A Practical Playbook for Building, Operating and Scaling an Institutional Platform
Julian R. Sterling
These are the workbooks and documents that go with the book. Between them they reproduce every
figure the book prints — the waterfall of section 6.11, the build-to-core of 8.7, the
proceeds gap of 10.10 — and turn the frameworks that surround those figures into working
files. Each workbook ends with a checks sheet that sets what it computes beside what the book
says. Every number is a live formula. Nothing is locked, protected or watermarked.
Free to download. No sign-up, no email address, nothing to fill in.
Fourteen workbooks, the printable documents and the read-me. Each group below can also be
downloaded on its own. Last revised 9 September 2026.
The five workbooks
These carry the book’s own figures, so that every number it prints can be traced to a live
formula.
Download these five133 KB
Chapter 6
Fund waterfall model
The worked example of section 6.11, live: $100 million of capital, $170 million of
distributions, an 8% preferred return and a 100% catch-up, arriving at $152.8 million to the
LPs and $17.2 million to the GP. Fifteen printed figures, all reproduced.
The section observes that the GP ends up with 24.6% of profit rather than the nominal 20%, and
attributes it to the treatment of the preferred return. The arithmetic is worth being precise
about: the example pays the GP a catch-up of $14.0M — its full 20%-of-profit target
— and then still gives it 20% of the $16.0M that remains. A catch-up that genuinely
stopped at 20% would pay $10.0M. The second sheet computes all three readings of "a 20%
promote" side by side: $17.2M, $14.0M and $6.0M out of the same $70M of profit. The third
builds the five-asset sequencing case of 6.12 and prices the clawback at $4.8M.
Fund_Waterfall_Model.xlsx · XLSX · 20 KB
Chapter 8
Underwriting and exit sensitivity
A trailing-twelve statement taken to an underwritten NOI through the four quality tests of
8.2, then scored on the six-criterion rubric, which feeds a required yield premium rather than
sitting there decoratively. A rent roll that separates leased occupancy from operating
occupancy — 92.9% against 60.3% on the worked example, which is the phantom-occupancy
case of 8.3 in one line. The industrial build-to-core of 8.7 at a 7.0% yield on cost against a
5.75% market cap and $97.4M of implied value, with the 10% cost overrun that costs 64bps. The
two-dimensional exit grid 8.8 asks for, with the cash flows shown rather than hidden behind a
data table. The office repositioning of 8.9 in base, upside and a downside built to the four
conditions that section names. And the 30-point pre-IC gate and nine LP red flags as a working
document.
Proceeds computed under all four tests of 10.3 at once, with the binding test named and the
headroom to the next one shown — which is the whole discipline of that chapter in one
cell. A credit-box comparison across four lender types returns four different binding tests on
the same asset, with $7.1M between the widest and the tightest. A rate-shock sheet where the
cap holds the index at its strike but the DSCR after the cap premium still falls below 1.00x at
+300bps, because the premium is an economic input and not a footnote. The debt dashboard of
10.8 with the four triage categories of 10.10 attached to each loan. And the proceeds-gap case
in full: a $60M bridge, $48M of proceeds, a $12M gap, $6M of paydown and $6M of preferred
equity — with the debt yield, not the LTV, as the test that binds.
Debt_Sizing_and_Covenants.xlsx · XLSX · 27 KB
Chapters 11–14
Asset management and fund operations
A budget built from the rent roll up and driven by units and rates rather than by last
year plus a percentage, with in-place operations separated from value creation. A variance
sheet using the five-way taxonomy of 11.3 and its $10,000-or-3% threshold, which reconciles
exactly to the change in NOI and produces a reforecast carrying only the structural variance.
The 31-step quarterly close of Chapter 12. The 15-line risk register and the sequenced 90-day
programme of 13.13. And the readiness scorecard of 14.12, with the decisive indicator handled
separately because it is a judgement and not a score.
