CRE deal screening, explained.

What CRE deal screening is: a lender's first look at a commercial real estate loan request

Sutter Point's request, from broker email back to a refinance

1. A request arrivesA broker sends Sutter Point's memo and request on Friday evening: $28.5 million to refinance two industrial buildings, with cash out.
2. The package is completeThe operating statement for the last twelve months arrives Monday at 7:40 a.m. Twenty-three documents in all.
3. A lending officer screens itIncome rebuilt, value set, the loan sized and tested against appetite and policy. Pursue, counter or decline. This is where the $390,000 of income that does not exist yet is caught, or carried into underwriting.
4. Underwriting and approvalA pursued deal gets the full analysis: appraisal, site visit, sponsor review, a credit memo and an approval by someone with enough authority.
5. The loan joins the book, and comes backIt adds to the bank's real estate concentration. Five or ten years later it matures and returns as a refinance request, screened all over again.

Step 3 is the subject of this guide. The people, buildings and figures in this example are fictional.

Four surprises in a CRE loan request's first look

NOI, cap rate, DSCR and debt yield in a CRE screen

Fourteen terms are defined in the one-page summary.

Pursue, counter or decline: the three answers a CRE first look can give

In shortA screen answers whether the bank wants the loan and, if it does, at what size and on what terms. Most requests do not fit exactly as asked. The useful answer is often a counter: a smaller loan, a guarantee, a reserve or a cash trap that makes the request fit the bank's rules. A screen needs a complete package, and the rent roll and the trailing twelve months (T-12, the last year's operating statement) are often the last documents to arrive.

What a broker package holds, from the offering memorandum to the payoff letter

A package without a current rent roll and a trailing twelve months cannot be screened on in-place income, however strong the memo reads. In the example, the screen waited for the operating statement that arrived on Monday morning.

Most requests never become loans

No regulator or trade body publishes how many requests a CRE team screens for each loan it closes. The fictional bank's funnel shows why the first look matters even so: almost every request gets one, and most of them end there. Time spent reading the memo of a hotel in a market the bank has closed is time a strong apartment refinance waits in the inbox.

The rules a CRE screen answers to, and what changed in 2026

In shortNo rule sets a minimum coverage ratio or debt yield. The rules require each bank to set its own measurable standards, keep loan-to-value inside supervisory ceilings, watch concentrations, document exceptions and treat applicants fairly. Three texts changed in 2026: the model risk guidance in April, Regulation B in April (effective July), and the small business data rule in May.

What "no rule sets the number" means in practice

The regulation requires a coverage standard and leaves its level to the bank's board. The OCC explains what the level should depend on: "The determination of an appropriate DSCR should consider the loan amortization period and the expected volatility of the cash flow", with higher ratios for properties whose cash flows swing, such as hotels.1

The Federal Reserve's own stress-test documentation says "lenders generally require a minimum DSCR between 1.2 and 1.5 to qualify for a loan".16 For debt yield the OCC gives no figure, only that "higher debt yields [are] recommended for riskier properties".1 Every floor in this guide's example is the fictional bank's policy choice.

In-place versus pro forma NOI: rebuilding a building's income the bank's way

In shortStart from rents in place, take out income from space that is empty or leases nobody has signed, then apply the bank's own floors for vacancy, management and reserves. Compare the result with what the building actually earned over the last twelve months. Every later number, value and loan size included, rests on this one.

In-place income is what the building earns today: contract rents from the tenants in occupancy, nothing for empty suites, and real operating costs. Pro forma income is a projected year in which the empty space is let, the leases due soon are renewed at higher rents and the costs are trimmed. Both are honest tools. The bank lends on the first.

