the role of lenders, how capital flows through a deal, and why every property is structured like its own standalone business.
A practical understanding of the property P&L:
Revenue, operating expenses, capital expenditures, NOI, and the levers that actually drive value—not the ones that people think do.
Fluency in key financial metrics:
Cap rate, NOI, IRR, yield on cost, and debt service coverage—plus how these map to business performance and investor decision-making.
A clear understanding of deal structures:
How developers and LPs negotiate promotes, waterfalls, preferred returns, fees, and governance—along with how those structures shape incentives.
A capital-stack roadmap:
Debt, equity, mezz, preferred equity, refinancing, and how developers use leverage to create returns (and when it becomes dangerous).
A translation guide between startup math and real estate math:
Why “margins” don’t matter, why cash flow does, and why founders often lose credibility without the right financial vocabulary.
An exit strategy framework:
Merchant build, value-add, recapitalization, long-term holds, and how timing and market cycles affect return outcomes.

This workshop is built to be practical, fast-moving, and immediately useful—giving you the financial intuition and vocabulary required to operate inside the real estate ecosystem.

The Workshop

Day One: The Players, the P&L, and the Language of Real Estate

Who’s Who in a Deal:
GPs, LPs, lenders, property managers, leasing agents, and how their incentives shape decisions.
How Real Estate Is Structured Financially:
Why each asset is treated like a business, and how risk, cash flow, and value are distributed among stakeholders.
The Property P&L:
Revenue, operating expenses, capital expenditures, and the all-important NOI that drives valuations.
Translating Corporate Finance Into Real Estate:
Why founders often miscommunicate with operators—and how to fix it.
Common Misunderstandings:
Why IRR is not “ROI,” why cap rates are misunderstood, and why NOI dictates almost everything.
Market Dynamics & Macro Drivers:
How rates, credit markets, and capital flows reshape underwriting and value creation.

Day Two: Capitalization, IRR, and the Exit

The Capital Stack:
Debt vs. equity, how projects are capitalized, and how leverage affects returns and risk.
Waterfalls & Promotes:
How developers get paid, why LPs negotiate certain terms, and how cash flows are shared.
Understanding IRR & Yield on Cost:
What these metrics actually mean, when they matter, and how timing changes everything.
How Developers Make Money:
Fees, promotes, refinances, dispositions, and how operators build long-term wealth.
Exit Strategies:
Underwriting merchant builds vs. long-term holds and how macro cycles influence timing.
Why NOI is the North Star:
The single metric that governs value creation—and why all roads lead back to it.

Who’s Teaching

Brad Hargreaves: Co-Founder & Editor in Chief, Thesis Driven – A leading operator and educator in real estate innovation, Brad founded General Assembly, the global education company acquired for $413M, and Common, which developed and operated 5,000+ units across more than 12 U.S. cities, becoming the largest coliving platform in North America. His career has centered on building and scaling next-generation real estate platforms—giving him a uniquely practical vantage point on how capital, operations, and incentives shape the built environment.