Frequently Asked Questions
| What browser should I use to access REIT/BASE? | REIT/BASE has been tested successfully in Chrome, FireFox and Safari. In general, Chrome seems to offer the best experience, particularly for reports. |
| How are reports formatted? | REIT/BASE reports are optimized for the Chrome browser. We recommend scaling the reports to 88% and removing any extra headers and footers. Company reports and individual screen pages are designed to be printed in portrait mode; sector, security and portfolio reports are designed for landscape. |
| What are my viewing options? | There are three basic screen options available through the navigation menu – annual, quarterly, and composite (mix of annual and quarterly). The composite views tend to be the most useful and are what we use to create the company reports. In addition to the basic views, users can access both single-year and quarterly “breakout” tables by clicking on any spreadsheet period header. |
| When do you update your financial data? | REIT/BASE captures the majority of its data from company earnings releases and supplemental reports, which are typically released to the public at the same time. Our goal is to capture most data within 24 hours of initial publication. We also review each company’s 10-K and 10-Q filings for additional ‘breakout’ items not otherwise disclosed in the supplementals. |
| Do you tie out to GAAP financial statements? | Income statement and balance sheet data is entered to three decimal places (thousands) to ensure that these key financial statements tie out to GAAP financials. We also make use of information disclosed in the Statement of Cash Flows for capital expenditure amounts or non-cash adjustments. |
| What about non-GAAP items like FFO? | One of the singular achievements of REIT/BASE is a standardized Funds From Operations (FFO) table and related calculation of Adjusted Funds From Operations (AFFO). All of this information is non-GAAP, although basic FFO tables are often included as supplemental exhibits within SEC filings. Our FFO values tie out directly to published dollar and per-share amounts. Calculation of AFFO is highly specific to each REIT and property type, although REIT/BASE will generally try to include both recurring and non-recurring adjustments as necessary to create a consistent data series over time. Our viewpoint is that of the investor, not management. As such, we do not ‘add-back’ management stock compensation or financing costs to AFFO, as these items have real economic cost. For companies that don’t publish AFFO, we use our own estimates for recurring capital expenditures and other items to arrive at AFFO amounts that are comparable across companies and across real estate segments. |
| When do you update information on securities? | We add data on new securities offerings as deals are publicly announced or otherwise disclosed in SEC filings. Please let us know if you’re aware of a new bond deal that we should have. |
| I’m seeing columns with blank fields – is this OK? | On the 14th day of each calendar quarter, the data tables are “rolled forward” to include the next quarterly period, resulting in blank fields until each company’s earnings are released. Earnings season typically starts on the 15th day of each quarter and lasts for 4-5 weeks. |
| When does the data series begin? | The REIT/BASE data set begins in 2012 for annual periods and 2016 for quarterly data. For companies with IPO dates after 2012, we generally begin with the first full year of public company operation. |
| When does REIT/BASE perform system maintenance? | Every night, we take a complete snapshot of everything in the database. Each quarter, we check and update our system software, usually on a weekend morning (we will alert our users to any planned downtime). We strive to keep REIT/BASE running smoothly, so it’s there whenever you need it. |