AI-Driven Location Risk Summaries in CRE: Faster, Smarter, and More Actionable

In commercial real estate, you can run all the numbers in the world — but if you miss location risks, you’re flying blind. 

Crime, flood, and environmental issues don’t just cause headaches; they can sink deals, scare lenders and surprise your investors at the worst possible time.

The problem? Gathering this data is slow, fragmented and confusing. Ever tried explaining a FEMA map or a string of environmental acronyms to a client? Not fun!

That’s why we built the AI-Driven Location Risk Summary Report inside TheAnalyst® PRO.

Why Location Risk Matters

•  Close smarter, faster deals - lenders and investors trust you when risks are clear.

•  Save time - no more chasing data across five sites.

•  Stand out - you’re not just presenting risks, you’re presenting solutions.

Missing a single red flag can derail financing, increase insurance costs, or limit investor interest.

Three Risk Categories That Matter

Crime Risk

TheAnalyst® PRO reports both personal and property crime, comparing each index against national averages.

•  Impact: Crime levels directly influence tenant demand, rental rates, insurance premiums and cap rates.

•  AI Recommendation: Reports of elevated crime levels, and provides guidance on how to proceed.

Flood Risk

FEMA Flood Map designations are integrated directly into the report.

Impact: Flood zones affect insurance requirements, premiums, financing, liability and property safety.

AI Recommendation: Alerts of high-risk flood zones, and advises possible next steps.

 

Environmental Risk

Our exclusive environmental database identifies nearby facilities with records of concern. Data is prioritized by distance:

•  0.25 miles: Critical radius used in Phase I Environmental Reports

•  0.5 miles: Extended buffer for potential migration risks

Impact: These factors can delay transactions, limit financing, or create long-term liabilities.

AI Recommendation: High-risk facilities are called out, and guidance on further investigation is provided.

From Raw Data to Action Plan in Minutes

Here’s the difference:

•  Instead of drowning in stats, you get crime, flood, and environmental risks clearly explained.

•  Instead of guessing, you get AI-powered recommendations that spell out your next steps.

•  Instead of hours of digging, you get it all in under 10 minutes.

It’s not just a report — it’s a client-ready narrative that elevates your credibility and shows you’re on top of every risk that matters.

See It in Action

We recently rolled out our newest feature in a live training. Watch the recording here:

The AI Hallucination Speed Trap in Commercial Real Estate

What Every CRE Pro Must Know

Artificial Intelligence is transforming how Commercial Real Estate professionals approach everything from prospecting to proposal writing. But with this excitement comes a critical warning: AI hallucinations are real and can lead to serious legal liability.

What Are AI Hallucinations?

In the AI world, “hallucinations” refer to instances where an AI confidently generates false or misleading information even when it appears accurate on the surface.

For example:

•  A financial model might produce incorrect cash-on-cash return or IRR calculations.

•  A lease summary might misrepresent escalation clauses or option periods.

•  A demographic analysis might fabricate income or population growth figures based on general patterns instead of verified datasets, leading to false assumptions about market potential or tenant demand.

Relying on AI to perform detailed financial, lease, or demographic analysis - and using that data to make decisions or handing it off to a client - can set you up for disaster.

The Legal Risk: Don’t Learn the Hard Way

In today’s litigious environment, misrepresenting numbers - especially on investment offerings - can lead to lawsuits, reputational damage, or worse. There is no room for hallucinations in CRE financial analysis. And yet, I see more and more brokers, investors, and underwriters using general-purpose AI tools to generate pro formas, loan analysis and syndication models.

This is why I say, “Don’t expose your liability by taking AI shortcuts.”

A Word of Caution From Experience

As the founder of TheAnalyst PRO, I’ve seen plenty of technology waves sweep through our industry. In fact, we were the first commercial real estate technology company to implement AI over two year ago - long before it was trending on every newsfeed.

Even Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (maker of ChatGPT), recently acknowledged the “AI bubble” due to the exaggerated hype flooding the market. And I agree: the buzz is real, but so are the dangers if you don’t use AI responsibly.

“I was recently speaking with a respected investment real estate professional who told me, ‘I started using AI to analyze my properties, and the numbers just didn’t add up. Each time I ran it, the results were different and often wrong.’” - Todd A. Kuhlmann, CCIM, Founder of TheAnalyst PRO

4 Ways AI Is Working in Commercial Real Estate

While AI has its limitations, it can deliver tremendous value when applied appropriately. At TheAnalyst PRO and CRE Tech, Inc., we’ve had notable success using AI for:

1.  Marketing Messaging

    ► Generating compelling summaries for OM materials, emails, and property descriptions.

2.  Image & Brochure Enhancement

    ► Auto-generating visual images and enhancing your presentations.

3.  Data Structuring and Tagging

    ► Using AI to help categorize and organize large volumes of property and location data for easier access, enabling more efficient workflows without replacing human judgment.