The OCC's guidance is that "An important objective of the underwriting process is to develop an NOI that represents a stabilized estimate of income and expenses", and that "Inadequately supported or questionable analysis should be challenged".1

The bridge from the memo's income to the bank's, step by step

Two things stand out in the bridge. The bank's $2,310,000 lands within 2% of the $2,356,800 the building actually earned over the last twelve months: the rebuild brings the income back to the property's real history, then adds the market management fee and the reserves the owner's statement leaves out. And the largest single step is a vacant suite, exactly the "higher than current … occupancy rates" the OCC warns about.1

Rulebook lenders write the same discipline down: Fannie Mae's multifamily guide starts from "actual rents in place for occupied units", and requires vacancy, concessions and bad debt of at least "5% of GPR", gross potential rent.17

One building, two values, two loans

A cap rate applied to pro forma income produces a pro forma value, and loan to value measured against it looks lower than it is. On the memo's numbers, $28.5 million is 68% of value. On the bank's, the same loan is 80.2% of value. The broker sized the loan correctly on the wrong income, so the counter's first sentence should be about income: that is where the extra $4.2 million came from.

What a pro forma hides: rollover and the largest tenant

In-place income still has to last through the loan. A pro forma rent roll usually shows every lease renewing, which hides two numbers a lender needs. The OCC tells its examiners to "Review current rent rolls and leases and assess the quality and mix of tenants. Note any significant volume of leases scheduled to expire."1

Both leave the loan amount where the tests put it, and both protect the income it was sized on. The figures are from the fictional example.

Sizing a CRE loan on loan to value, coverage and debt yield, and lending the least

In shortWork out the largest loan each test allows, then lend the smallest of the three, rounded down. Loan to value protects against a fall in value, coverage protects against payments outrunning income, and debt yield protects against leverage that only works at low rates. Which test binds tells the officer what the request is closest to failing.

The loan constant is a year's payments per dollar borrowed. At 6.43% with 30-year amortization and monthly payments it is 7.53%: a $1,000,000 loan costs $75,300 a year. The OCC lists "Minimum debt yield" beside coverage and loan-to-value limits among the standards an effective CRE policy sets for each property type.1

The worked example

Fictional example. The 6.43% quote is the example bank's sample rate sheet. At $24.3 million the loan shows 1.26x coverage, a 9.51% debt yield and 68.4% loan to value.

Why a quote is rounded down to the nearest $100,000

A quoted amount should clear every test, and rounding up breaks the one that binds. Rounded to $24.4 million, the debt yield in the example falls to 9.47%, below the 9.5% minimum, and the quote would carry a policy exception nobody intended. Rounding down also leaves a little room for the underwriter who finds one more expense.

What recourse and a sponsor guarantee change

The fictional bank lends non-recourse only to 65% of value, $23.1 million here, and asks for a 25% payment guarantee from the sponsor above that. Federal Reserve research finds the same trade in bank data: recourse loans carry "loan-to-value ratios that are around 3 percentage points higher than non-recourse loans".19 Other Federal Reserve work links higher loan to value with more delinquency, "particularly for office loans".20 No structure moves a bank past its supervisory ceiling, which is 85% of value for improved property.4

Debt yield versus DSCR: why the binding test flips when rates move

In shortCoverage changes with the rate and the amortization; debt yield does not. So at low rates coverage allows large loans and debt yield holds them back, and at high rates coverage takes over. A screen run on last week's rate sheet, or on an interest-only payment, can quote a loan the building cannot carry.

That one identity explains the two tests. Debt yield is the part of coverage that belongs to the building; the loan constant is the part that belongs to the terms. The OCC says debt yield "provides a measurement of risk that is independent of the interest rate, amortization period, and capitalization rate", and that loans sized on coverage and value at low rates "may be prudent only as long as the low rate environment is sustained".1

Read the chart from the left. At 4%, a lender that sized on coverage alone would have lent about $32 million on this income. Refinance that loan at 6.43% and the same income covers the payment only about 0.95 times, well below the 1.25x minimum. That is the refinance problem the OCC described in spring 2026: "A substantial volume of CRE loans originated in a lower-interest environment will mature in the next several years and will need to be refinanced at prevailing rates."21

