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Real Assets

  • 385 installs
  • 161 repo stars
  • Updated July 18, 2026
  • joellewis/finance_skills

real-assets is a quantitative agent skill that models real estate and infrastructure valuations—NOI, cap rates, FFO, AFFO, LTV, and DSCR—for developers scoping cash flows and metrics for property or REIT analytics code.

About

real-assets is a joellewis/finance_skills wealth-management skill for real estate and infrastructure investment analysis. It defines NOI, cap rates, income-approach valuation, cash-on-cash returns, GRM screening, REIT FFO/AFFO metrics, NAV premium/discount, and infrastructure characteristics like toll roads and cell towers. A direct-versus-REIT decision checklist maps liquidity, leverage control, 1031 exchange eligibility, and minimum check sizes. The bundled real_assets.py script demos property valuation, leveraged cash-on-cash analysis, REIT metrics, and inflation-adjusted returns with --verify against worked examples. Use real-assets when coding property valuation logic, comparing direct ownership to REIT exposure, or explaining how cap-rate moves affect asset values.

  • NOI and cap rates
  • Lease schedules
  • Appraisal cadence
  • Fund structures
  • Illiquidity premiums

Real Assets by the numbers

  • 385 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • +16 installs in the week ending Aug 2, 2026 (Skillselion tracking)
  • Ranked #285 of 1,106 Finance & Trading skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Data as of Aug 2, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/joellewis/finance_skills --skill real-assets

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Listed on Skillselion
Installs385
repo stars161
Last updatedJuly 18, 2026
Repositoryjoellewis/finance_skills

How do you value real estate and REIT investments programmatically?

Scope valuation, cash flows, and data needs for real estate, infrastructure, and private real asset deals.

Who is it for?

Developers building real-estate or REIT analytics, underwriting spreadsheets, or portfolio tools who need standardized NOI, cap-rate, and FFO formulas with Python reference code.

Skip if: Live MLS listing searches, property-management operations, or mortgage origination workflows requiring lender-specific underwriting systems.

When should I use this skill?

User asks about cap rates, NOI, REIT FFO/AFFO, property valuation, cash-on-cash returns, LTV, DSCR, or infrastructure asset analysis

What you get

Cap-rate valuations, cash-on-cash projections, REIT metric calculations, and leverage coverage ratios

  • valuation calculations
  • REIT metric outputs
  • leverage ratio analysis

By the numbers

  • Documents 9 formulas in the key-formulas table
  • Includes 2 worked examples for cap-rate valuation and leveraged cash-on-cash
  • Bundled real_assets.py with --verify validation mode

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Real Assets

Core Concepts

Property Income and Return Metrics

  • NOI (Net Operating Income): effective gross rental income (after vacancy) minus operating expenses; excludes debt service, capex, and depreciation.
  • Cap rate: NOI divided by property value — the unlevered property yield; lower cap rates mean higher valuations.
  • Income-approach value: NOI divided by the prevailing cap rate for comparable properties.
  • Cash-on-cash return: annual pre-tax cash flow (NOI minus debt service) divided by total cash invested — the levered equity yield.
  • GRM (Gross Rent Multiplier): price divided by gross annual rent; a quick screen that ignores expenses, vacancy, and financing.

REITs and REIT Metrics

REITs must distribute 90%+ of taxable income as dividends and trade on exchanges like equities. Sectors include residential, office, retail, industrial, data center, healthcare, self-storage, and specialty.

  • FFO (Funds From Operations): net income plus depreciation minus gains on property sales — the standard REIT earnings measure, since real estate depreciation overstates actual value decline.
  • AFFO (Adjusted FFO): FFO minus maintenance capex and straight-line rent adjustments — the conservative measure of recurring distributable cash flow.
  • P/FFO and P/AFFO: the REIT equivalents of P/E; compare within the same sector.
  • NAV premium/discount: share price relative to per-share net asset value of the underlying properties; indicates market sentiment.

Infrastructure Investments

Infrastructure assets include toll roads, utilities, pipelines, cell towers, airports, and ports. Characteristics: long asset lives, high barriers to entry, regulated or contracted revenue streams, and inflation-linked cash flows (many contracts include CPI adjustments). Infrastructure provides stable, bond-like income with equity-like upside from traffic/usage growth.

Leverage in Real Estate

  • LTV (Loan-to-Value): mortgage amount / property value. Higher LTV means more leverage and more risk. Typical commercial LTV is 60-75%.
  • DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio): NOI / annual debt service. Lenders typically require 1.20x-1.50x minimum. Higher DSCR means more cushion to service debt.

