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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.

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    Included in: Core Investor Curriculum · Deal Analyzer Certification

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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.

    Learn, then do

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    Deal Analyzer

    Run address-first underwriting and save the deal if it deserves tracking.

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    DSCR Calculator

    Check whether rental income supports the debt path.

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    Check the neighborhood risk

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

    Validate neighborhood risk
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