The rate gap a refinance request carries

Many bank CRE loans fix their rate for five years over the five-year Treasury. A loan fixed in September 2021 started from a 0.86% Treasury; in September 2026 the same index averaged 4.80%.22 The Federal Reserve's stress-test model treats income property loans that approach maturity "with DSCR below 1.2 (a typical minimum underwriting threshold)" as so much riskier that their modeled default probability is raised "by a factor of four".16

Interest-only payments flatter coverage

An interest-only payment at 6.43% would show the same $24.3 million loan at 1.48x instead of 1.26x. The building is the same; the payment has left out the principal. The OCC expects such loans to meet coverage "as though the loan were amortizing", and generally with more conservative requirements than amortizing loans.1 Debt yield needs no adjustment, because it never looked at the payment.

Lending appetite and the 300% screen: does the bank want this loan, and can its book take it?

In shortA sized loan can still be the wrong loan. Banks set an appetite by property type and market, Grow, Hold, Reduce or Closed, and watch how much of their capital sits in real estate. Supervisors look harder at banks whose CRE loans pass 300% of tier 1 capital plus the allowance after fast growth, or whose construction loans pass 100%. A screen that checks this on the first look saves weeks of underwriting on loans committee will not take.

An appetite matrix, set each quarter

Appetite turns concentration policy into a quick answer. In the example, office is Reduce everywhere and hotels are Closed, so a hotel refinance can be declined with a reason and a referral before anyone reads its memo. Industrial in Charlotte is Grow, so Sutter Point earns full marks for appetite even though it fails every sizing test as asked.

How supervisors screen a bank's CRE book

The 2006 guidance identifies a bank "for further supervisory analysis" when construction, land development and other land loans reach "100 percent or more" of capital, or when total CRE loans reach "300 percent or more" and the CRE portfolio "has increased by 50 percent or more during the prior 36 months".5 The criteria are screens; the same guidance asks every bank with a concentration for board oversight, market analysis, portfolio stress testing and exception reports.5

The OCC's Concentrations of Credit booklet, revised to Version 3.0 on September 30, 2026, keeps its general definition of a concentration as obligations "exceeding 25 percent of a bank's tier 1 capital" plus the allowance.12 The FDIC's 2023 advisory adds that "Portfolio and loan level stress tests or sensitivity analysis can be an invaluable tool".23

The Federal Reserve and OCC tested the screens after the last crisis. "Among banks that exceeded both supervisory criteria, 23 percent failed during the three-year economic downturn, compared with 0.5 percent of banks for which neither of the criteria was exceeded", and banks over the construction screen "accounted for an estimated 80 percent of the losses" to the deposit insurance fund from 2007 to 2011.6 In 2025 the industry's median concentration was 200%, below the 214% Great Recession peak but above the pre-pandemic average.15

What one loan does to the ratio

In the fictional example, the bank's CRE loans stand at 285.6% of capital before Sutter Point. At the $24.3 million counter they reach 287.9%, under the bank's own 290% watch line and the 300% screen, and its industrial book moves to $522.9 million of a $600 million internal limit. At the asked $28.5 million, every one of those numbers is a little worse. A first look that shows the move before anyone pursues the deal lets the chief credit officer see the pipeline's effect on the book in time to act on it.

Supervisory LTV limits, policy exceptions, and when a refinance counts as a new loan

In shortFederal guidelines cap a bank's own loan-to-value limits at 65% to 85% depending on the loan. A bank can lend above them only as a documented exception inside two aggregate caps measured against total capital. A cash-out refinance advances new money and is tested like a new loan. Every exception a first look recommends becomes a line in the board's report.

The text is short: "Institutions should establish their own internal loan-to-value limits for real estate loans. These internal limits should not exceed the following supervisory limits."4 Value for a purchase is "the lesser of the actual acquisition cost or the estimate of value".4 The fictional bank's 70% is well inside the 85% ceiling; a building whose value falls 18% after closing at 70% would still sit at about 85%.

