How to Build an IRR-Based Waterfall Model in Excel

Model preferred returns, IRR hurdles, and promote structures with confidence — step by step in Excel.

What you'll learn
- Understand the logic and structure of IRR-based investor waterfalls, including preferred returns and promote tiers
- Set up flexible equity splits and hurdle rate inputs that adapt to different deal terms
- Build a step-by-step Excel model to calculate equity returns, IRRs, and promote allocations
- Audit and test your waterfall to ensure accurate distributions across all tiers

Requirements
- A working knowledge of Excel, including basic formulas (e.g. IF, SUM, MIN, MAX)
- Some experience with financial modelling or real estate investment concepts
- Confidence navigating Excel workbooks and structured inputs/outputs

Description
If you work in real estate, private equity, or investment analysis, you’ve probably seen — or been asked to build — a waterfall model. And if you’ve ever felt uncertain about how the tiers actually work, what the formulas are doing, or how to explain the logic to someone else, you’re not alone.

This course shows you exactly how to build anIRR-based investor waterfallfrom the ground up, using plain Excel and a clear, auditable structure.

We focus on the most common approach: a return of equity followed by an IRR hurdle, with promote tiers that reward the operating partner once certain return thresholds are met. You’ll learn not just what to do in Excel, but why it matters — and how to make your model flexible, accurate, and easy to follow.

Throughout the course, you’ll:

Build a working waterfall model from scratch using standard formulas

Calculate capital returns, IRRs, and profit splits across multiple tiers

Understand how preferred returns and promotes are triggered

Learn practical techniques to avoid common modelling errors

Test the logic using built-in checks and structured inputs

All you need is a basic understanding of Excel and some exposure to real estate or investment cash flows. No macros, no VBA, and no shortcuts — just a step-by-step breakdown of how to model one of the most important structures in private capital.

By the end, you’ll have a working model and the confidence to use it, explain it, and adapt it to real deals.

Who this course is for:
- This course is designed for real estate analysts, investment professionals, and anyone who needs to model investor returns accurately. Whether you're working in acquisitions, development, or private equity, you'll learn how to build an IRR-based waterfall model from scratch — using a clear, auditable structure you can apply to real deals.
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