CRE
Deal Ready™
A Practical Step by Step Guide to Preparing for a
Commercial Real Estate Purchase.
Before you commit to a property, get clear on the deal. Work through financing preparation, due diligence and the numbers behind an acquisition with guidance, checklists and worksheets you can put to use. The CRE Volume contains all 7 modules to the CRE Wealth Building Series.
Explore the CRE Wealth Building Series
Module 1 • 32 pages
CRE Loan Ready™
Be Prepared When Financing Is on the Line
Understand how lenders evaluate your request, organize the documents they need, and compare financing options. Identify gaps in your file and clarify cash requirements, repayment, and personal liability before applying. You can enter financing conversations with a clear picture of the transaction you are asking a lender to support.
$29.00 $19.00
PDF download. One-time purchase.
Module 2 • 30 pages
CRE Property Ready™
Know the Asset You Are About to Own
The building, leases, location, permitted use, and operating records all affect what you are buying. This module helps you organize due diligence, identify issues that need professional review, and turn findings into decisions about price, repairs, reserves, and whether to proceed. Discovering a problem early gives you time to evaluate your options.
$29.00 $19.00
PDF download. One-time purchase.
Module 3 • 42 pages
CRE Deal Decoder Ready™
Understand What the Numbers Support
Use the Decoder worksheets and worked examples to evaluate the property’s income, expenses, financing, and potential returns. Review your cash requirements and test how vacancy estimates, repair costs, financing terms, and projected sale proceeds affect the deal. Build an analysis you can explain – and use it to decide what price and terms fit your objectives.
$39.00 $29.00
PDF download. One-time purchase.
Module 4 • 42 pages
CRE Offer Ready™
Put Your Analysis Into the Agreement
The terms you agree to extend beyond a purchase price. Deposits, contingencies, financing terms, and deadlines shape your obligations. This module helps you prepare an offer package, negotiate with purpose, and coordinate with your broker and attorney. Keep the written terms aligned with the property findings and financing you are relying on.
$29.00 $19.00
PDF download. One-time purchase.
Module 5 • 34 pages
CRE Appraisal Ready™
Prepare for the Value That Shapes Your Loan
The lender’s accepted valuation can affect loan proceeds and the cash you must contribute. Learn how to prepare property records, understand the appraisal process, and review the results with your professionals. Identify the questions and financing gaps that need attention before they disrupt your closing plan.
$29.00 $19.00
PDF download. One-time purchase.
Module 6 • 16 pages
CRE Closing Ready™
Carry the Deal Through to Ownership
Bring the final conditions, documents, money, and responsibilities together. Track lender requirements, reconcile cash to close, review settlement adjustments, and coordinate the possession handoff. The closing checklists and first 30/60/90-day planning tools help you prepare for the work that begins when you become the owner.
$29.00 $19.00
PDF download. One-time purchase.
Module 7 • 24 pages
CRE 1031 Exchange Ready™
Prepare for Your Next Investment Move
For investors considering an exchange, the sale and replacement purchase require coordinated planning. This module helps you organize questions for your CPA and qualified intermediary, track deadlines and replacement candidates, and connect exchange planning with property analysis. Prepare to evaluate the next investment alongside the exchange requirements.
$29.00 $19.00
Also included as the bonus in the $97 bundle.
Companion Tool
CRE Deal Decoder™ Calculator
Put Your Deal Numbers to Work
Enter your property and financing figures to compare income, expenses, cash requirements, and projected returns. Review the base and downside cases, then print or save your results. Use the online calculator alongside the printable worksheets in CRE Deal Decoder Ready™.
Online Tool
Calculate, compare, and save your results.
Build Your Wealth on a Deal You Understand
Before you commit to a commercial property, know what you are buying, how you will finance it, what the numbers support, and what it will take to close.
An unexpected roof replacement. A lease that produces less income than you projected. A financing shortfall. A deadline you overlooked. Any one of these can change the cost—and the future—of your investment.
The CRE Wealth Building Series helps you ask the right questions while you still have time to act on the answers. Seven connected modules give you practical guidance, worked examples, checklists, and worksheets to prepare for the decisions ahead.
01
Prepare for Financing
02
Evaluate the Opportunity
03
Work through the Numbers
Use the Decoder worksheets and worked examples to evaluate the property’s income, expenses, financing, and potential returns.
Use the online Decoder Calculator at Pinnacle 1 Systems alongside your printable worksheets.
04
Prepare for Closing
Look Inside the CRE Wealth Building Series
Module 1 • Loan Ready™ • Page 10
The Loan Package Checklist
Confirm the lender’s requirements and assign each missing item to someone. The periods below are common requests, not universal rules.
- Business financial records: business tax returns, current financial statements, debt schedules and bank statements.
- Property records: purchase contract or current mortgage statement, rent roll, leases, property income and expenses.
- Entity and legal records: formation documents, ownership information and required authorizations.
- Owners and guarantors: personal financial records and relevant experience.
- Request and explanations: executive summary, itemized use of funds and supporting explanations.
Explain unusual items. Give the dates, cause and supporting records. Distinguish a resolved issue from one that still affects repayment.
Module 2 • Property Ready™ • Page 17
Two Properties, Two Outcomes
Hypothetical comparison; these figures are examples, not documented client results.
Buyer A: The Compressed Timeline
A buyer relies on the marketing package and a quick walkthrough. After closing, an aging roof requires a $140,000 replacement that was not budgeted. Lease terms also differ from the rent roll used in the analysis, reducing effective income by 8% against the original assumption.
Buyer B: The Disciplined Process
A buyer obtains professional condition and environmental reviews, reconciles leases with the rent roll and requests tenant estoppels. The buyer negotiates a $95,000 closing credit for the aging roof, subject to lender acceptance, and budgets the remaining replacement cost.
