Visual Communication of Key Concepts in Commercial Real Estate Analysis and Investment

Abstract

The book “Commercial Real Estate Analysis and Investments” by David M. Geltner (Author), Norman G. Miller (Author), Jim Clayton (Author), Piet Eichholtz (Author) is a comprehensive real estate analysis book developed by pioneers in the industry, which covers fundamental concepts in real estate investment and analysis.

While the book uses some visual exhibits to communicate fundamental definitions, most of the content is written in text format with minimal visual communication strategies. This thesis aims to create an original, visual translation of the content of this book by creating new visual diagrams and communication strategies. This visual research is designed to deliver the book’s lessons to a broader audience active in the real estate industry who come from varying degrees of academic and professional background in real estate. This unique investigation serves as the basis for a short book that will be published in the future, based on the learnings derived this body of work.

This thesis provides new insights and methodologies into visualizing commercial real estate analysis concepts in 2D format through the use of 2D diagrams and illustrations. There is currently no evidence of this type of research or product in the real estate industry in a comprehensive format. Thus it was necessary to dive into the basic essentials of diagramming to explore possibilities for future development and possible challenges that one would face in translating real estate fundamentals visually.

Academic literature and industry research provide us with many resources that suggest visual communication increases attention span, recognition, and memorization of ideas. While many other industries have books and articles with visual pedagogies in place, through analysis of the broader real estate development pedagogies, I found a lack of visual literacy in teaching fundamental concepts in the real estate industry. This thesis aims to deliver the first product of its kind to fill in the gap in teaching essential concepts in the real estate industry through visual communication methodologies.