Section 6.11 works one waterfall and reaches $17.2m of carry — 24.6 per cent
of the profit, not the nominal 20 — then asks three definitional questions and
closes with “LP models will test these details.” This is that model. The
catch-up specification alone is worth $11.2m on the chapter’s own fund: the general
partner takes $6.0m, $14.0m or $17.2m depending only on how one sentence is drafted. The
pref design is worth nothing above 1.50× and everything below it. The promote is a
switch, not a slope — exactly 20 per cent of profit at or above 1.50×, nothing
at or below 1.40×. The tiered promote of 6.8.2 needs 1.93× and so pays what a
flat 80/20 pays on this fund. Timing changes when the GP is paid, not how much. And the
clawback the chapter names three times bites below 1.454×. Sixty-five controls, all live.
The_Definitions_Priced.xlsx · XLSX · 21 KB
The same models, on your own fund
The five above carry the book’s numbers so the arithmetic can be traced. These five carry
the same formulas with the inputs emptied. Type your own fund into the blue cells and the model
runs.
Blank set · five workbooks
Your waterfall, your underwriting, your debt stack
Same sheets, same formulas, same conventions. Each one opens on a read-me naming, sheet by
sheet, the cells to fill in, and closes on a checks sheet that counts how many are still empty
and runs the consistency tests that hold on any fund. Twenty-one inputs on the waterfall,
fourteen on the definitions workbook, and rather more on the operations one.
The sensitivity ladders were left in place. The cost-overrun steps, the two axes of the exit
grid and the paydown ladder are scenario steps rather than data, so emptying them would have
broken the tables that read them.
Five documents the book specifies and does not supply, set to be printed and taken into a
meeting. A4, with margins wide enough for US Letter.
8.15 · 8.16 · 12 · 13.13 · 14.12
Five working documents
The 30-point pre-IC gate, followed by the nine LP red flags. The 31-step quarterly close as
a signed-off checklist with owner and date columns. The 15-line risk register, with the KPI and
the mitigation the section asks for and the scoring left to you. The 90-day programme sequenced
by dependency rather than listed. And the readiness scorecard, with the decisive indicator set
apart, because the chapter is explicit that it is a judgement and not a score.
Status, owner, date and score columns are empty on purpose. These are documents to fill in,
not to read.
A workbook that marks itself. Answer in the yellow cells; the marking fills in as you go.
All chapters
Twelve numerical, twenty-eight multiple choice
The numerical questions are marked against a tolerance, so a reasonable rounding passes and
a right number reached the wrong way does not. The score sheet counts the wrong answers by
chapter, which is the only reading list worth having: it is built from what you got wrong
rather than from what someone else thought was important.
Nothing is hidden. The marking sheet holds every answer, every tolerance, and the reason
each answer is what it is. The workbook simply marks you honestly if you look.
New material, not a restatement. Three situations the chapters name in passing and never take to
a number. Each case is one workbook: the note is the first sheet, the model is the rest, and a
checks sheet closes it. Type your own figures in and every finding recomputes.
Case one · extends 6.12
The clawback triggered by an early winner
A $100m fund, five assets, and a first disposal at $44m in year two that pays the general
partner $4,160,000. The other four disappoint; the fund returns 1.18x and never earns a promote
at all, so all of it comes back. A 30 per cent escrow holds $1,248,000 against a $4,160,000
clawback and would have had to be 74 per cent. The difference between a gross clawback and one
capped at the after-tax promote is $1,077,440, which is exactly the tax, stated in the workbook
as a live check rather than as a claim. And an interim wind-up test flags it at the second
disposal, in year four, while there is still an asset to hold the money against.
Case_One_Early_Winner.xlsx · seven sheets
Case two · extends 10.10
The proceeds gap that does not close
The chapter closes a $12m gap with $6m of paydown. Take the cash away and the LTV test binds
rather than the debt yield: the workbook computes the cap rate at which the two swap over, 5.85
per cent, which is 65 per cent of the debt yield. Refinancing in full needs NOI up 25 per cent,
or 5.7 years at the assumed growth against a two-year horizon, so waiting is a deferral with a
fee attached rather than a route. Four routes are priced side by side, and the cheapest is the
extension, whose balance grows while it runs and which depends entirely on a lender that has
already decided it wants out.
