Process

Six panel points between a call and a funding

Each stage below says what happens, what you provide, what you get back, and where it usually goes wrong. What it does not say is how long any of it takes.

No closing-time figure appears anywhere on this site. Any number of that kind on a demonstration site is invented, and inventing one would make every other honest thing here less believable.

  1. 01

    The conversation

    Property type, purpose, the number you have in mind, and whether you own it yet.

    You provide

    • A one-paragraph description
    • A ballpark price or balance
    • What you think the income is

    You get back

    • Whether this is a deal we would look at
    • Which programme it belongs in
    • What would obviously stop it

    Ten minutes. Nothing is sent, nothing is signed, and nobody pulls credit.

  2. 02

    Sizing

    The three tests run on your figures, and the binding constraint named out loud.

    You provide

    • Trailing twelve months of operating statements
    • A current rent roll
    • The purchase contract or existing note

    You get back

    • A sized loan with the binding test identified
    • The reserve and escrow assumptions
    • An honest answer if the number does not work

    This is the stage where a deal should die if it is going to. Later is worse and more expensive.

  3. 03

    Term sheet

    Proposed structure, pricing, conditions, and everything that has to be true.

    You provide

    • A decision
    • A deposit toward third-party reports

    You get back

    • Structure, term, amortisation, coverage floor and reserves in writing
    • The conditions precedent, in full

    A term sheet is a proposal. It is not a commitment to lend, and any document that says otherwise is not a term sheet.

  4. 04

    Third-party reports

    Appraisal, Phase I environmental, property condition — ordered by the lender, paid by the borrower.

    You provide

    • Access for the inspectors
    • Historical use information for the environmental

    You get back

    • The orders placed the week the term sheet is signed
    • The reports shared as they arrive, including the unwelcome ones

    These sit on the critical path of nearly every commercial closing. A recognised environmental condition usually means a Phase II, and a Phase II takes time nobody budgeted.

  5. 05

    Underwriting and credit

    The file is reconciled, tested and presented. Adjustments happen here.

    You provide

    • Sponsor financials and schedule of real estate owned
    • Leases in full for anything material
    • Answers to the awkward questions

    You get back

    • A written credit presentation
    • Any resize, with the reason for it

    If the underwritten NOI comes in below the sized NOI, the loan moves. That is not a bait and switch, it is the appraisal and the adjustments doing their job.

  6. 06

    Commitment and close

    Legal documents, title, insurance, escrows funded, and the wire.

    You provide

    • Entity documents and authorisations
    • Insurance meeting the lender’s requirements
    • Signatures

    You get back

    • The commitment letter
    • A closing checklist that does not grow after it is issued

    The insurance requirement is the most common last-week surprise on a commercial closing. Send the policy to the lender early.

Where the time actually goes

Not in underwriting. In four places, every time: the appraisal being scheduled and then reviewed, an environmental finding that needs resolving, an insurance policy that does not meet the lender’s requirement and has to be rewritten, and an entity document nobody could find.

Three of those four can be pulled forward by a week of preparation before a term sheet is even signed. That is the only genuinely useful thing anyone can tell you about commercial closing timelines without inventing a number.

Start at stage one What underwriting reads