Increase CRE Visibility—Without Leaving Excel

Overview

Gain visibility into your CRE exposure for upcoming exams or audits—without having to leave Excel.

Built’s new deal management platform was showcased, demonstrating its capabilities in simplifying user experience by integrating information from spreadsheets with portfolio analytics. This allows users to monitor the status of any deal with confidence and identify issues before they escalate. “The top CRE lenders are adopting Built to mitigate risk with precise collateral monitoring for tenants, property, cash flows, and market data,” stated Josh Kaufman. Riley Thomas emphasized that Built focuses on real estate data management, expanding beyond just construction to include pre-construction and post-construction phases.

Josh discussed the advantage of Built’s Excel plugin tool for underwriters. He emphasized that underwriting usually occurs in Excel, hence Built’s tool allows users to continue working in a familiar interface while benefiting from the platform’s features. He demonstrated how underwriters could input data into Excel and then sync it to the Built database, providing a “golden copy” of all underwritten data. This ensures the integrity of data and provides an audit trail that’s essential for compliance and regulatory reporting.

Cory, the subject matter expert, highlighted Built’s ability to pull together comprehensive reports quickly using aggregated data. This includes the creation of data tapes for regulatory purposes, portfolio stratifications, and ad hoc reporting for situations such as tracking retail exposure in the face of a potential hurricane. Cory also mentioned Built’s capability for trend analysis. “We’ve put together this portfolio dashboard that does exactly that a lot of trend analysis over time,” underlining the platform’s ability to monitor and analyze portfolio performance over time.

Throughout the demonstration, our hosts emphasized Built’s design to streamline workflows and promote collaboration between different teams in a lending institution, from originators and underwriters to asset and portfolio managers. “Working on a deal is the same as working on a construction loan. They’re highly collaborative. You need to be able to work off that same sheet of music and do it in real-time,” stated Riley Thomas. The platform is designed to enable users to do more deals, faster, while maintaining a controlled and safe environment.

Built’s centralized data management means that changes or challenges can be quickly addressed. Whether it is a change in vacancy factor or a tenant bankruptcy, the system allows for quick querying and updating of data. This means that asset managers can rapidly assemble necessary information for higher-level decision-making. “I can come in here and get a good sense for the operating performance and the capital stack and also review some of the commentary that people have plugged into this deal, how things have changed throughout the sizing process, closing process, and through the first quarter of asset management,” said Cory. This not only saves time but also ensures accuracy and efficiency.