Case Study: ARGUS DCF Data Project

Our Client, a publicly-traded national shopping center REIT, uses Cougar Software for Property Management, which generates reXML files suitable for importing into ARGUS® Valuation DCF. In this particular case, the Client was confronted with over 100 reXML files they needed batch converted into ARGUS® DCF data files, a task which is normally relatively painless with only the native software packages. However, they also had a number of modifications they wanted to make to the reXML files prior to importing into ARGUS®. In addition, they found that the reXML produced by Cougar Software had numerous problems when imported directly into ARGUS®.

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Until we found CREModels, every vendor was either all technology or all ARGUS®… only CREModels really ‘got it’ and brought deep industry experience as well as extensive technical aptitude.
– Client Project Manager

For these reasons, the Client needed to be able to make bulk standardized changes to the income and expense accounts, property types, currency standards, and other metrics which would normalize the characterization of the property returns across the portfolio. Additionally, they wanted to be able to programmatically set certain values inside the reXML on a tenant-by-tenant basis as indicated by different factors.By implementing a solution which was a unique mix of technical capabilities combined with deep real estate expertise, CREModels was able to provide a hands-off solution to process these files with minimal interruption to their business process.

Increasing the difficulty was the fact that the reXML data which was generated was very inconsistent. This was compounded by the difficulties in importing reXML into ARGUS®, which had certain built-in limitations and known issues from the outset. As such, there were certain parts of the project which could be handled by the CREModels Real Estate Technology Services team and others that required our live analysts to manually audit and update specific inputs inside ARGUS®.

There really aren’t any other vendors which provide such a high-level of proficiency in both the real estate analysis and the technical aspects of a project like this
– Client Team Lead

CREModels was able to build randomized test cases and process through Quality Control (QC) as an integral part of the Client team during the first week of the project. Once the QC process was approved by all parties, CREModels℠ turned the processing over to the CREModels Real Estate Technology Services team to pre-process the reXML files prior to importing into ARGUS®. After pre-processing, the ARGUS® Analysis Team went to work on the manual data entry and QC process using a customized XML database created specifically for the project so Analysts could check the results directly against the reXML inputs provided by the Client from the Cougar system.

Having the resources to turn this around in such a short time period is almost unheard of in our industry.
– Client Project Manager

Upon completion of data entry and QC, the files were passed through a second level of QC and final audit before being delivered at the end of the project.

CREModels continued to work with the Client closely after the project to ensure all ARGUS® files met quality guidelines and to assist with any issues on individual properties as they integrated the information into their overall library of ARGUS® data.

If you’d like to learn more about how CREModels can streamline your ARGUS® Modeling or real estate data conversion through innovative solutions such as this, fill out the form below or contact us today!