Lending above the ceiling: two caps and a quarterly report

When a refinance is excluded, and when it is a new loan

The guidelines exclude loans "renewed, refinanced, or restructured without the advancement of new funds or an increase in the line of credit (except for reasonable closing costs)", and workouts.4 A maturity extension at the same balance is outside the limits. A cash-out refinance advances new money and is tested like a new loan. Sutter Point's request would repay a $22.1 million loan and hand the sponsor $6.4 million, so the full $28.5 million is measured against value. At the counter, the sponsor still takes out $2.2 million.

Twelve first-look mistakes that turn a weak request into a loan quote

In shortMost oversized quotes come from one wrong input. Income errors flow into all three tests at once, so they do the most damage. Other errors make only one test too generous and do no harm until that test is the one that binds, which is why they survive in sizing templates for years.

What one wrong input does to the same request

Every slip on the chart moves the loan the same way: up. The income errors reach all three tests at once, which is why the bridge from the memo's income to the bank's comes first on any screen worth signing.

What a loose CRE screen risks: losses, exam findings and fair lending duties

In shortBank CRE losses are low in aggregate in 2026, but the strain sits in office and multifamily, in loans that must refinance at today's rates, and at banks with concentrated books. Examiners read the exceptions file and the income analysis. And a decline or a counter the borrower turns down can carry Regulation B duties.

Where the strain is

Bank CRE loans are performing far better than securitized ones. The delinquency rate on CRE loans at all commercial banks was 1.53% in the second quarter of 2026, against 8.76% at the peak of the last crisis, in 2010, and the charge-off rate was 0.14%.26,27 The FDIC's 2026 Risk Review found office vacancy at 14.0% at the end of 2025, the highest of the four major property types, and net operating income growth that "continued to slow, reflecting elevated vacancy rates, higher property operating costs, and tepid rent growth".15

What examiners look for

Fair lending: when a screen becomes an adverse action

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B apply to business credit, including CRE loans. A refusal "to grant credit in substantially the amount or on substantially the terms requested in an application" is adverse action unless the bank counteroffers "and the applicant uses or expressly accepts the credit offered".2 The commentary adds that "a refusal to refinance or extend the term of a business or other loan is adverse action" when the borrower applied under the bank's procedures.2

Whether a broker's first enquiry is yet an application turns on what the bank does. The commentary's example is written for consumers: a creditor that "evaluates information about the consumer, decides to decline the request, and communicates this" has "treated the inquiry or prequalification request as an application".2 The definition of an application is the same for business credit, so settle with compliance when your procedures turn an enquiry into one.

For a business with more than $1 million of gross revenue in its last fiscal year, the bank must notify the action "within a reasonable time, orally or in writing", and give written reasons if asked in writing within 60 days; businesses with $1 million or less fall under the 30-day notice rules. A combined counteroffer and adverse action notice is allowed.2

The CFPB's 2026 final rule, effective July 21, 2026, "provides that ECOA does not authorize disparate-impact liability", further defines "discouragement" and adds conditions for special purpose credit programs.10 A lawsuit asking a federal court to vacate the rule is pending; the plaintiffs did not seek to block it while the case runs.28 ECOA itself, the ban on treating applicants differently on a prohibited basis, the notice rules above and the banking agencies' fair lending examinations all remain.2

The CRE lending market in 2026: $5.1 trillion of mortgages and a wave of maturities

In shortCommercial and multifamily mortgage debt reached a record $5.1 trillion in mid-2026, with banks the largest holders. About $875 billion matures this year, $396 billion of it in loans serviced by depositories, and originations were forecast to rise 27%. Standards have stopped tightening. With more requests coming, many of them refinances, and standards easing, the first look carries more weight.

