The best place to start is the How to Start video library. Pick the property type that matches your first analysis — Apartments, Retail/Office/Industrial, or Development — and watch the three short videos: Entry, Suggested Reports, and What-If. Each sequence is about 5–10 minutes. Install the free trial and follow along. New to commercial real estate analysis entirely? Start with the Unit Investment E-Learning walkthrough — it assumes no prior experience.

Cash on Cash is a one-year ratio: net operating cash flow ÷ initial equity. It shows annual cash income on your invested dollars but ignores time value of money, sale proceeds, and future years.

IRR (Internal Rate of Return) is a multi-year time-value-of-money measure. It considers every cash flow over the holding period including the sale, producing a single annualized yield comparable to a bank rate or bond yield.

Use both: Cash on Cash for annual income performance, IRR for overall investment quality.  Cash on Cash →  IRR →

Cap Rate = Net Operating Income ÷ Purchase Price
Example: $100,000 NOI ÷ $1,000,000 = 10% Cap Rate.

Useful for quickly comparing properties and estimating purchase or sale price. It considers only one year of income and ignores financing, taxes, and time value of money.  Full Cap Rate explanation →

Use the Apartment / Self Storage model. Watch these three How to Start videos in order:

• Entering assumptions
• Suggested reports
• What-If analysis

For a full case-study walkthrough see the Unit Investment E-Learning topic.

Use the Retail / Office / Industrial model (lease-by-lease entry):

• Entering assumptions
• Suggested reports
• What-If analysis

For multi-tenant properties with expiring leases also review the Market Profiles videos.

Sensitivity Analysis lets you vary any single assumption (price, vacancy, cap rate at sale, rent growth) against any measure (IRR, NPV, Cash on Cash, DCR) and produces a one-page table and graph.

Risk Analysis (Monte Carlo) varies multiple assumptions simultaneously and shows the probability of achieving each return level.

Both are in the Analysis menu. The Detailed Video Library has 40+ videos covering every scenario.

The sequence is:

• Enter costs in the Development Spending Dialog
• Set up the construction draw loan on the Loan page
• Set up the permanent (take-out) loan

The Development Spending Dialog section of the Detailed Library has 9 step-by-step videos.

DCR = Net Operating Income ÷ Total Debt Service
Example: $100,000 NOI ÷ $80,000 debt service = 1.25 DCR.

Lenders use DCR along with Loan-to-Value to determine loan size. A DCR below 1.0 means the property cannot cover its loan payments. Most lenders require a minimum of 1.20 to 1.25.  Full DCR explanation →

planEASe has dedicated Lease Comparison models:

• Tenant Representation — compare multiple lease options for a tenant. Watch Tenant Rep videos →
• Owner Representation — compare proposals for a landlord. Watch Owner Rep videos →

Both use Before-Tax NPV to compare leases on an apples-to-apples basis.

From the Presentation menu inside planEASe:

• Print to PDF — use any PDF printer driver on your computer
• Save as Web Page — creates an HTML file you can email or open in Word
• Export to Excel — exports cash flow data to a spreadsheet
• Web Publishing — creates a web-based slideshow presentation

The Presentation section of the Detailed Library covers each method with videos.

There are three video libraries:

• How to Start Videos — short 1–4 min videos by property type (best for new users)
• Detailed Video Library — in-depth videos for every assumption page and feature
• Ratios & Measures — articles and videos on IRR, NPV, Cap Rate, DCR, and all measures

Videos are also available inside planEASe from the HowToStart and Video menu items.