Case_Two_No_Dry_Powder.xlsx · six sheets
Case three · extends 8.3
Phantom occupancy, month by month
Twelve months of the same building. Leased occupancy does not move all year; operating
occupancy runs 60.3 per cent, then 70.6, then 82.6 for a single month, then back to 70.6 when a
tenant fails having paid once. The missing income is split into its two causes and reconciled to
the total: $362,133 of free rent, which had an end date, and $304,267 of failure, which did not.
The acquisition decision is then taken four times, at each quarter end, with only what was known
then. The right answer changes, and it changes at a quarter you can name.
The book notices that the GP lands at 24.6% of profit rather than 20%, and says the catch-up
"was structured to bring GP up to 20% of total profits". If it had been, the GP would
have finished at exactly $14.0M. What the example actually does is pay the catch-up in full and
then run the residual split on top of it.
Both constructions appear in real documents, so this is a question of wording rather than an
error of principle — and it is exactly the question the section closes by telling you to
ask. The workbook puts the three readings in three columns so the wording has a price attached:
on this fund, $11.2 million between the most and least GP-friendly.
Which is why "20% promote" settles nothing on its own, and why an LP model will always
test the definition rather than the headline rate.
Reader list
Optional. One email when a companion file is corrected or a new worked case goes up, and a short note when a new book comes out. Nothing on this page needs it.
Real Estate Fund Management develops the complete framework around this waterfall:
fund structuring, underwriting, debt, reporting and operating controls, with the worked
examples and companion models tied together.
The workbooks open in Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets and Numbers. They use
no macros and no add-ins, so nothing needs to be enabled or trusted. If your spreadsheet asks
to update links on opening, decline — there are none.
What changed, and when
9 Sep 2026
Blank model set, five printable working documents, the question book
and three new cases added. Read-me rewritten.
Closing the DealTwo defensible bridges 20.70 million apart, a peg worth 7.00 million, and the six choices that remove 6.60 of a 12.00 earn-out.
CMBS and CRE CLOsWhere the loss actually lands, from appraisal reduction to realised severity, and what the B-piece is really being paid for.
How to Read a Commercial LeaseThe three refinements chapter 19 names and never performs, and the renewal rate below which the mark-to-market is worth nothing.
How to Read a Credit AgreementWhere the default actually comes from, the cure that costs 5.5 times the other, and the capacity nobody adds up.
How to Read a Real Estate Loan AgreementThe cure ratio in closed form, the four-point window in which the cheap cure works, and the cure sized to the wrong threshold.
Office Real EstateA six per cent yield that returns 3.2 per cent once the re-letting cycle is paid for, and the headline-to-net-effective rent arithmetic.
Private Equity Real EstateBoth worked waterfalls to the dollar, the two capital stacks, and the arithmetic of the promote made changeable.
Private Markets PerformanceThirty-one of the thirty-three figures chapter 19 publishes reproduce exactly — and the two that do not are named rather than quietly adopted.
Raising a Real Estate FundThe chapter 17 funnel run on a calendar — when the first close actually lands, and why more travel does not help.
Real Estate FinanceFour people look at one building and reach four numbers; the lender is whole only above 105,109,489, twelve per cent below today’s value rather than forty.
Real Estate Financial ModelingProperty, development and fund models built line by line, and the modelling test worked end to end.
REIT Analysis and ValuationFFO of 532.0, AFFO of 381.0, net asset value and dividend safety — every figure a formula you can change.
Retail Real EstateThe occupancy cost of every unit in a centre, the sixteen per cent of the rent roll no tenant can sustain, and the right-size-convert-or-hold decision priced.
Sale and LeasebackA €179.5 million transaction end to end, with rent cover measured on the entity that actually signs the lease.
Self-Storage Real EstateThe cohort engine behind a 590-unit store, and the rate increase on existing customers priced against the move-outs it causes.