Every maturing loan is a refinance request somewhere, often to a bank that did not make the original loan. The MBA expected total commercial and multifamily originations to rise 27% to about $805 billion in 2026.31 Bank CRE loans stood at $3.16 trillion in mid-October 2026, up from $2.26 trillion in September 2019.32

Credit standards have turned

In the July 2026 survey, "moderate and modest net shares of banks reported having eased standards" for nonfarm nonresidential and multifamily loans, while a significant net share still put construction standards "at the tighter end of their range" since 2005.34 The Federal Reserve's May 2026 Financial Stability Report noted that "Banks reported easing lending standards for commercial real estate loans through 2025".35

Easing standards and rising volume are when the discipline of the first look is tested: the 2006 guidance itself was written after examiners saw institutions relax "their underwriting standards as a result of strong competition for business".5

AI in CRE underwriting: what software can screen, and what the 2026 guidance leaves to the bank

In shortSoftware can read a broker package, rebuild the income on written floors, run the three tests at the day's rate, place the request in the appetite matrix and draft the answer. The sizing and policy checks are arithmetic and fixed rules, outside the 2026 definition of a model. The reading is generative AI, outside that guidance's scope and inside the bank's own AI and vendor controls. The decision and the signature stay with people.

SR 26-2, issued jointly on April 17, 2026 by the Federal Reserve, the OCC (Bulletin 2026-13) and the FDIC (FIL-15-2026), replaced SR 11-7 and OCC Bulletin 2011-12.9,13,39

Its definition of a model "excludes simple arithmetic calculations, such as those found within spreadsheets, as well as deterministic rule-based processes and software where there are no statistical, economic, or financial theories underpinning their design or use", and it places generative AI, and AI that acts on its own, outside its reach: such models "are not within the scope of this guidance."13,9 The agencies "plan to issue in the near future a request for information" that will cover AI.13

The OCC and the Fed on AI that touches credit decisions

The Treasury's 2024 report warns that generative AI "can be susceptible to 'AI hallucinations,' producing confidently stated but incorrect output".41 In a screen, the protection is mechanical: every figure must carry the page it came from, so the officer can check the $2,310,000 against the rent roll in seconds. NIST's framework (GOVERN, MAP, MEASURE, MANAGE) is a common way to organize the rest.42 The third-party guidance keeps the responsibility with the bank, whoever built the tool.14

How you would know a screening tool works

Accuracy has two parts. Reading asks whether each figure on the screen is the figure on its page; a random sample of figures measures it. Sizing asks whether the loan, the binding test and the policy flags match what a careful officer would produce; re-screening a set of last quarter's requests measures it. Keep requests you know the answer to, including some with planted problems: a vacant suite shown as leased, a stale rent roll, a cash-out refinance, a property type the bank has closed.

The sponsor call, exceptions and the broker's answer stay human

• The decision: whether the bank wants this sponsor, in this market, on these terms.
• Judgment the package cannot prove: whether a tenant will renew, whether a submarket's rents are about to turn, whether the sponsor will support the building through a bad year.
• Every exception and every change to appetite, floors and limits.
• The full underwriting after "pursue": appraisal, environmental and engineering reports, site visit, credit memo and approval.
• The answer to the broker, signed by someone with authority.

How CRE lending teams screen requests today: who reads, who sizes, who signs

In shortA broker sends the package, a lending officer or relationship manager reads it, sizes it in a spreadsheet and decides, the head of CRE lending approves above the officer's limit, and the chief credit officer owns the appetite and the limits. Most of the elapsed time is waiting for someone to open the package. The reasons for a decline are the part most often lost.

Who screens a CRE request: broker, lending officer, underwriter, credit

Three desks a CRE request crosses before the broker hears back

A 4.6-day wait, mostly for someone to open the package

Few officers get an uninterrupted morning for each package. A request that needs three hours of attention can wait days between calls, site visits, closings and the memo due for another committee. The broker, meanwhile, has two other lenders reading the same memo.

