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Beginner Academy guide

Run first underwriting

8 min readBeginner

Use one property to practice rent, vacancy, expenses, debt service, cash flow, cap rate, and cash-on-cash without overcomplicating the model.

Included in: Core Investor Curriculum · Deal Analyzer learning path

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Make the first model useful, not perfect

The first underwriting pass should answer one question: does this property deserve more time? Start with rent, vacancy, taxes, insurance, management, maintenance, utilities, debt service, and expected repairs.

Do not hide weak assumptions inside a polished spreadsheet. Mark every number as verified, estimated, or unknown so the next action is obvious.

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Due Diligence Workflow

A day-by-day workflow for inspections, title, leases, insurance, lender checkpoints, and renegotiation decisions.

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Investor Offer Review Scorecard

A pre-offer scorecard for comparing buy-box fit, return strength, neighborhood risk, team readiness, and downside exits.

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Related guides

Check the neighborhood risk

After the first pass pencils, validate whether the location supports the assumptions.

Validate neighborhood risk