Planning finances and cash management are often treated as givens in most industries, including commercial real estate. There's some new evidence that often in real estate one of the basic calculations—expectations of net operating income—is frequently far off from eventual reality.

Any potential deal needs some degree of underwriting. Someone has to determine, even at the start, before any possibility of an offer, whether a property has the ability to generate enough income to make a purchase ultimately profitable. That often means a back-of-the-envelope calculation, according to real estate technology firm Archer.

Now, Archer sells software systems to help a company identify real estate deals that might make sense, based on historical likelihood of a party to sell and determine potential pricing from cash-flow forecasting models and market-specific companies. So, yes, the company has an ax to grind, but this is an attempt at persuasion at least worth a listen considering.