Building an Offering Memorandum

The first step is choosing what kind of property you are marketing. CREBuilder supports all major commercial property types. Your selection determines which data fields, financial models, and template layouts appear throughout your document.

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   Property Type Cards

   Click the card that matches your property. Each card shows a brief description of what it covers. Options include Retail, Office/Medical, Multifamily, Industrial, Land, Hospitality, Self-Storage, Mobile Home Parks, Mixed-Use, and Net Lease.

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   Progress Indicator

   The top bar shows your position in the four-step creation flow: Property Type, Package Type, Template, and Contact Info.

Choose the type of marketing document you want to create. For this walkthrough, we are building an Offering Memorandum -- the most comprehensive option, ideal for investment sales with full financial analysis.

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   Offering Memorandum

   The gold standard for investment sales. Includes financials, rent roll, comparables, investment analysis, tenant profiles, and market data. This is what most brokers use to market a property for sale.

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   Sales Teaser / Summary

   A concise deal summary that highlights the key property attributes. Perfect for email blasts and initial buyer outreach before sharing the full OM.

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   Leasing Package

   Marketing materials for lease-up. Focuses on available space, lease terms, and property features to attract tenants.

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   For Sale Flyer

   A quick one-page marketing flyer for property sales. Great for print or email distribution.

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   For Lease Flyer

   A one-page flyer focused on leasing opportunities with space availability details.

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   Broker Opinion of Value

   A formal property valuation report with comparables and market analysis. Commonly used for bank loan underwriting and estate valuations.

Pick a design theme for your document. Each theme has its own typography, layout style, and visual personality. You can also set your brand color here -- it flows through every page of the finished document.

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   Brand Color Picker

   Choose your brokerage brand color. The top row shows popular CRE brokerage presets (CBRE, JLL, Cushman, etc.). Use "Custom" to enter any hex color. This color appears on headers, accent bars, and graphic elements throughout the document.

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   Classic Theme

   Clean, traditional design with a full-bleed cover photo and a white property name bar.

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   Modern Theme

   Bold vertical color block with a large property name. Contemporary feel.

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   Professional Theme

   Understated layout with a top color band and centered property name.

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   Executive Theme

   Rich, dark-branded header bar with an elegant serif font for a premium look.

This is where you enter the basic property information. The property name and address appear on your cover page and throughout the document. CREBuilder uses Google address autocomplete to speed up data entry.

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   Property Type Badge

   Shows your selected property type. You can change it here if needed by clicking "Change Type" -- your data transfers to the new type.

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   Property Name

   The marketing name that appears on your cover page. This is what buyers see first (e.g., "Sunset Plaza Shopping Center" or "1234 Main St Office Building").

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   Address Autocomplete

   Start typing the street address and Google autocomplete will suggest matching addresses. When you select one, the city, state, and ZIP fill in automatically.

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   Selling Price

   Enter the asking price. You can choose to show the price, hide it, or display "Negotiable" on the document. Price per square foot auto-calculates once you enter building size.

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   Document Sections Sidebar

   The right sidebar shows every section in your document. Green checkmarks indicate completed sections. Click any section to jump directly to it.

Enter the key building specifications. These data points appear on your Property Summary page and cover page metrics. The fields adapt to your property type -- multifamily shows units, industrial shows clear height, etc.

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   Building Details

   Standard fields include Year Built, Lot Size (acres), Building Square Footage, Number of Units/Suites, Stories, and Parking Spaces. Not all fields are required -- fill in what you have.

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   Custom Data Fields

   Add property-specific details like Traffic Count, Parking Ratio, Anchor Tenants, Clear Height, LEED Certification, or any custom label/value pair. Drag rows to reorder them. These appear on the Property Summary page.

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   Suggested Fields

   CREBuilder suggests common fields based on your property type. Click the suggested field buttons to quickly add them with the correct label.

Write a 2-3 paragraph overview of the investment opportunity. This is the first content page buyers read after the cover, so it should capture their attention and summarize the key selling points.

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   Rich Text Editor

   A full-featured editor with bold, italic, bullet lists, and paragraph formatting. Write your narrative naturally -- the formatting carries through to the final PDF.

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   AI Suggestions Panel

   Click "AI Suggestions" to open the sidebar with professionally written content suggestions tailored to your property type. Browse categories like Property Features, Location & Demographics, and Investment Potential.

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   Content Categories

   Suggestions are organized by topic. Click any suggestion to insert it into the editor, then customize it for your property. This helps you get started quickly.

