A yearly presentation of Argus software is organized by the Real Estate Department and the Wharton MBA Real Estate. Individual student copies are made available for purchase and coordinated through the Real Estate clubs once a year.  For more information contact: the Real Estate Department as follows:  realestate@wharton.upenn.edu

What is ARGUS?

ARGUS is the industry standard commercial real estate cash flow projection, transaction analysis and asset valuation solution.
For 18 years ARGUS has empowered appraisers, brokers, developers, managers, investors, lenders and other real estate professionals to spend more of their valuable time building fortunes, not spreadsheets. Over 15,000 users worldwide rely on ARGUS software to:

• Quickly and accurately analyze commercial real estate assets and transactions

• Understand market realities and risks

• Develop leasing strategies, business and marketing plans

• Forecast property and portfolio cash flows

• Calculate investment values and returns

• Share asset and transactional data with clients, partners and colleagues

• Navigate complex international deal structures

Who will benefit from using ARGUS?

Anyone who models commercial real estate cash flows, values, and deal structures will benefit from using ARGUS. Developers, property and leasing brokers, equity and debt investors, construction and permanent lenders, fee  appraisers, bank appraisers, asset managers, tax assessors, mortgage bankers, investment bankers, and corporate real estate executives find that ARGUS offers the greatest combination of features and functionality. In addition, noncommercial users including municipal and school finance departments and bond rating  agencies can use ARGUS to determine future revenues from non-property tax income such as recreational use fees.

What are the capacities of ARGUS?

ARGUS performs detailed monthly calculations to help you analyze the terms of current leases, the assumptions of future leasing activity, and the rollovers and renewals of leases as they expire. You can enter additional information about the property to account for miscellaneous revenues, expenses, capital expenditures, and debt. The resulting cash flow can be used for long-term budget projections. Each year’s estimated cash flows can become the basis for comparison to the actual cash flows from a property management system. ARGUS can also be used for the evaluation and negotiation of lease proposals or to help develop leasing strategies.

What reports does ARGUS produce?

ARGUS produces a wide variety of property, tenant, comparison, and audit reports. They include: Summary of Cash Flow From Operations, Schedule of Expense Reimbursement Revenue, Market Leasing Assumptions, Resale and Terminal Value Summary, Rate of Return & Present Value Summary, Individual Tenant Cash Flow and Summary, Occupied Area Measures, Income Statements,  Depreciation Schedules, and numerous supporting schedules for each detailed line item on the Summary reports

ARGUS generates an internal rate of return, yearly cash on cash return, average occupancy ratios, weighted average market rates, weighted average effective rents, and many other useful ratios and benchmarks. In addition, ARGUS produces comparison reports showing much of this detail on a per-square-foot basis.

Reports can be generated using different currencies and exchange rates. For  example, you can enter an analysis using dollars and produce reports based on a different currency such as the Japanese yen or British pound. You can use OpenARGUS to export data to other report and database programs such as Crystal Reports and Microsoft Access.

In Summary

ARGUS will assist you in your screening, due diligence, negotiating, structuring, packaging, approval, and strategic planning processes. ARGUS can help you  eliminate costly mistakes caused by calculation errors hidden in internally developed spreadsheets, allowing you to better understand the risks and returns inherent in each real estate assignment, opportunity, or endeavor. In short, ARGUS will save you money and it will make you money, because ARGUS will  help you save the most important business asset you have…your time.