While most people are well-acquainted with the career of a real estate agent or investor, many are not familiar with a real estate consultant. (Note: no, we don’t sell houses!).

Excel in Property founder, Lucy Gordon, shares what exactly a real estate consultant is, what we do in our industry, and how we can help your business!

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What is a real estate consultant?

Put simply, a real estate consultant is a third party ‘behind the scenes brain’ of all kinds of real estate investments and projects. We provide expert advice, guidance and recommendations to our clients looking to purchase or develop property, with our main goal being to ensure overall investment success for our clients and facilitate your decision making. We can be engaged before a large project (to see if it is financially viable), assist our clients with the transaction and financing, or provide guidance, advice and support during the hold period of a property.

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What does a real estate consultant do?

Real estate consultant roles vary depending on individual expertise, but in Farley Cove’s case, we ‘run the numbers’ in order to guide our client’s decision-making, and provide transactional and financial support throughout the property lifecycle. We do this through a few different avenues.

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Financial modelling:

The first step of any investment decision, we undertake a financial and graphical analysis of the investment. We build a detailed excel model, including any sensitivities, scenarios, terms, asset management fees, debts and other specific details in order to further assess the viability of a project. Our models are always flexible to ensure the addition and subtraction of ever-changing projects.

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Financing:

With our wide network of high street and alternative lenders, we are able to assist in sourcing, negotiating and executing loans on behalf of our clients. This includes sourcing terms from several parties, providing comparisons and recommendations, negotiations with the lender, executing the loan through to drawdown, and assisting with ongoing IPD (Interest Payment Date) reporting requirements. We are also able to put hedging in place if required.

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Acquisition and Sales:

While we did say above we don’t sell property, our real estate consultancy can help with the acquisition and sale of a project. We undertake site visits, prepare investment papers, present recommendations to the investment committee, and undertake due diligence – reviewing reports and surveys, and coordinating advisors to completion.

This is just a small sample of what we do – no day is ever the same at Farley Cove! Our number one priority is to support and advise our client and ensure their investment is a success.

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Who do we work with?

Our retainer clients are real estate agents, property developers, M&A advisors, real estate funds and operating businesses from all around the world. (We are based in London). Last year we saw an increase in businesses (both established and start ups) looking for real estate consultancy – a fun project last year was doing the financial modelling and feasibility of a vegan fast food chain!

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How do real estate consultants help your business?

Real estate and investing can be risky business – having a real estate consultant can help mitigate some of that risk by analysing and modelling the individual project, giving our expert advice and ensuring your overall success. Plus, it’s never a bad idea to have a sounding board to hash out some of your decisions when it comes to investments!

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Have an upcoming project you could use a hand with? Send us an email and we’ll be in touch to arrange an initial call.

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