Deal Pipeline

Lev uses five main criteria to match lenders to your deals: property location, asset type, loan type, loan amount, and sponsor location. The first four factors have the most impact on lender selection. Sponsor location can vary in importance depending on the strength of the sponsor - regional lenders may be more flexible with sponsor location in major markets, but may require local sponsors for smaller markets. For specialized loan types like construction loans, you'll get the most accurate lender matches by completing the full deal creation process, which provides more granular filtering options than browsing lender profiles manually.

When you enter deal information in Lev, it serves multiple purposes. First, it filters our database of lenders to show you the best matches for your specific deal using five key criteria: loan type (permanent, bridge, construction, or land), property location, property type, loan amount, and sponsor location. Second, it helps you organize and track all your deal information in one place. Third, if you choose to use our deal book or memo builder, this information will automatically populate into those documents. The information you enter is primarily for your internal use and won't be shared directly with lenders unless you specifically include it in communications or documents you send to them.

To create a new deal, click the "New Deal" button and enter basic information including deal name, property address, property type, and sponsor details. You can create a deal with just a name if needed - other fields can be completed later. Creating a deal does not make it visible to lenders automatically. The deal setup is primarily for your internal reference and organization. Lenders will only see deal information when you actively share it with them through deal books, data rooms, or direct communications.

Stabilized value refers to the projected value of the property 3-5 years after project completion, once the property has been fully stabilized and any planned improvements or renovations are finished. This represents what you expect the property to be worth after all project costs have been invested and the property is performing at its intended capacity. This could also be considered the exit value if you plan to sell the property at that point.

The deal name and description fields are for internal use only. They're visible to you and anyone else on your team who has access to view the deal within your account, but this information is not shared externally with lenders or other parties unless you specifically include it in documents or communications you send to them. When entering the deal name, be careful not to accidentally select an address from the auto-populate dropdown - click off to the side to avoid this.

The document upload process is designed to be intuitive and will guide you through what's needed. When you reach the document upload section during deal creation, the platform will provide a helpful list of required documents that you should request from the borrower. This list serves as a good reference for what materials you'll need to gather. The exact documents required may vary depending on your deal type and loan structure, but the platform will walk you through the specific requirements for your situation.

For mixed-use properties, categorize the asset based on which component generates the most income. First, identify your main income-producing component (restaurant, multifamily, retail, etc.). Then select the asset type that best matches that primary income source. For example, if a restaurant is the main income generator in a mixed-use property, select 'Retail' as the asset type and 'Single tenant net lease' as the subtype. This approach ensures your property is matched with the most relevant lenders for your primary use case.

You can update deal status in several ways: 1) Click on the specific lender conversation, then use the status dropdown to select 'Closing' or 'Closed'. 2) Go to the Pipeline view and either use the status dropdown in list view or drag the deal to the appropriate column in kanban view. 3) From the Financing section, drag and drop the deal to the 'Closed' section. When marking a deal as closed, you'll be asked to select which lender you closed with. This will automatically update the deal status across all views in the platform.

You can create deals using various types of input data without needing to clean or format them first. The AI can work with raw call notes from sponsor conversations, call transcriptions from any transcription software, dense notes about a deal, or even copy-and-paste content from offering memorandums (OMs). Simply paste your unformatted notes or transcripts directly into the system, and it will extract the relevant information to create your deal automatically.

There are four core data points required for the suggested lender list to function properly: location (determines what market lenders are in), asset type, loan type, and loan amount. These are the primary factors that will add or remove lenders from your suggested list.

The financial information section serves mainly as a loan sizing tool and feeds into memos and other features, but it won't directly impact which lenders appear on your list. However, these financial inputs may influence how lenders are ranked once the matching process is complete. The loan request amount specifically is the key driver - it determines whether a deal fits within a lender's program parameters.

The loan sizing tool currently calculates amounts based on project costs rather than stabilized value, using a loan-to-cost percentage (typically 80% based on total cost basis). You can adjust the loan request amount by going to the deal overview section and modifying the project costs and loan request fields.