Sizing workbooks, a central deal desk or screening software

Sutter Point: a request that misses as asked, a counter that works, and a signed letter of interest by morning

In shortThis is the example from the top of the page, inside the product. Elena Marsh, a CRE lending officer, triages a deck of loan requests, one card at a time. Sutter Point's package completes at 7:40 a.m.; six agents screen it on its card in 1 minute 48 seconds and size the counter the bank can do. Elena signs, Robert Tran, the head of CRE lending, approves because the loan is above her $20 million limit, and the broker has an answer the same morning.

1

A deck of requests, each with the bank's answer stamped on it

Monday morning, Elena opens the solution to a deck of screened requests: 13 of 15 still to triage, $256.2 million asked, and two more packages still being read. Every card shows the property, the ask, loan to value, coverage and debt yield as asked against the bank's minimums, the sponsor, the broker, and a stamp against the bank's credit box.

On top is Ashby Medical Pavilion: a $15.4 million purchase of a medical office where one health system pays 58% of the rent. As asked it is 87.0% of the bank's value, 1.03x coverage and a 7.8% debt yield. The stamp reads "Outside appetite": as asked, the request falls outside the bank's credit box, the set of rules and limits its policy allows.

2

Turn the card over: what the bank can do

Elena presses the space bar. The back of every card is the counter the bank would do, sized before she sees the request. For Ashby: $11.5 million at 65% of value, 1.38x and a 10.4% debt yield, with twelve months of debt service, $865,900, held in reserve until the health system extends its lease past 2029.

The reply to the broker, Nadia Ferris, is already drafted in plain words. One key counters it, and the card goes into the Counter lane with its reply ready to send.

3

A package completes, and the card is screened in front of her

The next card is Sutter Point Logistics Center, $28.5 million, refinance with cash out. Its operating statement arrived at 7:40 a.m., so the card says "23 documents in, nothing screened yet" and offers Screen now.

She presses it. On the card, the package reader sorts and reads the 23 documents, the rent roll and income normalizer takes the memo's $2.70 million down to $2.31 million, the market checker values the property at $35.54 million on a 6.50% cap rate, the quick sizer runs the three tests, the appetite and policy checker places it in the credit box, and the screen writer drafts the counter. It takes 1 minute 48 seconds.

4

As asked it misses; here is the loan that works

Turned over, Sutter Point reads: counter at $24.3 million at 68% of value with a 25% guarantee and a $250,000 leasing reserve. As asked it covers its payments 1.08 times against a 1.25x minimum, with an 8.1% debt yield against 9.5% and 80.2% of the bank's value. At $24.3 million it is 1.26x, 9.51% and 68.4%.

The terms add a cash trap if the largest tenant has not renewed by March 31, 2028, and the sponsor still takes $2.2 million of cash out after repaying the old loan. The drafted reply tells the broker why in one sentence: the rent roll supports $2.31 million of income against the memo's $2.70 million.

5

Signed, approved and sent the same morning

Elena opens the next step. Four options are laid out, the recommended counter, a non-recourse counter at $23.1 million, the loan as asked with three policy exceptions, and a decline. She chooses the counter and signs: "screen reviewed; counter as recommended", at 9:00 a.m.

Because the loan is above her $20 million limit, Robert Tran approves from his phone at 9:04 a.m. Only then does the letter of interest go to the broker, worded as indicative and subject to underwriting.

The solution's design targets are minutes from a complete package to a one-page screen, and a written answer to every broker the same day. Measure both on your own requests. The times above are from the sample data.

The request queue, the fit score, the income bridge, the sizing calculator and the appetite matrix on screen

In shortOne request is the story. These screens show the rest: the request queue, the one-page screen and its fit score, the rent roll and the income bridge, the sizing calculator, the appetite matrix and concentration, the lanes, the signature, the decisions log with every reason, and the settings that hold the bank's credit box.

Select any screen to open it larger. The bank, brokers, sponsors, tenants, people and figures are fictional. The sizing screen's full view is left out because its sample rate sheet differs from market rates.

