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▪ Acquisitions & Underwriting · 2 min read

When We Waive Due Diligence — and the Lender Still Has Questions

A clean offer can reduce buyer contingencies. It does not eliminate the information a lender needs to fund the deal.

There is a difference between waiving our own due diligence contingency and pretending due diligence no longer exists.

We have looked at competitive deals where making the offer attractive meant limiting or waiving buyer contingencies. That can be a calculated business decision when we know the property and understand the downside. But if a bank is financing the acquisition, the lender still has its own requirements.

That can mean leases, rent rolls, insurance, title items, environmental information, property records, financial statements, or answers to issues that come up during underwriting. Those requests are not optional just because the buyer offered a clean contract.

The important part is assigning responsibility before the PSA is signed. If the lender needs information that only the seller can provide, the seller has to cooperate and provide it on time. Otherwise a clean 60-day closing can become impossible for reasons outside the buyer's control.

My takeaway is that clean terms should reduce uncertainty for the seller, not transfer unknowable lender risk to the buyer. Those are two different things.

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