The Fund Finance ProfessionalChapter 8 builds the reported-to-eligible NAV bridge; chapter 9 computes every ratio without it. Two points at every state — and what a subscription line does to the IRR.
The Growth Equity InvestorWhat a pro rata cheque really costs, and the band where defending your ownership loses money.
The Private Credit InvestorThe two coverage ratios are not measured on the same thing: the erosion is 47.7 per cent, not the 28.7 the headline implies.
The Private Equity Fund Controller PlaybookThe book defines IRR, DPI, RVPI and TVPI, tells you to update them at the exit, and prints not one value. Computed: a 1.833× deal inside a fund at 0.892 TVPI.
The Venture Capital AssociateWhat defending a position costs, and how many companies a reserve pool actually defends.
Financial Risk ManagementA fund inside every limit that cannot meet a redemption — and the number that decides it is the one with no currency attached.
Business ValuationThree advisers land 26.8 per cent apart on one company, and the whole gap turns out to be 1.96 points of perpetual growth.
Quantitative FinanceThree models agree to a quarter of one per cent about a number that one unobservable input moves a hundred and three times as much.
Asset ManagementFour people quote four returns for one mandate, all correct and 2.7017 points apart — forty-eight times the manager’s net skill.
Alternative InvestmentsA manager reports 13.29 per cent and the endowment earns 6.26 — both correct, and only a third of the advertised advantage arrives.
Credit AnalysisFour defensible EBITDAs on one borrower give leverage from 3.19x to 6.47x — and the add-back argument is fifty times the covenant headroom.
Venture CapitalOne company out of twenty-eight returns 56.7 per cent of the fund, and half the capital goes in after the decision — at half the return.
Machine Learning for FinanceFive people quote the accuracy of one credit model, all five are right, and the number that decides how much money it makes is none of them.
Commercial Real Estate InvestingThe equity earned 8.6647 per cent and the investor received exactly 8.0000 — the preferred return, and nothing above it.
Mergers and AcquisitionsThe board paper says the deal creates 13,436,667 of value. The arithmetic says it destroys 17,530,855. Nobody is lying.
DerivativesThe treasury report says the hedge cost 1,233,698. That is the interest differential, not a cost.
Treasury ManagementFive cash balances for one company, all correct and 145,600,000 apart — and the revolver that is two-thirds of the liquidity leaves at a revenue fall of 8.4127 per cent.
Financial Planning and AnalysisRevenue 3.0190 per cent above budget and operating profit 16.3209 per cent below it, in the same quarter, with every figure correctly stated.
Energy TradingA position report that is 91.7031 per cent hedged and correctly computed, on a book that is short 2,542,000 MWh — and a margin call of 198,400,000 the next morning.
Construction Cost ControlA contract sum of 26,301,102 became a final account of 29,153,363 on the building that was drawn — and 85.8 per cent of what was lost was knowable on the day it was signed.
Trade FinanceSix routes to payment on one 4,200,000 export order cost between 178,040 and 223,268, a spread worth 14.8 per cent of the margin, and a day of buyer credit costs 1,031.76.
Cost AccountingOne factory costed twice on the same 13,440,000 of overhead, and 4,053,091 moves between four product families.
Pricing StrategyA list price of 148.00, a pocket price of 112.51, and the nine deductions in between — with what one point of price is actually worth.
Contract ManagementA bid 5.50 a unit cheaper, signed on paper worth 9.81 a unit more — and 94.68 per cent of it was knowable on the day of signature.
Capital MarketsFour defensible readings of one bond, the cost of an issue under each convention, and the placement discount computed at a constant discount.
Financial RegulationThree ratios pass and the fourth is in breach by 1,956.0 million: the output floor, the liquidity buffer after encumbrance, and the loan split.
Bank ManagementFour defensible readings of one balance sheet, the deposit beta measured two ways, and the liquidity that lasts 3.9 days.
The Real Estate WorkoutFour ways out of one broken loan, discounted to today, and the 58.7 cents at which a payoff beats enforcement.
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