+ ACCURACY

The farm development model must be accurate. If you are investing millions of dollars into a farm development project, the model needs to be precise and exacting with zero formulaic errors. Without an accurate model, the capital requirements or expected returns could be misstated. Our farm development model is a 100% unlocked Excel file with fully transparent formulas. While the model is fully customizable, we are confident that it will contain everything you need.

+ EFFICIENT AND INTUITIVE

All tabs need to have a purpose, and all inputs should be organized in a logical way that is easy to follow. Anyone should be able to open the model and understand your assumptions. At TSM, this is important to us because we know that you will be sharing the results of your customized model with your investors, lenders, and partners. Each farm development model includes an easy to use, step-by-step instruction manual. This manual guides you tab by tab, and cell by cell, in order to help you underwrite your very own farm development project.

+SPECIFICATION

The problem with most generic farm development templates is that they are standard and not able to be customized. You will either be required to add additional calculations or remove the sections you do not need. At Top Shelf Models, we have a proprietary Custom Model Builder where you are able to pick and choose the features you need. Some of these features include the ability to refinance, addition of mezzanine debt, as well as an option to choose how many tiers of waterfall calculations. The result is a model with exactly what you need, nothing more and nothing less.

+VISUAL APPEAL

A good-looking farm development model gives the audience confidence that the project is organized and thoughtful. We have included a pre-formatted investor summary tab that can be printed and used for internal and external reports. We also have a model output tab that summarizes the project in a single location so you or your marketing/investor relations team can copy the formatted reports and paste them directly into your OMs or PPMs. We have included several drop-down boxes, elevator buttons and consistent colors/formats using our trademarked formatting style.

+ CUSTOM MODEL BUILDER

This guides you through a series of questions, allowing you to achieve the exact model you need. Our competitors usually have one farm development model template for farm development, whereas we have 8 different versions of our farm development model to cater to your individual needs.

+INPUTS

Competitor farm development models are too simple. They might only have 2-3 tabs in total which sounds great, but that means you are inputting assumptions directly into the cashflows which is not a good practice. It could also mean that the farm development model is missing some much needed complexities that institutional investors look for. The TSM farm development model has dedicated inputs found on the Assumptions and Startup Budget tabs. Also, most competitor models don’t use iterative calculations. Without iterative calculations, the sizing of the debt is incorrect. Our models use iterative calculations to calculate the construction interest so there is no need for manual plugs that you could forget to update.

+PRECISION

Our farm development models are precise and easy to use. Look at the version history of other competitor farm models and you will see the number of mistakes and miscalculations that have been supposedly fixed. It is almost as though the competition is using their customers to vet their own products! We have tested all the calculations and functions in our models BEFORE we offer them to our customers.

+FUNCTIONALITY

We generally have more functionality and control over the assumptions. There are countless examples, but our farm development models have annual control over the revenue and expense inflations. For the exit value calculation, you can select if the cap rate is applied to a forward 12 NOI or a trailing 3-month NOI. For Debt, we have the ability to have fixed/floating loans, SOFR caps/floors, and can size the debt based on an LTV calculation. Again, there are too many examples to list out, but you get the idea.

+EXPERTISE

We are experts at waterfall calculations. Our founder regularly teaches on private equity waterfall calculations at Harvard Business School. Our waterfalls in our farm development models can be either driven off promote or as a percentage of cashflows.

+EASE

We have made the underwriting process as easy as possible. We have included instruction manuals inside each farm development model and all models include 1-hour of free consultation with one of our financial analysts to answer any questions you have on the model or underwriting a specific investment. We are based in Dallas, Texas and can always be reached by email or phone to support you.

+CRADLE TO GRAVE

We have designed our farm development models to be used cradle to grave. Our competitor’s models have been designed to simply underwrite deals. Our farm development models have been built out to be updated during the operations of the project and include reforecasts of budgets within the monthly cashflows.