It can be a pretty complicated transaction and its easy to get fouled up if you don't really know what your doing.

However, if there are defects in the origination, which sounds like there probably are, you could have an uphill battle.  

Finding a good agent to work with can sometimes be half the battle.

They'll smell that a mile away, but you'll at least get an idea.

It had a nasty smell and the basement was damp and mildewy.

this one smells bad

Use logic and pick your battles, just like a marriage. 

One of their points is that they will guide you on how to create credibility with HedgeFunds they currently do business with in order to get better quality notes that one can find via internet sites or servicers like fciexchange.com (does that smell like an upsell for the future?)

@Brian Gibbons I smelled a JV opportunity here and wanted an expert! 

While looking at other peoples analyzers is helpful in understanding what kind calculations you want to do and which inputs you can (and should) gather, nothing is going to help you understand the numbers like forcing yourself to figure out how to calculate them.As this is a numbers game, this is an advantage you will want to have.Understanding all the metrics will help you smell out the BS when some is trying to show you dodgy numbers.I have a very basic excel so far and even that has gotten me to the point that I can tell real estate agents to go do their homework.