CRE Daily
Independent Review Coverage
See how CRE Daily reviewed Solsten's workflow, positioning, and fit for underwriting teams. This is a useful first stop for prospects who want an external take before starting a trial.
Solsten CRE projects a property's cash flow year by year and month by month: potential gross income, vacancy, recoveries, operating expenses, NOI, debt service, and cash flow after debt service, for every year of a hold up to 30 years. After closing, the same model records actuals and reports variance. The cash flow feeds DSCR, cash-on-cash, exit scenarios, and GP/LP distributions without a second spreadsheet.
Free plan, no credit card. Upgrade when you need more properties.
Most tools stop at net operating income. A cap rate calculator gives you a single year of NOI and a price. A broker's proforma gives you five years of NOI and an exit. Neither tells you what you actually get to keep after the lender is paid, the reserve is funded, and a renovation year eats the distribution.
Solsten carries the statement all the way down. Debt service comes from the loan schedules you entered, not a typed-in number. Reserve activity and capital calls adjust the line below it. The result is cash available for distribution, the number your cash-on-cash return and your investor payouts are built on.
Because it is lease-by-lease, a rollover with three months of downtime and a tenant-improvement package shows up as three months of lower cash flow and a reserve draw, in the right months, not as a vacancy percentage smeared across the year.
Want the math first? Read the commercial real estate cash flow analysis guide, then come back for the software.
Property taxes come twice a year. Insurance renews once. A lease expires in August. The annual total hides all of it. The monthly breakdown shows the two months where NOI goes negative and debt service still has to be paid.
One model from screening through ownership. No re-keying between underwriting and asset management.
Every year of the hold, up to 30, in one view. Click a year for its twelve months. Semi-annual taxes, insurance renewals, and free-rent months land where they actually hit.
Multiple loans per property, fixed or floating, interest-only periods, amortization, refinance events, and prepayment penalties. DSCR, LTV, and debt yield for every year.
The KPI timeline plots levered cash-on-cash next to unlevered yield on cost year by year, so you can see exactly what the debt adds or costs you in each year of the hold.
Returns for every possible exit year with loan maturities flagged inside the hold. The optimal exit is highlighted; the cash flow behind it is one click away.
Record tenant payments, loan payments, recovery collections, and distributions. Three-column statements: actual year to date, projected remaining, full-year forecast.
The same cash flow feeds GP/LP waterfalls (return of capital, preferred return, catch-up, promote) and each limited partner's own view of distributions received and projected.
Cash-on-cash is cash available for distribution divided by total equity. Yield on cost is NOI divided by purchase price, with no debt. Solsten plots both on the same timeline, so a year where leverage turns a 9 percent unlevered yield into a negative cash return is visible before you sign, not after the first capital call.
The spreadsheet you underwrote with is usually abandoned at closing. The asset manager builds a new one. Nobody ever checks the original assumptions against what the building actually did.
In Solsten the property moves from Analyzing to Owned and keeps its model. You record tenant payments, loan payments, recovery collections, and distributions as they happen. The operating statement shows actual year to date, projected remaining, and the full-year forecast side by side. Expense escalation rates observed in the actuals blend into the forward projection by statistical confidence.
The timeline also rolls forward on its own: a vacancy that outlasts its forecast extends, an expired lease creates a vacant successor period, and inflation compounds daily. The cash flow you look at in March is the cash flow as of March.
Exit scenario analysis runs the full return for a sale in each year of the hold: operating cash flow to that point, the loan payoff, and the reversion at the terminal cap rate. Loan maturities inside the hold are flagged, and the optimal exit is highlighted.
Where the three usual answers differ on the part of the model that matters after closing.
| Capability | Solsten | Excel | ARGUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual and monthly operating statement | Yes | Manual | Yes |
| Cash flow from a lease-by-lease rent roll | Yes | Manual | Yes |
| Debt service from loan schedules (IO, amortizing, refi) | Yes | Manual | Yes |
| DSCR, LTV, debt yield every year | Yes | Manual | Yes |
| Actual vs projected cash flow after closing | Yes | Manual | No |
| Timeline rolls forward as time passes | Yes | No | No |
| Expense escalation calibrated to recorded actuals | Yes | No | No |
| Cash flow feeds GP/LP waterfall and LP logins | Yes | Manual | Waterfall only |
| T-12 and rent roll import from Excel | Yes | N/A | No |
| Starting price | Free | "Free" | $5,000+/yr per seat |
Full comparison: Solsten as an ARGUS alternative and Solsten vs. Excel.