4.  Automated Location Risk Summaries (coming soon)

  ► We’re launching a feature that uses AI to summarize extensive location data, including flood, crime, and environmental risk based only on trusted sources that we provide to the model.

Our Commitment to AI Done Right

We have a dedicated development team working full-time to test and safely implement AI into TheAnalyst® PRO. But here’s the key:

“We don’t let AI guess. We provide the AI with the exact data it needs.
That’s the only way to get reliable results.” - Todd A. Kuhlmann, CCIM

In contrast, using open-ended AI tools for financial analysis or lease abstraction without verification is risky business.

At CRE Tech, Inc., we’ve spent over 14 years perfecting our algorithms for cash flow modeling, lease analysis, and investment metrics. These aren’t just theoretical formulas. Our models have been stress-tested across thousands of real-world transactions - deal after deal, year after year - from boutique brokerages to complex syndications and institutional-grade acquisitions.

Unlike black-box AI predictions, we know the logic behind every formula - and we’ve proven it under pressure.

TheAnalyst PRO has been trusted by thousands of CRE professionals across North America and around the world, from CCIM designees and CRE instructors to universities with specialized CRE graduate and master’s programs, brokerage teams, investment syndicators, and asset managers - because accuracy matters. When it comes to financial analysis, location data, or lease modeling, they trust our platform to deliver results that withstand scrutiny.

Final Advice for CRE Professionals

If you’re using AI in your commercial real estate business, here’s what I strongly recommend:

  ✓ Fact check everything, every time you run it.

  ✓ Use AI for tasks like marketing, summaries, or data visualization, not for core financial underwriting.

  ✓ Stick with platforms that control the data inputs and are built for CRE like TheAnalyst® PRO, Argus and Esri.

  ✓ Don’t rely on generic AI tools to write your financials, leases, demographic or location risk reports.

Why Due Diligence Is Critical in Every Commercial Real Estate Transaction

After 14 years in commercial lending, I can tell you this:

It doesn’t matter how much time you spend underwriting a property, negotiating deal terms, or building a relationship—a single overlooked risk can kill the deal instantly.

I’ve seen it happen. Flood zones. Contamination reports. Unexpected crime data. All issues that, when discovered too late, meant walking away from weeks of hard work.

That’s why, when I created TheAnalyst® PRO, I made sure it included tools for fast, accessible due diligence—so CRE professionals could uncover risks early, before investing time or money in a property that wouldn’t pass lender or investor scrutiny.

What Can Go Wrong Without Due Diligence?

Commercial real estate deals are complex. No two are the same—and no investor, lender, or broker should rely on assumptions.

Whether you’re buying income property, acquiring land, or evaluating a site for your business, due diligence isn’t optional—it’s essential.

Here are just a few examples of hidden risks that can stall or kill a deal:

Flood Zone Exposure

Buying in a flood zone dramatically increases insurance costs and long-term risk.

With TheAnalyst® PRO, you can instantly determine whether part or all of the property is in a flood zone.

Environmental Contamination

A Phase I Environmental Report can take nearly a month and cost thousands.

Our exclusive Location Risk Report searches hundreds of databases—local, state, and federal—to flag potential contamination within ¼ and ½ mile of the site.

Crime Activity

 High crime areas can reduce tenant interest and limit financing options.

We integrate directly with the FBI’s national crime database to provide fast, credible data on neighborhood crime trends.

Traditional Due Diligence Is Expensive and Slow

I’ve seen investors spend $10K–$20K+ and wait weeks for due diligence reports—only to uncover deal-killing issues late in the process.

That’s time and money you never get back.

With TheAnalyst® PRO, you can:

•  Run reports in 5–10 minutes

•  Analyze every property you’re considering

•  Quickly rule out red flags or identify how to overcome them

•  Access unlimited due diligence reports with a single subscription

Due Diligence Isn’t Just for Buyers and Lenders

If you’re a CRE agent trying to win listings, use due diligence to stand out.

Before your next listing presentation, run a Location Risk Report. Show the seller you’ve already done the legwork. You’ll:

•  Elevate the conversation with facts, not guesswork

•  Build trust by anticipating lender or buyer objections

•  Position yourself as a proactive, value-driven advisor

Whether you’re underwriting, buying, listing, or advising—TheAnalyst® PRO puts essential due diligence at your fingertips

Written by: TheAnalyst PRO Founder, Todd Kuhlmann, CCIM

Transforming CRE Syndications

 

Introducing Partner Modeling in TheAnalyst® PRO

At TheAnalyst PRO, innovation has always been at the heart of what we do. Today, we’re proud to announce a groundbreaking enhancement that’s redefining how commercial real estate professionals structure, analyze, and present investment partnerships: Partner Modeling

Whether you’re a syndicator, investor, or broker, structuring partnerships has historically been a complex and time-consuming process — requiring spreadsheets, manual calculations, and, often, a lot of guesswork.

