How Underwrite handles Multifamily.
Multifamily income starts with unit count and average monthly rent. Vacancy and operating expenses determine NOI. The insurance and tax stress scenario tests higher operating costs.
The Multifamily example opens with Underwrite Core. The worked example, Cayuga Commons, is free with no sign-in.
What the model covers
The operating summary shows these measures for a Multifamily deal:
- Units. Unit count, the core input for multifamily underwriting.
- Avg Rent / Unit / Mo. In-place average monthly rent. The engine uses a single number; real MF underwriting splits by unit type (studio / 1BR / 2BR / 3BR) with mix-shift assumptions.
- Vacancy. Stabilized economic vacancy.
- Cost / Unit. Purchase price divided by unit count.
- Y1 EGI / Unit. Effective gross income per unit per year. Useful cross-deal comp.
Checks for this property type
The validation guards use these tighter bands for Multifamily instead of the generic defaults:
- Property management % of EGI: 2-6%. Standard institutional band. Self-managed deals run thinner but lose institutional-buyer appeal.
Stress scenarios
The desk offers these stress scenarios when Multifamily is the property type:
- Insurance / Tax Spike. Expense growth +200bps and property management +50bps, for insurance and property-tax escalation.
- All four generic stress scenarios (Base, Recession, Rate Spike, Aggressive) are also available on Multifamily deals.
Example deal: Lakeshore Garden Apartments
The Multifamily pre-built example computes to the headline values below. With Underwrite Core, open it in the tool to edit any input and watch the model update, or open its investment committee memo.
Current model boundaries for this asset class
These Multifamily features are simplified or left out of the model, and stay with the analyst. The full list across all asset classes is at /methodology/beyond-phase-1.
- Unit mix detail is collapsed to a single average rent. Real underwriting splits by unit type with mix-shift assumptions across the hold.
- LIHTC and affordable structures (income restrictions, tax-credit pricing, compliance period economics, recapture risk) are not modeled.
- Other-income detail (parking, laundry, pet fees, application fees, RUBS, trash) is a single line.
- Opportunity Zone / 1031 / IRA overlays are not modeled.