Buyer's guide
Three categories, one decision that actually matters, and what to require of any tool before its numbers reach committee.
Short answer
Commercial real estate underwriting software falls into three groups: spreadsheet models, dedicated underwriting platforms, and grounded AI workflows. The real choice is not which brand, but whether you want a tool you rent or a workflow you own. PSV builds on Claude by Anthropic so the model reads your actual deal documents, fills your template, and cites the source behind every number, and a person verifies it before committee. That way the analysis is checkable, and the workflow stays yours.
The landscape
Every buyer shortlist eventually lands in one of these three groups. The trade-offs, not the feature lists, are what separate them.
The default. Excel or Google Sheets models, often from a shared template or a firm's in-house standard. Total control and no per-seat fee, but every deal is manual data entry, and the model is only as current as the last person who touched it.
Dedicated CRE software that centralizes assumptions, comps, and outputs. Faster than a blank sheet and good for keeping a team consistent, but you work inside the vendor's structure, pay per seat, and the logic behind a given number can be hard to trace back.
The newer category. A model like Claude reads the actual OM, T-12, and rent roll, fills your template, and cites the page behind each figure. Trustworthy only when it is restricted to your documents, required to show its sources, and verified by a person before the numbers reach committee.
The real decision
Most software comparisons stop at features and price. The decision that lasts is about ownership. Rent a platform when you need a whole team on one structure tomorrow. Own the workflow when the advantage you want to build is yours to keep.
What to require
Whichever category you choose, the same four requirements separate an analysis you can take to committee from one you cannot.
It works from your real documents, the OM, T-12, and rent roll, not from a summary you retyped
Every figure carries the page or line it came from, so any number is checkable later
The output arrives in your template and your format, not the tool's
The assumptions, the trail, and the data stay with your team, not locked inside a platform
This is how PSV builds CRE AI on Claude: cited truth as a system property, in a workflow your team owns. See the grounded approach in Claude for real estate underwriting.
Why the Company Brain matters here
Every option on this page can produce a number. What separates them is what the firm still holds when the contract is up: the standard your team underwrites to, and whether that standard is yours or the vendor's.
The advantage compounds on your side of the table.
Every deal your team underwrites sharpens the standard the firm works to. That gain belongs to the firm, not to a product you re-license every year.
Ending a contract is a decision, not a salvage operation.
Nobody spends a quarter prying templates, house positions, and deal history back out of a platform. When the term is up, the firm still has what it built.
You renew because the tool earns it, not because leaving is unthinkable.
The question on the renewal call is whether the software is still worth its price, not what three years of underwriting would cost to rebuild somewhere else.
Frequently asked
Keep reading
The grounded workflow end to end: the documents that go in, the filled template that comes out, and where a person checks the work.
The wider tool landscape sorted by what each category is actually good at, and where the money is usually wasted.
The plain-language primer on what AI does and does not do in commercial real estate, before you shortlist anything.
Two ways from here
The CRE AI Institute, by PSV, teaches this grounded underwriting workflow on a real practice deal, with Claude reading the documents and citing its sources. 7-day free trial. $0 today. For a workflow built for your firm, PSV builds it with you.
Underwriting teardowns · Weekly
One workflow taken apart per issue: the documents that went in, the model that came out, what the tool got wrong, and where a person still has to check it. Useful whether you end up buying a platform or building your own. Free, unsubscribe in one click.
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Next step
Ten minutes. An honest read on where you stand, the highest-value opportunities, and which engagement fits, if any.