Direct Real Estate vs REITs: Decision Checklist

Work through these factors before recommending a vehicle:

FactorDirect ownershipREITs
LiquiditySales take months; high transaction costsTrade intraday on exchanges
ManagementActive management required, or pay a property managerPassive; professional management included
Leverage accessNon-recourse mortgage leverage at attractive LTVs (60-75%), chosen by the investorEntity-level leverage set by REIT management; investors cannot choose property-level leverage
1031 exchangeEligible — defer capital gains by exchanging into like-kind propertyNot eligible — REIT shares do not qualify
DiversificationConcentrated in one or a few propertiesA REIT fund spreads across hundreds of properties and multiple sectors
Minimum check sizeTypically $50K+ equity (down payment plus closing costs)From one share

Mapping investor situations to the preferred vehicle:

Investor situationPreferred vehicle
May need the money within months, or rebalances regularlyREITs
Wants control over leverage, tenants, and improvementsDirect
Holds appreciated property and wants tax-deferred reinvestmentDirect (1031 exchange)
Allocation under ~$50K, or wants broad diversification immediatelyREITs
Willing to manage tenants and repairs (or pay a manager from rent)Direct
Wants passive, hands-off exposure with no operational involvementREITs

Key Formulas

FormulaExpressionUse Case
NOIGross Rental Income - Operating ExpensesProperty income measure
Cap RateNOI / Property ValueUnlevered property yield
Property ValueNOI / Cap RateIncome-based valuation
Cash-on-CashAnnual Cash Flow / Total Cash InvestedLevered equity return
GRMPrice / Gross Annual RentQuick screening metric
FFONet Income + Depreciation - Gains on SalesREIT earnings measure
AFFOFFO - Maintenance Capex - Straight-Line Rent AdjRecurring cash flow
LTVLoan Amount / Property ValueLeverage measure
DSCRNOI / Annual Debt ServiceDebt coverage measure

Worked Examples

Example 1: Property Valuation Using Cap Rate

Given: NOI = $100,000 per year, prevailing cap rate for comparable properties = 6% Calculate: Property value Solution: Value = NOI / Cap Rate = $100,000 / 0.06 = $1,666,667

The property is valued at approximately $1,666,667. If the cap rate compressed to 5% (e.g., in a hot market), the value would rise to $2,000,000 — a 20% increase from a 100bp cap rate decline. This illustrates the sensitivity of real estate values to cap rate changes.

Example 2: Cash-on-Cash Return with Leverage

Given: Property value = $500,000, down payment = $200,000 (40%), mortgage = $300,000 at 6%, NOI = $35,000, annual debt service = $17,000 Calculate: Cash-on-cash return Solution: Annual pre-tax cash flow = NOI - Debt Service = $35,000 - $17,000 = $18,000 Cash-on-Cash Return = $18,000 / $200,000 = 9.0%

Compare to the unlevered cap rate: $35,000 / $500,000 = 7.0%. Leverage boosts the equity return from 7.0% to 9.0% because the cost of debt (6%) is below the cap rate (7.0%) — this is positive leverage. If the mortgage rate exceeded the cap rate, leverage would reduce returns (negative leverage).

Common Pitfalls

  • Confusing cap rate with total return — cap rate ignores appreciation, leverage effects, and capital expenditures
  • Using P/E instead of P/FFO for REITs — depreciation distorts net income, making P/E misleading for real estate companies
  • Ignoring vacancy rates in NOI calculation — always use effective gross income (after vacancy allowance), not gross potential rent
  • Overstating returns by ignoring maintenance capex — use AFFO rather than FFO for a realistic view of distributable cash flow

Cross-References

  • time-value-of-money (core plugin, Layer 0): discounted cash flow analysis of property investments
  • equities (wealth-management plugin, Layer 2): REIT stock analysis and equity market context
  • fixed-income-structured (wealth-management plugin, Layer 2): MBS and the mortgage market underlying real estate
  • asset-allocation (wealth-management plugin, Layer 3): real assets as a portfolio diversifier and inflation hedge

Running the script

uv run scripts/real_assets.py

The PEP 723 header resolves the numpy dependency automatically. Alternatively run python3 scripts/real_assets.py after pip install numpy.

  • Bare run prints a demo covering property valuation, cash-on-cash and leverage analysis, REIT metrics, and inflation-adjusted returns.
  • --verify re-runs the demo computations and asserts the outputs match this skill's worked examples (prints PASS/FAIL, nonzero exit on mismatch).
  • --help lists the available classes.

The file is primarily meant to be imported as a module, e.g. from real_assets import PropertyValuation, LeverageMetrics, REITMetrics, RealReturn.

Related skills

How it compares

Use real-assets for property and REIT valuation math; pair with fixed-income-structured from the same repo when the analysis needs mortgage-backed securities underlying real estate markets.

FAQ

What metrics does real-assets cover?

real-assets defines NOI, cap rates, income-approach valuation, cash-on-cash returns, GRM, REIT FFO/AFFO, P/FFO ratios, NAV premium/discount, LTV, and DSCR, plus infrastructure asset characteristics for toll roads and utilities.

How does real-assets compare direct ownership to REITs?

real-assets includes a decision checklist mapping liquidity, management burden, leverage control, 1031 exchange eligibility, diversification, and minimum check size to recommend direct property versus exchange-traded REIT exposure.

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