Real estate / method
How a case is written
Each published case is one file, one thesis, and a small set of numbers that either support or break the story. The goal is an underwriting memo, not a marketing deck.
Case template fields
Every case opens with a consistent masthead:
| Title | Project or asset name |
|---|---|
| Location | City, submarket, or generalized MSA when privacy requires |
| Asset type | Product type, use, and hold strategy |
| Status | Academic study, closed deal, live asset, or internal operations case |
| Role | What I did: analyst, developer, operator, builder |
| Thesis | One sentence: why this asset, in this submarket, at this basis |
Body sections
The narrative follows the same sequence I use when underwriting on paper:
- Site - parcel context, access, adjacency, physical constraints
- Market - demand, vacancy, pipeline, rent comps, household profile
- Regulatory - zoning, entitlements, affordability requirements, height and density limits
- Design - massing, construction type, efficiency, unit mix logic
- Program - unit count, mix, retail or amenity program, parking
- Financial - basis, hard and soft costs, NOI build, cap or yield assumptions
- Returns - residual land value, yield on cost, development profit hurdle
- Sensitivity - the variables that move the outcome most (cost, cap, rent, timing)
- Conclusion - what the case demonstrated, what remains open, what I would do again
Images
Exhibits should earn their place. Prefer one strong hero image, then plans, massing, and charts that support a specific claim in the memo. Captions state what the reader should take away, not only what the drawing shows.
- Hero: street render or site photo that orients the reader
- Plans: ground floor and typical floor when program is central to the thesis
- Massing: axon or elevation when height, density, or envelope drives value
- Market: rent comp chart or regression when unit economics are contested
- Sensitivity: grid or table when one variable dominates residual land value
Collapse secondary exhibits into a gallery when they support diligence but are not essential to the first read. See 344 14th Street for the pattern.
Privacy and disclaimers
Addresses can be generalized (MSA + product type) when a counterpart, lender, or resident should not be identifiable. Academic and professional cases carry disclaimers: not an offering, appraisal, or advice; figures as of the study period.
Not investment, legal, appraisal, or brokerage advice.