Note that the platform currently has some limitations around this calculation method, and improvements are being developed to allow calculations based on loan-to-value percentage as an alternative option.

Lender contact information is only available through the deal matching process - you can see contacts for lenders that match with your specific deals. Contacts are not available through a general search function or directory.

This approach ensures that lenders only receive deals that match their lending parameters and program requirements. If you need contact information for a specific lender for a particular deal, you can request assistance on a case-by-case basis, but the standard process requires going through deal creation and matching first.

Yes, you can add multiple properties to create a portfolio deal. When creating a deal, you can use the "add a property" feature to include additional addresses. Each additional property will require its own address input. Keep in mind that the geographic spread of your properties may affect your lender recommendations, as lenders have different preferences for markets and sub-markets. Properties that are too spread apart geographically might limit your lender options.

To create a preferred equity deal, start by clicking the create deal button and filling out the basic deal information. When you reach the loan type selection, look for "subordinate debt" rather than traditional loan types like permanent or bridge financing. Under the subordinate debt category, you'll find options for both preferred equity ("pref") and mezzanine financing. Select preferred equity and continue through the normal deal creation workflow. Note that some interface language may still reference "loan requests" even for equity deals.

The loan request information is populated from the basic deal details you input when filling out the loan request page, including loan amount, property details, and financing requirements. In some cases, this information may be overridden or supplemented by any loan request documents you upload to the system. This represents your financing ask and requirements for the deal.

Yes, Lev supports both mezzanine debt and preferred equity financing. When creating a deal, you can select "subordinate debt" as your loan type and choose between preferred and mezzanine options. You can structure this financing either as a separate deal going out to market, or combine it with senior debt using the "add capital source" feature if you want the same lender to provide both types of financing. The lender list for subordinate debt may be smaller than senior debt options, but our database is continuously expanding.

Yes, you can manage the entire deal process through Lev. The platform covers deal creation, lender selection and outreach, email integration, AI-powered offering memorandum creation, and document management through the vault feature. To get started, you'll want to set up your email integration first so that all lender communications appear to come directly from your email address. The system then guides you through each step of the process, from inputting deal information to managing lender responses.

The acquisition pipeline is for deals you're aware of but don't have under contract yet - it allows you to prepare deals and start floating them with lenders before you're officially ready to close. The financing pipeline is for all types of financing needs including refinancing, ground-up construction, and deals you're ready to actively pursue. Once you get an acquisition deal under contract, you can easily move it from the acquisition pipeline to the financing pipeline.

Lev matches you with specific contacts based on geographic territory and property type expertise. Each contact typically covers specific regions and asset types - for example, a contact might cover the Midwest region for hospitality deals. When you view a recommended contact, you can click on their name to see their coverage area and routing notes. In rare cases, some lenders route all deals to a single contact who then triages internally. For the most accurate lender matching, create a deal with your property location, asset type, loan type, and loan amount rather than browsing the general lender directory.

You can start with minimal information - just enter the basics like title, address, units, and asking price. Lev offers both pre-built pipelines (acquisition and financing) and the ability to create custom pipelines with your own statuses and terminology. The acquisition pipeline is perfect for building deal skeletons with minimal information before moving to the financing stage. You can easily transfer deals from the acquisition pipeline to the financing pipeline without recreating them, keeping all your deal information and resources in one place throughout the entire process.

Fund recourse is a type of loan guarantee structure where multiple partners pool their assets into a single fund that acts as the guarantor, rather than using personal guarantees or going non-recourse. Instead of individual personal assets backing the loan, the collective fund with various entities and properties serves as collateral. This structure is much less common than traditional personal guarantees or non-recourse loans.

The "Add Capital Source" feature allows you to document additional components of your capital stack beyond the primary financing. This helps flesh out the complete financing structure of your deal. However, this field is generally not critical to complete and can be deleted if you don't need to track additional capital sources for your transaction.