Apply the findings: reconcile the repair budget, financing and reserves before releasing contingencies. A closing credit changes cash due; the contract price changes only if the parties amend it.
Module 3 • CRE Deal Decoder Ready™ • Page 21
Work Backward to a Supportable Price
Test price against financing, available equity, annual cash return and supported value. This example holds the loan at 70% of price and upfront costs fixed. Recheck those assumptions against actual lender terms for every proposed price.
| Example screen | Price ceiling |
|---|---|
| 1.25x DSCR | $1,906,190 |
| 9% debt yield | $1,904,762 |
| $750,000 available equity | $2,166,667 |
| 5% year-one cash-on-cash return | $1,606,432 |
| $120,000 NOI / 6% supported cap rate | $2,000,000 |
The first-year ceiling is a screening result, not an automatic offer. Re-enter the price and check whole-deal returns, lender value limits and the rest of the transaction.
Module 4 • Offer Ready™ • Page 17
How to Strengthen an Offer Without Raising the Price
The strongest negotiation tool is often not another dollar. It is reducing uncertainty where you can safely do so.
- Show financial capability: provide appropriate proof of funds or credible financing documentation.
- Be organized: submit a complete, accurate offer package.
- Use a realistic timeline: confirm a closing schedule the lender and specialists can meet.
- Evaluate flexibility: price the cost of extensions, extra reports or a faster closing.
- Complete preliminary research: identify unresolved questions and the time needed to investigate them.
The balance: offer only concessions you have evaluated and can perform. Retain the protections needed to investigate material property and financing risks.
Module 5 • Appraisal Ready™ • Page 18
How the Appraised Value Shapes Your Loan Terms
A lower accepted valuation can reduce the loan amount and increase the buyer’s cash requirement.
| Worked example | Amount |
|---|---|
| Contract price | $3,000,000 |
| Appraised value | $2,850,000 |
| Assumed maximum LTV | 75% |
| Maximum loan under this LTV assumption | $2,137,500 |
| Purchase-price equity required | $862,500 |
Planned equity at 75% of the $3,000,000 price was $750,000. If the price stays unchanged, the lower appraisal increases purchase-price equity by $112,500. Closing costs and reserves are separate. Confirm the lender’s actual loan-sizing policy.
The lender’s income and debt-coverage requirements must also be satisfied. Ask the lender to reconcile its accepted income, expense and payment assumptions.
Module 6 • Closing Ready™ • Page 5
Cash-to-Close Reconciliation
Complete the worksheet from the current settlement statement with the closing agent. Compare the budget with the final figures and explain each difference.
- A. Purchase price plus buyer charges and prepaids.
- B. Add net buyer proration debits, if any.
- C. Subtract lender funds, the deposit already held and approved other funding.
- D. Subtract seller credits and net buyer proration or deposit credits.
Remaining cash to close = A + B − C − D.
Separately track repairs, operating reserves and bills paid outside closing. Have the closing agent confirm the final figure and payment method. Verify wire instructions using an independently verified phone number.
Module 7 • 1031 Exchange Ready™ • Page 7
The Two Clocks
Replacement property generally must be identified within 45 days after the first relinquished-property transfer. Receipt must occur by the earlier of 180 days after that transfer or the due date, including extensions, of the federal return for the transfer year.
Build an earlier working deadline:
- Set an internal identification review before the legal deadline.
- Allow time for corrections, signatures, delivery and acknowledgment.
- Ask the CPA whether a timely return extension is needed.
- Have the qualified intermediary and CPA confirm the operative dates in writing.
Do not assume a weekend, holiday, financing delay or seller delay creates more time. Record exact dates and leave time to fix mistakes.
Who is CRE Deal Ready™ for?
- First-time commercial property buyers who want a structured starting point.
- Business owners considering a building for their own operations.
- Investors who want a practical reference for organizing an acquisition.
- Real estate professionals looking for worksheets and checklists to support buyer preparation.
The Experience Behind the Series
Real Estate Professional, Author & Publisher
Patricia Trauth has been a Florida-licensed real estate sales professional since 1993. Her background spans real estate, mortgage origination, property management and publishing. She has worked with investment properties through acquisition, repairs, leasing and resales. She understands how many moving parts must come together for a transaction to move forward.
CRE Wealth Building Series reflects my focus on practical preparation: understanding the property, organizing the information and anticipating the challenges that need attention before closing.
Why the Whole Series Matters
A commercial purchase is a chain of decisions. Property findings change your calculations. Those calculations shape your offer. The appraisal affects financing. Closing brings the agreed terms together. Exchange planning adds coordination between a sale and the next purchase.
The series helps you follow those connections and keep your records, questions, and next steps organized. First-time buyers gain a process to follow. Experienced investors gain a repeatable framework to use across transactions.
Start preparing before your next commercial real estate commitment.
CRE Deal Ready™ Complete Digital Bundle — $97
Read it. Work through it. Create a strategy that your transaction team will help you make happen.
The $97 digital bundle includes six core modules plus the bonus 1031 Exchange Ready™ module—seven PDF modules in total. Printable calculation worksheets are included in CRE Deal Decoder Ready™.
Use the online Decoder Calculator at Pinnacle 1 Systems alongside your worksheets.
Commercial Capital Advisory
Commercial Capital Advisory helps investors, business owners, and real estate professionals prepare for commercial property acquisitions with clarity and organization. CCA connects property evaluation, financial analysis, financing preparation, and transaction coordination with the CRE Wealth Building Series and CRE Deal Decoder™ calculator.
Scope and compensation are discussed before an engagement begins.