Check out our upcoming and past Ask the Experts Live events

Our next live event is being scheduled

Ask the Experts Live sessions are announced on LinkedIn first. Follow us there and you will see the date as soon as it is set.

You will also get the replays, plus the shorter clips and lending questions we post between sessions.

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Past sessions and recaps are below.

June 23 at 12 PM PT


A hundred page appraisal lands on your desk. You flip to the value conclusion near the back, it works for your loan, and you move on.

That move is where the risk starts.

On Tuesday, June 16 at 3pm ET, Dave Stauffacher and Joe Davis dig into a question most lenders skip past: whether you are actually reviewing that appraisal, or just accepting the number on page 98.

They'll get into:

  • The three valuation approaches, and where each one quietly breaks down
  • Why a single point of movement in the cap rate can swing value by hundreds of thousands of dollars
  • As-is, as-complete, and as-stabilized, and which one is carrying the most assumptions
  • The questions that separate a reviewer from an acceptor

You already scrutinize DSCR down to the decimal. When was the last time you pushed back on a cap rate?


Whether you're a credit analyst working your first CRE deal or a senior lender who's been burned before, this one will sharpen how you think about what collateral is really worth when the music stops.

K-1 & Pass-Through Series: When Guarantors Own But Aren’t Obligated

A viewer submitted a question that comes up regularly in commercial underwriting: if a pass-through entity is owned by a guarantor but the entity itself has no obligation on the loan, what financial reporting should you be asking for? Is the K-1 enough, or do you need the full tax returns?The answer involves judgment, and

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K-1 & Pass-Through Series: What to Do with Pass-Through Interest on Schedule B

You see interest income on your borrower’s Schedule B. Before you include it in personal cashflow, ask: did they actually receive that cash?In this installment of our K-1 & Pass-Through Series, Senior Credit Trainers David Stauffacher and Joe Davis tackle a question that came in through Ask the Experts: how should lenders handle pass-through interest

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K-1 & Pass-through Series: Using Assets and Income for HNW Loan Decisions

A viewer submitted a question that does not get asked enough: when can I use a borrower’s assets in addition to their income when deciding whether to make a loan to a high net worth individual?It is a good question because the answer is not obvious, and because the stakes of getting it wrong run

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K-1 & Pass-through Series: Which K-1s to Get for Multi-Entity Owners

A viewer asked a question that gets more complicated the more you think about it: when a high net worth individual owns multiple pass-through entities, which K-1s do I actually need to collect?The honest answer is that it depends, and the right starting point is your institution’s guidelines. But guidelines are exactly that — guidelines.

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K-1 & Pass-through Series: Factoring Owner Loans and Repayments

A viewer asked a question that comes up more often than people expect: how should I factor in loans from owners, and what do I do with the repayment?It sounds like a minor detail. It is not. Owner loans show up in small business lending regularly, they are often informal, and they create cash flow

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K-1 & Pass-through Series: 1065 vs 1120S K-1s: What’s the Difference?

A question came in that we hear often, and usually from analysts who are in the middle of a deal: what is the difference between a 1065 K-1 and a 1120S K-1?The confusion makes sense. Both forms are called a K-1. Both attach to pass-through entities. Both show up in tax return analysis. But they

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K-1 & Pass-through Series: Treat Cash Differently from Property on K-1?

A question came in from an analyst that sounds like a fine detail but has real loan decision implications: should I treat cash distributions differently from property distributions on the K-1?The short answer is: it depends on the entity type, and on whether the difference is even visible to you. Senior Credit Trainer David Stauffacher

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K-1 & Pass-through Series: Use the Latest K-1 or Average Three Years?

In our K-1 and Pass Through Entity Series, one of the most common questions sounds simple, but it sits right in the middle of good underwriting judgment.Ask the Experts: Should I use cash flow the latest K-1 if it appears to be recurring, or should I average the past three years?Many lenders were taught to

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K-1 & Pass-through Series: What to Do If You Don’t Receive Any K-1s

In our K-1 Pass Through Entity Series, we get questions that sound simple but are actually a big deal in underwriting.Here is one we hear more often than people admit:Ask the Experts: What should I do if I do not get a K-1?The short answer is not complicated.Ask again.If your request is a requirement, treat

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K-1 & Pass-through Series: Should You Credit a Guarantor Getting No Distributions?

In our K-1 & Pass-Through Entity Series, we keep hearing versions of the same question:A guarantor shows up on a K-1… but they aren’t taking distributions.So what do you do with them in global cash flow? Do they “count”… or not?Let’s dig into it.The questionAsk the Experts: “Should I give any credit to a guarantor

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Commercial Real Estate Appraisals: What Lenders Should Review (and Why)

Too often, lenders accept third-party appraisals at face value—reviewed for completeness, filed away, and rarely questioned. But an appraisal is not a purely scientific document. It blends objective data with professional judgment, assumptions, and interpretation.That doesn’t make appraisals unreliable. It does mean lenders must apply independent rigor.This article focuses primarily on non-owner-occupied commercial real estate

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K-1 & Pass-through Series – Capital Contributed by a Single Owner: Now What?

A question came in recently that sounds simple on the surface: Where do I find capital contributed by a single owner, and what do I do with it? It is actually two questions: the where and the what. And the answers depend on what kind of entity you are looking at. Senior Credit Trainer David Stauffacher

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