Highlight the key investment features and benefits. This page uses bullet-point format to make financial and investment advantages easy to scan. The Key Metrics panel on the right lets you configure the metrics displayed on the cover page.

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   Highlights Editor

   Write bullet points covering financial advantages, value-add opportunities, market positioning, and unique selling features. Use the AI suggestions for inspiration.

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   Key Metrics Panel

   Configure the 4-6 key investment metrics shown prominently on your cover page and investment highlights page (e.g., Cap Rate, NOI, Price/SF, Occupancy). Metrics auto-calculate from your financial data.

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   AI Suggestions

   Property-type-specific suggestion categories help you write compelling investment highlights. Categories include Property Features, Investment Potential, and Market Position.

Describe the location advantages, nearby amenities, and area features. The Accessibility panel on the right automatically finds nearby transit stations, airports, and major highways based on the property coordinates.

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   Location Editor

   Write about neighborhood context, traffic patterns, nearby retailers, employment centers, and demographic advantages. The AI suggestions provide location-specific content.

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   Accessibility Panel

   Automatically populated with nearby transit stations, airports, and major highways. This data comes from Google Places based on the property coordinates you entered earlier. Toggle items on/off to control what appears in the document.

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   Content Categories

   Browse AI suggestions organized by Strategic Position, Growth & Demographics, and Transportation & Accessibility to quickly build compelling location content.

Upload and organize the property photography that appears in your document. CREBuilder supports three photo placement options, each creating different page layouts in the final PDF.

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   Cover Image

   The hero photo that appears on your document cover page. This is the first visual impression -- use your best exterior or aerial shot. One image only.

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   Single-Page Images

   Each uploaded image gets its own full page in the document. Great for hero shots, aerial views, or site plans that deserve the full spotlight.

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   Multi-Image Pages

   Create gallery pages with 2-8 images arranged in a grid layout. Perfect for interior photos, amenity shots, and detail images that work well together.

Add location maps to your document. CREBuilder includes a built-in Map Builder that creates branded retail maps with business logos, custom styling, and professional annotations -- all without leaving the app.

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   Map Preview

   Your saved maps appear as cards with a preview thumbnail. Click any map to open the full Map Builder editor.

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   Create Map Button

   Opens the interactive Map Builder where you can search for businesses, add logos, customize colors, adjust zoom level, and annotate your map.

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   Map Logos

   The Map Builder automatically finds business logos for nearby retailers, restaurants, and amenities. Drag them onto the map to show the surrounding retail environment.

Before entering financial data, choose how much financial detail to include. This selection determines which financial pages appear in your document. You can change this later if your deal evolves.

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   Full Financials

   The most comprehensive option. Includes rent roll, income & expenses, cash flow projections, and valuation analysis. Best for stabilized income-producing properties.

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   Rent Roll Only

   Shows tenant data and occupancy without detailed income/expense analysis. Good for properties where tenants handle their own operating expenses (NNN leases).

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   Cap Rate & NOI

   A simple valuation display showing Cap Rate, NOI, and Price. Useful when you have the high-level numbers but not a detailed rent roll.

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   Skip Financials

   Omit all financial pages entirely. Used for land deals, development sites, or situations where financials are shared separately under NDA.

Enter your tenant and vacancy data. The rent roll is the backbone of your financial analysis -- it feeds into income calculations, occupancy metrics, and cash flow projections throughout the document.

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   Rent Roll Type Selector

   Choose between Cash Flow (actual income) and Pro Forma (projected income) modes. Multi-Year Cash Flow adds growth rate projections across multiple years.

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   Add Tenant / Add Vacancy

   Click to add a new tenant row or a vacant space. Each tenant row includes name, square footage, rent amount, lease term, and optional notes.

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   Rent Roll Notes

   Add footnotes that appear below the rent roll table in the document. Useful for lease abstracts, renewal options, or special conditions.

Build your property pro forma by entering additional income sources and operating expenses. Rental income flows in automatically from your rent roll. The resulting NOI (Net Operating Income) drives your valuation metrics.

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   Additional Income

   Add non-rental income like CAM Reimbursements, Parking Revenue, Laundry Income, Late Fees, or any other income source. Each line shows both In-Place and Annualized amounts.

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   Operating Expenses

   Enter property operating costs like Property Tax, Insurance, Management Fee, Repairs & Maintenance, and Utilities. Default expense categories are pre-populated for your convenience.

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   Add Income / Add Expense

   Click to add custom line items. Both income and expense entries support In-Place amounts and Annualized projections.

