Real Estate Decoded

★ Try Before You Buy · 17 Free Web Tools

The companion tool suite — free, no email gate

Seventeen interactive calculators paired with the chapters of the guide. Run a real underwriting from your phone right now.

SFR Buy-Box Calculator → NNN Cap-Rate Comparer → Multifamily Underwriting → Industrial Cap-Rate → Office Re-Tenanting Cost → RevPAR / ADR Sensitivity → $/kW/month (Data Centers) → Dev Pro-Forma Builder → Capital Stack Visualizer → 1031 Exchange Timeline → Theme Park Per-Cap → Senior Living Underwriting → Land & Lot Absorption → Condo Presale Velocity → Construction Loan Sizer → Broker Opinion of Value → Bonus Depreciation & Cost Seg →

All seventeen tools above are live and free. No email gate. Each runs the math from a chapter of the guide on your own scenario.

Who this guide is for

Real-estate capital moves across three practitioner seats — owner-operator, institutional allocator, and developer — with a cross-cutting capital-and-brokerage layer that connects them. The persona-routing table below tells you where to start.

You are…	Start with these chapters
Institutional real-estate analyst / associate (years 1-7) PE-real-estate fund, REIT, family office, pension, sovereign wealth, insurance G/A, institutional sponsor	Ch 46 LP Perspective · Ch 38 Capital Stack · Ch 39 Fund Structure · Ch 40 REITs · Ch 45 Cross-Border Capital · Part III (Institutional Track, Chs 14-24)
Cottage operator graduating to institutional scale 50-500 doors or 200+ houses; considering syndicating or selling	Part II (Owner-Operator Track, Chs 5-13) · Ch 38 Capital Stack · Ch 42 Investment-Sales Brokerage · Ch 13 Owner-Operator Exit
Family-office or RIA real-estate allocator Direct vs. fund vs. REIT exposure mix	Ch 46 LP Perspective · Part III (Institutional Track) · Ch 45 Cross-Border Capital · App K Tax Strategy Quick-Reference · FO Reference Guide cross-references
Real-estate developer (residential, mixed-use, mega-project)	Part IV (Developer Track, Chs 25-37) · Ch 36 Construction Lending · Ch 30 Mega-Project Mechanics (incl. failure case)
CRE broker — investment-sales, leasing, debt	Part V Chs 42-43 Brokerage · Ch 44 PropTech · Part I Foundations · the Broker Pitch Pack Generator (free tool)
CPA / attorney / fractional CFO serving real-estate clients	Ch 11 1031 Exchange · Ch 12 Cost Segregation · Chs 33-35 Entitlement · Ch 45 Cross-Border Capital · App K Tax Strategy · Tax Strategy Decoded cross-references
REIT analyst / public real-estate investor	Ch 40 REITs · Ch 16 Multifamily Institutional · Ch 14 Industrial · Ch 17 Hospitality · Ch 21 Data Centers · First Principles cross-references
Reading for general practitioner education, no specific deal in view	Part I Foundations · The opening chapter of each subsequent Part · Then chapters that grab your attention

46 chapters across 5 parts, plus appendices, glossary (157+ terms incl. 17 international-tax terms), and Index of Terms with page references. 28-tab Excel workbook companion. 17 free web tools. 2026 OBBBA Edition - a complete, practitioner-voiced reference.

PART I · Foundations

1Why Real Estate — Cash-Flow / Tax-Shield / Leverage Triad

2Reading the Real-Estate Cycle

3Capital Flows Across Cycles

4The Three Tracks — Owner-Operator, Institutional, Developer

PART II · The Owner-Operator Track

5The Single-Family Rental Build

6The Small Multifamily (2-50 Units)

7Mixing SFR and Multifamily in a Portfolio

8The Self-Storage Operator

9Triple-Net (NNN) Single-Tenant

10Property Management — In-House vs. Third-Party

11The 1031 Exchange — Deep Mechanics

12Cost Segregation and Bonus Depreciation

13Owner-Operator Exit — Rollup, Recap, or Sale

PART III · The Institutional Track

14Industrial / Logistics — The Largest Institutional Weight

15Office — The Post-COVID Reset

16Multifamily Institutional — The Greystar Platform

17Hospitality — Selective, Full, Luxury, Lifestyle

18Theme Parks and Destination Entertainment

19Senior Living — IL / AL / MC Continuum

20Healthcare and Medical Office

21Data Centers — Hyperscale and Colocation

22Single-Family Rental Institutionalization

23Build-to-Rent at Scale

24Retail — Grocery-Anchored, Strip, Power Center

PART IV · The Developer Track

25Production Residential — DR Horton / Lennar / Pulte / Dream Finders

26Custom and Semi-Custom Residential

27Subdivision and Land Development

28Multifamily Development (incl. modular)

29Mixed-Use Development

30Mega-Project Mechanics — Hudson Yards Class + Failure Cases

31Adaptive Reuse — Office-to-Residential Conversion

32Condo Development with International Buyer Pre-Sale

33Entitlement (1) — Land Use and Zoning

34Entitlement (2) — CBAs, PILOT, Affordable Set-Aside

35Entitlement (3) — Union vs. Non-Union Construction

36Construction Lending and Permanent Financing

37Risk Management When Projects Go Sideways

PART V · Capital and Brokerage

38The Capital Stack — Senior, Mezz, Pref, Common

39Fund Structure — GP/LP, SMAs, JVs, Programmatic Ventures

40REITs — Public, Private, Non-Traded, Interval Funds

41Debt Platforms — Mezz, Pref, B-Piece, CMBS, Bridge, Agency

42Investment-Sales Brokerage (incl. residential roll-up)