Not anymore.

What Is Partner Modeling?

Partner Modeling is the process of structuring and analyzing how cash flows, profits, and returns are distributed among investors and sponsors in a commercial real estate partnership.

Our new Partner Modeling feature empowers users to model both simple and highly sophisticated investment structures in minutes. With TheAnalyst PRO, Partner Modeling is fully integrated into your property analysis with just a few inputs.

Model Types Now Available:

• Simple Split

Quickly divide cash flow and profits based on ownership percentages, with no preferred returns or promote structures. Perfect for straightforward partnerships and small syndications.

• Rake Distribution

Introduce a “rake” or fixed promote to the sponsor, allowing a predetermined share of profits (e.g., 15% or 20%) before the remainder is split based on ownership.

• Preferred Return & Promote

Model structures where investors receive a preferred return first, and any profits above that hurdle are split with a sponsor promote (carried interest), incentivizing strong deal performance.

• Pari Passu Tiered Waterfall

Advanced tiered waterfalls allowing cash to be distributed across multiple hurdles (e.g., an 8% pref, then a 12% IRR hurdle) with customizable promote structures at each level.


Why It Matters

Gone are the days of juggling multiple spreadsheets and struggling to explain complex partnership structures. With TheAnalyst PRO’s Partner Modeling:

•  Save Time: Model partnerships faster and more accurately than ever.

•  Enhance Transparency: Provide professional, easy-to-understand reports to investors.

•  Close More Deals: Spend less time explaining structures and more time building relationships.

•  Generate Investor-Ready Reports Instantly: Your outputs are clean, polished, and ready for syndication presentations.

This innovation sets TheAnalyst® PRO apart as the first all-in-one CRE analysis platform to offer a fully integrated Partner Modeling tool — making us the new standard for the industry.

Valuing Property: The Importance of Data Over Emotion

Selling commercial real estate can be an emotional process. Many property owners develop a deep connection to their asset, believing it holds a unique, almost priceless value. Unfortunately, emotions don’t dictate market value—investors do. The key to a successful sale isn’t inflating numbers to meet unrealistic expectations but rather setting a data-driven, market-aligned price that attracts serious buyers.

This is where TheAnalyst PRO and an experienced broker can make all the difference. Instead of simply telling a seller what they want to hear, a knowledgeable broker uses real-world data, financial metrics, and investment analysis to present an objective valuation.

Why Overpricing Can Be Costly

When sellers overestimate their property’s worth, it often results in:

► Longer time on the market – Overpriced properties sit unsold while realistic deals get done.

► Reduced buyer interest – Investors focus on numbers, not emotions. If the price doesn’t align with returns, they move on.

► Lost credibility – A property that lingers too long often signals that something is off, deterring potential buyers.

Key Metrics for Valuing Commercial Real Estate

To determine the true investment value of a property, brokers and investors rely on financial indicators rather than subjective opinions. TheAnalyst PRO provides powerful tools and analytics to ensure valuations are realistic, market-driven, and aligned with investor expectations.

1. Cap Rate (Capitalization Rate)

The Capitalization Rate (Cap Rate) is one of the most critical metrics used to determine the value of investment real estate.

Cap Rate = Net Operating Income (NOI) ÷ Property Value (or Purchase Price)

► It represents the expected return on an all-cash purchase.

► Investors use Cap Rate to compare property values across different asset types and markets.

► Lower Cap Rates are associated with lower risk, higher demand properties, while higher Cap Rates typically indicate greater risk and potential for higher returns.

By focusing on Cap Rate rather than emotional attachment, sellers can better understand how investors perceive the true market value of their property.

2. Cash-on-Cash Return – The Dividend of Real Estate Investing

Cash-on-Cash Return is a dividend return for real estate investors, showing the actual cash yield they receive on their investment relative to the money they put in.

Cash-on-Cash Return = Annual Pre-Tax Cash Flow ÷ Total Cash Invested

► Unlike Cap Rate, which looks at overall value, Cash-on-Cash Return focuses on the return an investor receives on their out-of-pocket investment (equity).

► A higher Cash-on-Cash Return often makes a deal more attractive, just like a higher dividend yield makes a stock more appealing to investors.

By understanding this metric, sellers can see their property through the lens of an investor and price it accordingly.

3. Acquisition Price Sensitivity Matrix

The Acquisition Price Sensitivity Matrix, available in TheAnalyst PRO, helps assess how various purchase prices impact investor returns.

► This tool allows brokers to visually demonstrate the impact of small pricing changes on key investor metrics.

► It also helps set realistic price expectations by showing what range makes financial sense.