Set your valuation assumptions and review the auto-generated cash flow projection. The system calculates Cap Rate, Cash-on-Cash Return, and multi-year NOI projections from your rent roll and income/expense data.

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   Assumptions Panel

   Set growth rates for income and expenses, Analysis Period (1-10 years), Turnover Rate, and Rent Growth. These assumptions drive the multi-year cash flow projection table.

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   Key Pricing Metrics

   Cap Rate, NOI, Price per SF, and Cash-on-Cash Return auto-calculate from your financial data and selling price. These appear prominently in the document.

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   Cash Flow Projection

   A multi-year table showing projected income, expenses, NOI, and returns across the analysis period. This table generates automatically from your assumptions and rent roll data.

Add detailed profiles for your key tenants. This is especially valuable for single-tenant properties (like net lease) or when your tenant mix is a key selling point. Each profile gets a dedicated page in the document.

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   Tenant Cards

   Each tenant from your rent roll appears as an expandable card. Click to edit the profile details including company description, industry, headquarters, number of locations, and credit rating.

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   Tenant Details

   Add rich context about each tenant: their industry, year founded, corporate headquarters, number of locations, and website. This information adds credibility to the investment story.

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   Tenant Logo

   Upload a tenant logo for each profile. The logo appears on the tenant profile page in the final document. Logos help investors quickly recognize national or regional tenants.

Add recent property sales in the area that support your asking price. Comparable sales help investors understand the market and validate the property valuation.

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   Comparable Entry Form

   For each comp, enter the property name, address, sale price, sale date, cap rate, building size, and price per square foot. All fields are optional -- enter what you have available.

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   Add Comparable

   Click to add another comparable sale. Most OMs include 3-6 comparables to show a representative market sample.

Add comparable lease rates from nearby properties to demonstrate that your rents are at, below, or above market. Rental comps are particularly important for multifamily and retail properties.

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   Rental Comp Entry

   For each comp, enter the property name, address, rental rate, building size, and property type. This data appears as a comparison table in the document.

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   Add Rental Comparable

   Add as many rental comps as needed. A typical OM includes 3-6 rental comparables to show a representative sample of market rents.

CREBuilder auto-generates market overview content using public data sources. The city description, population data, and economic facts are pulled automatically from Wikidata and census databases based on your property location.

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   About Text

   An auto-generated description of the city or market area. This text is pulled from Wikipedia/Wikidata. You can edit it freely -- add local market knowledge, economic trends, or development activity.

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   Market Image

   Choose a city skyline or area photo from the built-in image library, or upload your own. This photo appears on the Market Overview page in the document.

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   Key Facts

   Add data points like Population, Median Household Income, Employment Rate, and Major Employers. Some facts auto-populate from census data. Drag to reorder them.

Your contact information appears on the closing page(s) of the document. The primary contact is pre-filled from your profile. You can add up to 3 co-listing agents from your team or enter them manually.

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   Primary Contact

   Your name, title, phone, email, company, and headshot. This is auto-filled from your user profile -- any changes here apply to this document only.

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   Add Co-Listing Agent

   Add a co-listing agent by clicking the button. You can add team members from your company or type in contact details for external co-brokers.

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   Team Members

   If you are on a team plan, your team members appear as quick-add cards. Click a team member to add them as a co-listing agent with their profile details pre-filled.

Add a confidentiality disclaimer and legal notice to your document. CREBuilder provides professionally written templates, or you can write your own custom text.

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   Disclaimer Editor

   A rich text editor pre-filled with a standard CRE confidentiality disclaimer. Edit freely to match your brokerage requirements or paste your company boilerplate.

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   Template Suggestions

   Choose from pre-written disclaimer templates covering standard confidentiality, investment risk, and broker authorization language.

The final step: preview your complete document, customize the design, reorder pages, and export to PDF. Every page renders in real-time exactly as it will appear in the downloaded file.

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   Design Panel

   Fine-tune colors, fonts, and cover page options. Change your brand color, toggle brokerage presets, and adjust typography without leaving the preview.

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   Live Preview

   The center area shows a full-size preview of each page. Navigate with arrow keys or click any page thumbnail to jump directly to it.

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   Page Thumbnails

   Drag-and-drop thumbnails to reorder pages. Click a page to see it in the main preview. You can also hide pages you do not want to include.

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   Swap Template

   Click to switch to a different template theme. All your content transfers instantly -- try different designs to see which best matches your brand.

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   Download PDF

   Click to generate and download your finished document as a high-quality PDF. The export renders every page with full fonts, images, and formatting.