Five Things That Stall a Broker's Deal After the Term Sheet Is Signed

The term sheet is the easy part. Our average turnaround is 2 hours. What happens next decides whether your client closes in 5–10 business days or calls you in week three asking what went wrong.

Most stalls after signing come from the same five places. Some are the broker's job. Some are ours. A few are shared. This post says which is which, plainly, so nobody waits on an item they assumed someone else was handling.

If you have not read what we check before the term sheet goes out, start with What a Lender Checks Before Issuing a Broker Term Sheet. This picks up where that one ends.

How often closings slip

Delays are not rare, even outside private lending. In the National Association of REALTORS® August 2026 Confidence Index (published September 10, 2026), 14% of residential contracts had a delayed settlement in the prior three months, and 7% were terminated. That survey covers the whole residential market, not investor loans. The point stands anyway: roughly one deal in seven slips, and most slips are paperwork, not credit.

The five stalls at a glance

1. Conditions: we issue them, you deliver them

After the term sheet, underwriting issues a conditions list. That is everything we need to move from "approved subject to" to clear to close.

Our job: issue the full list at once, in plain English, with nothing held back for later. If a condition is unclear, that is on us. Call us at (305) 857-5620 and we will rewrite it.

Your job: collect the whole list from the borrower and send it back as one package. This is the single biggest lever a broker has. When items arrive one at a time, each upload restarts a review. Ten items sent over ten days can cost more time than the appraisal.

A simple rule that works: do not upload anything until you have at least 80% of the list, and tell us in the same message which items are still outstanding and when they will land. Use the document checklist as your starting point so the common items are already in hand before conditions arrive.

2. The insurance binder: the broker's to chase

No binder, no funding. This one is the broker's to drive, because the policy comes from the borrower's own insurance agent, not from us.

Our job: send the exact mortgagee clause, loss payee wording and coverage requirements as soon as the term sheet is signed. Not a week later.

Your job: forward those requirements to the borrower's agent that same day, and check the binder that comes back against them before it reaches us. The common misses:

• The wrong mortgagee clause, or none at all.
• The wrong policy type. A vacant property under renovation usually needs builder's risk or a vacant dwelling policy, not a standard landlord form. Our guide to builder's risk vs. vacant dwelling coverage covers which is which.
• Coverage below the amount required, or a missing wind or flood component where the property needs one. See investment property insurance requirements.

In Florida and along the Gulf, timing matters. Insurers often stop binding new coverage when a storm threatens the state. The Villages Homeowners Advocates (August 1, 2025) describe restrictions that typically start before the forecast storm date and can run 24–78 hours after it passes. A binder that could have been issued on Monday may be impossible by Wednesday. During hurricane season, bind early.

3. Title: opened by you, cleared by title, reviewed by us

Title is the item brokers most often assume is someone else's problem. Partly true. The title company does the curative work. But it cannot start until somebody opens the order, and the seller's side has to produce payoffs and releases.

The work is real. In an American Land Title Association study reported by HousingWire on March 31, 2026, nearly 60% of transactions required clearing three to five title issues before closing, and 59% of title professionals named securing releases of prior mortgages as their most significant challenge.

Your job: open the title order the day the term sheet is signed. Get the seller's lender payoff requests moving immediately. If the seller has a private lender or a prior hard money note, flag it early. Those releases are slower.

Our job: review the commitment quickly and tell you in plain English which requirements must be cleared before closing and which exceptions we can accept. When a lien or judgment turns up, we tell you the same day, not at the closing table.

4. Appraisal access: we order it, you open the door

We order the appraisal. That keeps it independent. The most common appraisal delay has nothing to do with value. The appraiser simply cannot get inside.

Our job: order the appraisal promptly, and pass on the appraiser's contact so everyone knows who is coming.

Your job: give us one named contact who answers the phone. Confirm there is a lockbox or a showing window. If the property is tenant-occupied, arrange notice. If it is a rehab, make sure the utilities are on and the rooms are safe to walk. For a rehab loan, have the scope of work and budget ready, because the after-repair value depends on it. Our guide on how to calculate ARV explains what the appraiser is weighing.

5. Entity docs: the quiet deal killer

Most of our borrowers close in an LLC. The entity is the borrower, so its paperwork gets the same scrutiny as the property.

Your job: collect the full set before submission, not after conditions:

• Articles of organization (or the equivalent for the entity type).
• Operating agreement, signed, showing members and who can sign.
• EIN confirmation letter.
• A current certificate of good standing from the state.
• A signed member consent authorizing the signer, where the operating agreement requires one.

Then check the state's records yourself. A lapsed annual report is common and easy to miss. In Florida, the Division of Corporations sets a May 1 deadline for the 2026 annual report, charges a $400 late fee for LLCs after that, and administratively dissolves entities that have not filed by the third Friday of September at close of business on the fourth Friday of September. In 2026, that fourth Friday is September 25. An entity dissolved that week cannot sign a loan until it is reinstated.

Our job: tell you exactly what we need for the entity in front of us. A single-member LLC, a multi-member LLC and a trust need different documents. Our LLC real estate loan guide covers the basics.

A day-one checklist for brokers

The day the term sheet is signed, before anything else:

1. Send our insurance requirements to the borrower's agent.
2. Open the title order and request seller payoffs.
3. Send us one appraisal contact and access instructions.
4. Pull the entity's state record and confirm good standing.
5. Start collecting the conditions package, and hold uploads until it is mostly complete.

Five tasks. About an hour of work. They decide whether the deal closes on the timeline you promised your client. For more on what drives the calendar, see how long it takes to close a hard money loan.

Where the numbers land

For reference, our current programs: Fix & Flip from 8.75%, DSCR from 6.75%, and ground-up construction sized on total cost. Most programs look for 660+ credit, with the best pricing at 680+ and 640–659 reviewed case by case. We lend in 45 states; excluded are VT, UT, OR, SD and ND. Rates are ranges, never guarantees. Terms are subject to underwriting, appraisal, title, and insurance.

Brokers earn up to 3% per closed loan. Your clients remember who closed. Details on how broker compensation works.

Send us a deal that is ready to close

Run the numbers on the calculator, then Apply Now. Term sheet in 2 hours on average. Close in 5–10 business days once the file is complete.

Questions on a live file? Call (305) 857-5620.