The Role of a Skilled Broker vs.

a Transactional Broker

Not all brokers approach valuation the same way. Some take a transactional approach, agreeing with the seller’s high price just to secure the listing, hoping the market will eventually correct the price. However, this often leads to frustration, extended time on the market, and price reductions down the road.

A skilled broker, however, takes the time to:

► Educate the seller on real market conditions using TheAnalyst PRO’s financial tools.

► Show objective data to support pricing recommendations.

► Position the property correctly for serious investor interest.

Using TheAnalyst PRO to Guide Sellers Toward Realistic Pricing

TheAnalyst PRO allows brokers to present sophisticated yet easy-to-understand financial insights. By removing emotion from the equation, brokers can help sellers see their property as an investment rather than a sentimental asset.

Sellers who trust the numbers, rather than their gut, are far more likely to achieve a faster, smoother sale at a fair market price.

If you’re a broker looking to gain credibility and win more listings through expert financial analysis, let TheAnalyst PRO do the talking.

Changing the game for some of the most successful brokerages in the country!

How Top Brokers Leverage TheAnalyst PRO to Win More Deals

In commercial real estate, having the right tools isn’t just an advantage—it’s a necessity. That’s why some of the most successful brokerages in the country are turning to TheAnalyst PRO to streamline financial analysis and marketing.

In this video, Randy Workman, Sr. Director of Century 21 Commercial, and Tommy Kiritsis, Managing Broker of C21 Scheetz, share how TheAnalyst PRO is revolutionizing the way they and their colleagues do business.  Watch the Interview: https://vimeo.com/1060422310

Key Takeaways:

★ Training the Next Generation of Brokers

Randy Workman explains how C21 Commercial has integrated TheAnalyst PRO into its training program for new agents, helping them quickly master financial analytics and marketing strategies.

★ Branding & Customization for Every Agent

Tommy Kiritsis shares how his firm provides TheAnalyst PRO to all 19 of their agents. Every report is custom-branded for individual agents and the firm, ensuring a polished and professional look.

★ Scalable for Any Deal—Big or Small

From small transactions to a $40 million project, Tommy’s team relies on TheAnalyst PRO to create high-quality marketing materials. Whether it’s a simple flyer or a 40-page offering memorandum, the platform delivers.

Powerful Reports at Your Fingertips

TheAnalyst PRO also generates detailed due diligence reports that help brokers make data-driven decisions, including:

• FEMA Flood Reports

• FBI Crime Reports

• ESRI Demographics & Psychographics

• Proprietary Environmental Reports

Work with confidence, whether you are walking into a listing presentation or looking to invest in a new property!

Want to see how TheAnalyst PRO can enhance your CRE business? 

Schedule a one-on-one walkthrough today!

Why It Matters: Ethics in Commercial Real Estate and Technology

Business ethics have always been a cornerstone of my professional career. Having dedicated nearly all of my adult life—over 30 years—to commercial real estate (CRE), I have seen firsthand how ethical principles shape the industry. Ethics are not just a side note; they are fundamental to how we conduct business, engage with peers, and build trust with clients and colleagues. In CRE, we are surrounded daily by the reminder of ethics in brokerage and other aspects of the business, as our peers are often also our competitors.

However, ethical conduct does not stop at real estate. It is just as critical in every business and in our lives, including the ever-growing technology sector. Recently, we encountered a situation that tested these principles. A so-called competitor signed up for TheAnalyst PRO under a fictitious name and email. While I won’t go into details about their intent, their behavior was anything but professional. They wasted valuable time from our amazing support team and were belligerent to our team members, often citing false information in an attempt to berate them.

One thing I have learned over the years is that the commercial real estate universe is extremely small. Burning bridges in this industry is a costly mistake—it will soon spit you out. There is no room in CRE for fraudulent and belligerent behavior, and the same holds true for the CRE technology industry. While unethical behavior occurs periodically, I am grateful to say it is the exception, not the rule.

At TheAnalyst PRO by CRE Tech, we take pride in our strong relationships with other CRE technology companies. Some may offer similar services, while many are complementary to our platform. In fact, we actively collaborate and even partner with other tech providers to enhance our products and deliver better solutions for the industry. Ethical business practices foster these collaborations, allowing us to drive innovation and provide greater value to our members.

As the commercial real estate and technology worlds evolve—now more rapidly than ever—it is crucial to know who you are working with. 

How long have they been in the industry? 

What is their background? 

New entrants to our industry may not immediately understand that we are a tight-knit group of professionals who value ethics and collaboration above all else.

I encourage everyone to do their homework. If a company or individual is willing to act unethically and fraudulently toward their competition, imagine what they might do with your sensitive and confidential information. Poor ethical standards can jeopardize your deals, your business, and even your reputation.

In an industry built on trust, integrity is not optional—it is essential. Choose to work with those who uphold the highest standards of professionalism, and together, we will continue to build a stronger, more ethical commercial real estate and technology community.