Why debt structure belongs in the first pass

The conventional order is backwards

The usual sequence is to underwrite the property, decide it works, and then go find financing. It is a comfortable order because it separates the parts of the problem. It is also the reason teams spend weeks on deals that were never financeable at the price being discussed.

Debt is not a wrapper around the deal. For most transactions it is the largest single input into whether the equity return is achievable at all. Treating it as a later step means the first pass is answering a question nobody asked.

What changes when you move it forward

Bringing structure into the first pass does not mean having a term sheet. It means carrying a defensible view of proceeds, coverage, and the constraints a lender will actually apply, and letting that view shape the price you are willing to discuss.

The practical effect is that fewer deals reach committee, and the ones that do arrive with the financing question already answered rather than deferred. That is a smaller pipeline and a better one.