Agents size the request; the lending officer signs, and the head of CRE lending approves above $20 million

In shortEach agent has one job and limits it does not cross. None of them sends a reply, changes a contract rent, quotes a rate that is not on the day's sheet, or treats an exception as cleared without a named structure. The lending officer signs every screen; above $20 million the head of CRE lending approves before anything reaches a broker.

Six agents, from package reader to screen writer

The lending officer signs; above $20 million, the head of CRE approves

Signatures record the name, the decision, what it means and the time. Agent steps and human decisions are kept apart on the activity record, and every pursue, counter and decline is kept with its reasons and the policy clause behind it, ready to export for loan review and examiners.

Elena Marsh's seventeen requests and the people who approve them

What a broker package becomes: a one-page screen, a counter the bank can do, a drafted reply and a logged reason

In shortIt reads the packages brokers already send and the policies the bank already has, and leaves behind a one-page screen for every request, the counter the bank can do, a drafted reply, and a decisions log with every reason. The bank's origination system and records stay where they are.

Broker inboxes, rate sheet and market data a screen reads

For each, check whether it has an API, a file feed, or only screens, and who owns it.

Your credit policy, appetite matrix and rate sheet, applied as written

In-place income, the least of three tests, a signed reply

What a slow or loose first look costs you in officer hours, lost deals and oversized loans

In shortStart from your own numbers. Nobody publishes how long a CRE first look takes, how many requests a team screens per loan closed, or how often a screen is sized on the wrong income. A few published figures frame yours: what an officer hour costs, how much refinancing is coming, and how sharply risk rises when a loan's coverage is thin.

Timing your first looks and counting deals lost to faster lenders

The pro forma refinance, the lost sponsor, the unexplained decline

Officer hours and first-to-answer wins: what a screened card on every request could return

In shortPut in your own numbers. The calculator starts from a published officer wage and asks for the rest: how many requests you screen, the hours they take now and after, how many loans a faster answer would win, and what the tool costs. Every default marked illustrative is an assumption to replace.

Officer hours, first-to-answer wins and loans sized on real income

Your officer hours and deals won by answering first

A team that screens a few hundred requests a year should not buy on officer time alone. The case rests on what a faster, consistent first look wins and avoids: the strong deals answered first, and the loans never sized on income that does not exist. Measure both in a pilot.

A written credit box, a quarterly appetite matrix and a timed baseline: CRE lending readiness, scored

In shortPick the answer closest to your team today. Eight questions score 0 to 2; the last is for reflection. The meter adds up your score as you go, and each question says why it matters and what a strong answer sounds like.

Explore, re-screen 40 to 60 requests, or screen every package

Eighteen checks on how a CRE screening tool rebuilds NOI, values the building and applies your credit box

In shortAsk every vendor the same questions, us included. The answers show how the screen is built: what it reads, whose income and value it uses, whose rules it applies, what evidence you keep, who sends the answer, and how you would measure it on your own requests.

We found no published independent test of any CRE screening vendor's accuracy, as of October 2026. Re-screening your own recent requests is the fairest comparison, and the same test measures your current process.

Re-screening 50 of last quarter's requests with planted problems, ten weeks before your committee decides

In shortWrite down the credit box, measure your baseline, re-screen requests you already decided, run in parallel on live ones, then decide on four numbers. None of these steps commits you to a vendor.

1. Write the credit box down: minimums and floors by property type, the appetite matrix, rounding, recourse, signing limits.
2. Time ten first looks by step, and pull last quarter's quoted and approved amounts.
3. Gather 50 of last quarter's requests with their outcomes, and plant known problems in ten copies: a vacant suite shown as leased, a stale rent roll, a cash-out refinance, a closed property type.
4. Run in parallel on live requests for four weeks, with your officers signing every answer.
5. Decide with four numbers: loan-size agreement, problems caught by kind, false alarms, and officer minutes to a signed answer.

Loan-size agreement, planted problems caught and false alarms

Sizing, debt yield, LTV limits and adverse action: what CRE lenders ask about the first look

In shortThe questions CRE lenders and buyers search for most, each answered on its own.