FullTime In-House Underwriter or Outsourced 3rd Party Underwriter

[Kyle Kovats]

One of the most time consuming tasks for syndicators that is critically important to purchasing right is underwriting. Doing a quick analysis and figuring if a deal is even worth pursuing is rather easy. But diving deep and getting deep into the underwriting is a true skill and an art that many have neglated over the past few years just because everything has gone up. Have you hired someone full-time in house to do this or have you been using a 3rd party underwriter, and if so, who have you used that you have found valuable? 

Thanks in advance! 

-Kyle

[Evan Polaski]

@Kyle Kovats, are you talking about just the financial modeling piece of underwriting?  Or a full underwriting in terms of market study, financial analysis, business plan development, areas of risk, etc?

I would venture to say a finance MBA student can build a financial analysis tool and plug in numbers, but that is not where the art comes in, nor is terribly time intensive.  The art is in the whole package and that is where the syndicator is actually adding value, therefore it cannot be outsourced.  

Plugging numbers into a spreadsheet is something any finance undergrad or grad student can do.