Not a valuation toy. A working model for people who have to live with the number.
Underwrite the purchase, then run the building on the same model. Actuals in, variance out.
Asset management workflowCash flow feeds the waterfall and each LP's own view of distributions received and projected.
Investor reportingLease-by-lease projection with recoveries, rollovers, and debt in about ten minutes per property.
Underwriting softwareDSCR, LTV, and debt yield for every year, with a lender view of actual coverage per loan.
For lendersStart on Free with one property and the whole engine. Move up when you need more properties or a second editor seat.
$0
1 property, 1 editor seat, 1 analysis per month, full proforma engine. No credit card, no expiry.
Start free$99/mo
5 properties, 6 analyses per month, 1 portfolio, waterfalls, investor logins. $89/mo billed annually.
Start free, upgrade in app$179/mo
15 properties, 2 editor seats, unlimited analyses, 3 portfolios. $161/mo billed annually.
Start free, upgrade in appInvestor logins are viewer access and never count against editor seats. Full detail on the pricing page.
Teams comparing cash flow and underwriting platforms usually check independent coverage and third-party user feedback before starting a trial.
CRE Daily
See how CRE Daily reviewed Solsten's workflow, positioning, and fit for underwriting teams. This is a useful first stop for prospects who want an external take before starting a trial.
G2
Browse early user feedback on G2 to see how real users describe Solsten in their own words. We link to the full review profile rather than over-curating individual quotes.
Commercial real estate cash flow software projects a property's income and expenses over a hold period and carries the result below net operating income: debt service, reserves, and distributions to investors. The output is an annual and monthly operating statement that runs from potential gross income through vacancy, recoveries, operating expenses, NOI, and debt service to cash flow after debt service and adjusted cash flow for distribution, plus the return metrics built on that cash flow (cash-on-cash, DSCR, IRR, and equity multiple).
NOI is income after operating expenses and before debt. Cash flow is what is left after debt service, reserve activity, and any capital calls. A property can show a healthy NOI and still produce negative cash flow in a renovation year or a month when property taxes and insurance come due. Solsten reports both lines on every year and every month of the hold, so the gap between them is never hidden inside an annual total.
Both. The annual operating statement covers every year of the hold (up to 30 years). Clicking any year opens the monthly breakdown for that year, so semi-annual tax payments, insurance renewals, free-rent months, and mid-year lease rollovers show up in the month they actually hit cash flow.
Yes. Once a property is owned, you record tenant payments, loan payments, recovery collections, and distributions as they happen. The operating statement then shows three columns: actual year to date, projected remaining, and full-year forecast. The same model you underwrote with becomes the variance report you manage with.
Each property can carry multiple loans with fixed, floating, or hybrid rates, interest-only periods, amortization schedules, refinance events, and prepayment penalties. Debt service flows from the loan schedules into the operating statement, and DSCR, LTV, and debt yield are reported for every year of the hold.
An Excel model is a snapshot that goes stale the day it is built and breaks when a lease or loan changes. Solsten projects from a lease-by-lease rent roll and loan schedules, rolls the timeline forward as calendar time passes, calibrates expense escalation against recorded actuals, and feeds the same cash flow into GP/LP waterfalls and investor views. T-12 operating statements and rent rolls import from Excel (.xlsx or .xls) through a guided wizard.
Solsten starts free: one property, one editor seat, one analysis per month, with the full proforma engine. Starter is $99 per month for 5 properties, Professional is $179 per month for 15 properties and 2 editor seats; both are 10 percent less on annual billing. ARGUS Enterprise, the institutional incumbent, runs $5,000 to $15,000 or more per seat per year.
Enter the rent roll, expenses, and loan once. Solsten produces the annual and monthly statement, DSCR and cash-on-cash by year, exit scenarios, and the distribution waterfall, with Saga AI on hand to explain any line.
Free plan, no credit card. $99/mo when you outgrow one property.