43Leasing Brokerage

44PropTech and the Operating Stack

45Cross-Border Capital Flows + Non-US REIT Structures

46The LP Perspective — CalPERS, ADIA, Insurance-Company Allocators

Appendices · Glossary · Index

A-QSample underwriting walks (SFR, MF, hotel), cap-rate tables, cycle indicators, asset-class quick-cards, IC memo template, common mistakes, tax quick-reference, cycle history 1975-2025, 25 practitioner Q&As, capital-partner letter, owner-operator calendar, sourcing playbook, lender playbook

GGlossary of Key Terms (157+ entries incl. 17 international tax terms)

IIndex of Terms — every topic with page reference

What's actually in the bundle

1. The reference guide (PDF)

46 chapters across 5 Parts (Foundations / Owner-Operator / Institutional / Developer / Capital and Brokerage). 17 appendices including sample underwriting walks (SFR, 120-unit MF, 200-key hotel), cap-rate reference tables, cycle indicators, asset-class quick-cards, sample IC memo, common practitioner mistakes, tax-strategy quick reference, cycle history 1975-2025, deal-sourcing playbook, lender-relationships playbook. Glossary with 157+ entries (incl. 17 international tax terms). Index of Terms with page references. Single-user license.

2. The companion Excel workbook (XLSX)

28 tabs. 19 asset-class underwriting models: Multifamily, Industrial, Office, Retail, Hotel, SFR/BTR, Self-Storage, Senior Living, Medical Office, Data Centers, Mixed-Use, Ground-Up Dev, Condo Pre-Sale, NNN, Theme Parks, Land Subdivision, Life Sciences, Cold Storage, EV Charging. Plus Methodology, Glossary, and a cross-asset Returns Comparison tab so the reader can put cap rate, leverage, and hold period on the same screen across every asset class. The same workbook an institutional analyst uses, not a textbook example.

3. 17 free interactive web tools (no email gate)

SFR Buy-Box · NNN Cap-Rate Comparer · Multifamily Underwriting · Industrial Cap-Rate · Office Re-Tenanting Cost · RevPAR/ADR Sensitivity · Per-Cap Spend · Senior Living · $/kW/month (Data Centers) · Lot Absorption Schedule · Dev Pro-Forma Builder · Pre-Sale Velocity · Construction Loan Sizer · Capital Stack Visualizer · Broker Pitch Pack Generator · 1031 Exchange · Bonus-Depreciation. Each runs in the browser on your scenario. Each pairs with a workbook tab and a chapter.

4. Companion architecture — guide ↔ workbook ↔ tools

Every chapter ends with a Companion block that names its workbook tab and web tool. A System-at-a-Glance front-matter map shows the chapter / workbook / tool wiring at a glance. The three-asset architecture is integrated, not bolted together.

Plus: Library cross-references

Cross-references to Tax Strategy Decoded (1031, cost seg, intl tax), PE Guide (take-private mechanics), CFO Guide (real-estate-operating-company CFO seat), IRA (insurance + risk architecture for the portfolio), EPD + Trust Admin (estate treatment of a real-estate portfolio), Liquidity Event Playbook (owner-operator portfolio sale), AI Integration Decoded (AI tooling for the practitioner), and Cross-Border Wealth Playbook (international structures). The library is built to compose on the shelf.

About the author

Philip A. Baratelli, CPA, MBA — Founder, Baratelli Institute. Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

three decades in operating finance and M&A (a CPA since 1995). The guides in this library are the references he wished existed when he was doing the work.

Recommended path

Pick by the seat you sit in.

The rest of the route compounds on top of the desk reference.

These are reading paths, not bundles. Every Guide is sold individually on Gumroad — there is no discount, no package, no “buy three save X.” The dollar totals below simply add up the à-la-carte prices for the practitioner who follows the recommended path. Buy one and stop. Or buy the three that match your week. The Library is built to compose on the shelf, not to upsell at checkout.

If you buy one

By the seat you sit in

$99 — $349

Real Estate Decoded — $349 (you are here)
CFO & Controller’s Guide — $349
Private Equity Guide — $349
Liquidity Event Playbook — $99
Trust Administration — $149

For the institutional real-estate analyst, the cottage operator graduating to scale, or the FO allocator sizing real-estate sleeves — RED. For the CFO desk — CFO Guide. For PE / corp-dev / FO direct investing — PE Guide. For the M&A counsel scoping the engagement — LEP. For the trustee or trust officer — Trust Admin.

If you buy three

Desk + AI + adjacent specialty

~$547

Desk reference (above) — $349 (CFO or PE) or $149 (Trust) etc.
+ one of: Trust Admin ($149) · Estate Planning Decoded ($149) · LEP ($99)

AI Integration Decoded is the leverage layer under everything else. The third pick is the adjacent specialty — usually the one your largest client’s next matter touches.

The full route

Desk + everything that touches the desk

~$1,095

CFO Guide + PE Guide ($698)
+ LEP ($99) — the M&A layer
+ Trust Admin + Estate Planning Decoded ($298) — legacy infrastructure for the upstream client
+ Family Office Reference Guide ($349) — understand the seat you serve

The practitioner who buys the full route can speak fluently to the CFO, the GP, the family principal, the trustee, and the M&A counsel — on every matter type their firm handles.

✓ 30-day money-back guarantee

Walk into your next advisor, lender, or boardroom conversation already fluent in the numbers and the moves — a more informed partner to the professionals you work with, and clear-eyed on the cost of getting a big decision wrong. If it isn’t worth many times what you paid, take the refund.