Chapter 2: Quick Screen Before Full Underwriting

Quick Screen Before Full Underwriting

Use a fast, conservative triage step to decide whether the file should be killed, advanced, or advanced only with missing-data caveats.

Decision output: Intake Gate Decision. Case requirement: include no-ask and broken-NOI fallback cases.

Inputs

Inputs

  • Ask price or broker guidance when available.
  • At least one rough income anchor: T12 NOI, broker NOI, or a conservative NOI proxy.
  • Submarket context, unit count, occupancy, vintage, and obvious red flags.

Example card

Rough screen with a clean ask-vs-NOI check

Broker guidance is $18.5M and the best rough NOI proxy is $1.05M. A 5.75% market cap check implies about $18.3M of value before any diligence deductions.

Example card

Low-confidence screen when the file is opaque

The OM shows heavy concessions, missing trailing financial detail, and no clear asking guidance. The analyst can still advance the file, but only with a visible low-confidence label.

  • No asking price means the team cannot compare the broker's target against rough value.
  • Broken NOI inputs force a fallback proxy instead of decision-ready underwriting.
  • The next step is document collection, not price precision.

Analysis

How to analyze it

rough value ≈ rough NOI proxy / market cap rate

The quick screen asks whether the file is plausibly priced and operable enough to deserve full underwriting, not whether the investment committee should approve it today.

rough value ≈ rough NOI proxy / market cap rate
Use the best available current NOI proxy and a cap rate that matches the submarket and asset quality.
  • Kill the deal when the price is obviously outside a believable band or fatal issues dominate the file.
  • Advance to full underwriting when the rough economics and visible risks are manageable.
  • Advance with missing-data caveats when the file might work but the data is too thin for confidence.

Output

What output you should produce

Output artifact: Intake Gate Decision

  • One directional status: Kill, Advance to full underwriting, or Advance with missing-data caveats.
  • A confidence label when key inputs are missing or unreliable.
  • Two or three reasons that explain the call in operator language.

Common mistakes

Common mistakes

  • Doing a disguised full underwriting pass during triage.
  • Treating low-confidence screens as decision-ready.
  • Ignoring visible deferred maintenance or collections risk because the rough price looks close.

Price meaning

What this means for price

A passing screen does not authorize a bid. It authorizes time: time to collect the trusted inputs that will determine whether price can actually be defended.

Teaching calculator

Quick Screen

Interactive teaching aid. Use it to pressure-test the chapter example, not to replace source-backed underwriting.

Teaching notes

  • Use this tool for triage, not for investment committee precision.
  • Low confidence is a label on the result, not a separate screen status.

Inputs

This quick screen is a teaching-only triage tool: it tells you whether the file deserves deeper work, not whether the IC should approve the deal.

Output

Status: Advance to full underwriting with normal confidence.

  • Rough value check: $18.3M
  • Ask entered: $18.5M
  • Cap rate used: 5.75%

Plain-language explanation: the screen advances only when the rough economics and obvious operating issues still look workable.

  • Asking guidance is close to rough value.
  • Property profile is financeable.
  • Visible issues require diligence but do not kill the file.