No, lenders cannot tell that emails are sent through Lev. All communications come directly from your email inbox with no Lev branding visible to recipients. Email replies also go directly to your inbox. If a lender asks how you found them, you can mention that you found them through Lev (which generally reflects well due to our targeted matching system) or simply say you did your own research - the choice is entirely yours.

You should enter the total project cost, including soft costs, rather than just the base purchase price. This gives a more accurate picture of the full financing need and helps with debt and equity calculations in subsequent steps. Including the complete project cost upfront will provide better accuracy in your deal structure and lender matching.

Platform updates are actively in development, with major improvements to deal intake and memo generation typically rolling out within 2-8 weeks. New product features may have longer timelines of 3-6 months as they go through beta testing and customer feedback cycles. The development team prioritizes updates that streamline workflows and improve memo output quality to help reduce the time you spend on deal preparation.

You can input your financial data directly into the form fields displayed on screen. All numbers shown are placeholder values, so you can simply click on any field like purchase price or project cost and enter your actual deal information. Your cursor will guide you to the correct input areas.

Basic deal information including address, loan amount, loan type, and asset type is required to generate a lender list. This core data helps determine the market and applies hard filters to curate potential lenders. Financial information, while not always mandatory, enhances the process by informing our loan sizing tool, improving lender rankings, and populating deal rooms when you outreach to lenders. You can access basic lender search functionality with minimal data, but comprehensive financial details are needed for the full lender search feature.

A property address is typically required to create deals, as it helps determine the market and generate appropriate lender matches. However, there are workarounds available for non-real estate deals - you can use a business address or any address within the same zip code area. While this isn't the optimal approach, it's possible to create the deal and adjust the address details later in the background as needed.

Once you upload your deal files, our AI creates an 8-10 page offering memorandum with executive summary, market overview, and property details - getting you about 95% complete with minimal editing needed. The system also builds an interactive deal room (like a private Dropbox) containing the offering memo and all relevant files. Your deal parameters help narrow our 7,000+ lender database to the best matches (typically 20-100 lenders), and you can then outreach to multiple lenders simultaneously. Each lender receives a custom link to access your deal room with all the materials they need.

The deal room link in your outreach templates is a custom link that connects lenders to the documents and resources you've uploaded for your deal. When lenders click this link, it provides them seamless access to your offering memorandum, deal facts, and other resources without requiring them to sign in. The link is tied to the lender's email domain for automatic authentication. If you haven't uploaded documents yet, you can remove this section from your template and add it back once your deal room is ready.

You can only select one loan type per deal. However, if you're working with hybrid scenarios like construction-to-permanent loans, choose the loan type that best represents your current needs. For example, if you're doing construction-to-perm, you might select either construction or permanent based on your timeline and where you are in the project. The platform supports all loan types including permanent, bridge, refinance, construction, mezzanine, and preferred equity financing.

You can view your deal history with any lender by finding them in your Network tab or searching for them in the Market tab. Once you locate the lender, check their profile notes to see recent deals you've shared. You can also click into their lender profile to view the complete list of deals under the "Deals" section, which shows all the deals you've sent to that particular lender.

Yes, you can create deals without a sponsor. Simply leave the sponsor field blank or enter "N/A" as a placeholder - this information won't be shared with lenders. You can also modify your outreach email templates to remove sponsor references by editing phrases like "reaching out on behalf of" to simply "reaching out about this property." If lenders ask about sponsors later, you can address those questions when they come up during your conversations.

You can specify your loan type as construction when filling out the deal workflow. Look for the transaction type or loan type field in your deal setup and select "Construction" from the available options.

Yes, you can structure deals that combine multiple capital sources, such as a senior loan at 65-75% loan-to-cost plus additional mezzanine or preferred equity financing to reach your target leverage. The platform supports requesting both types of financing together in one package. For example, if you need to reach 80% total financing, you can structure this as a 65-70% first mortgage combined with 10-15% mezzanine debt. The mezzanine and preferred equity capabilities were added as newer features to support these more complex capital stack requirements.