Multifamily Bridge Loan Sizer
Size a value-add apartment bridge loan, split initial vs future funding, test the refi
Install it in one line — paste a single command into Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor and it writes the skill into your project.
Free, and about thirty seconds: a work email and a six-digit code.
Downloading shares your name, firm, role, and email with The Helvetica Group. That introduction is what keeps every skill here free.
What this skill does
Sizes a small-balance value-add apartment bridge loan from the lender's side: what the building earns today, what it should earn after renovation, how much to fund at closing versus for the renovation, and whether the loan can actually be refinanced at today's rates.
What it does
- Builds today's income and the post-renovation income side by side, adjusting for reassessed taxes, real insurance, management and reserves
- Runs every sizing limit — loan-to-value today and after stabilization, loan-to-cost, debt yield (income as a percentage of the loan) and refinance coverage — and shows which one caps the loan
- Explains in one line why the refinance test often binds at current rates
- Checks whether today's income covers bridge interest, and flags the shortfall a reserve must cover
- Drafts extension tests up front, with the paydown needed if each one failed
When to use it
- A value-add apartment deal with a renovation budget comes in
- A broker asks how much you can fund at closing and for the renovation
- You want to know if the refinance works at today's rates
- Before setting extension terms in a term sheet
What to have ready
- Rent roll and trailing 12-month financials
- Purchase price and renovation budget
- The business plan: rent targets and timeline
- As-is and as-stabilized values, if you have them
How to use it
- Download it with the button above. You'll sign in with a work email — that's how the creator knows who is using their skill.
- Copy the install prompt from the "Run it in Claude" box, and paste it into Claude along with the file. Claude installs the skill, fills in your firm's details where the file has
[BRACKETED]placeholders, and runs a quick test with you. - Then just ask in plain English. Claude picks the skill up on its own when a request matches it. Anything it still needs, it asks you for — it won't invent a number.
"Size a bridge loan on this [UNITS]-unit apartment building at [ADDRESS] — purchase [PRICE], renovation budget [CAPEX], rent roll and T12 attached, they want [LOAN AMOUNT]."
What you get back
A sizing memo with sources and uses, today's versus stabilized income, every sizing test and the one that binds, a refinance stress test, a carry check, drafted extension tests, and a recommended split between closing funding and renovation funding.
Good to know
- Output quality tracks input quality. A missing figure is flagged as missing — it is never estimated to fill a gap.
- Every draft is a starting point for your own review, not a finished decision.
- Runs anywhere Claude does: the Claude app, Claude Desktop, or Claude Code.
- Every limit and refinance assumption is shown as an illustrative default you replace with your own policy and today's takeout terms.
Legal disclaimer
This skill drafts; it does not decide. Its output is not legal, tax, accounting, appraisal, or investment advice, and using it creates no attorney-client, fiduciary, or advisory relationship. Nothing it produces is a commitment to lend or an offer to sell a security. Verify every number, date, citation, and conclusion against the source documents, and have a qualified professional licensed in the relevant jurisdiction review the work before you rely on it or send it to a borrower, investor, counterparty, or regulator. Laws, rates, and market data change. The final work product is yours.
Inside this skill
The actual file you get. Members can read it in full before saving it.
Multifamily Bridge Loan Sizer
A value-add apartment bridge loan is really two loans: one against the building as it is today, and one against a business plan that has not happened yet. Lenders get hurt when the second loan is sized off the broker's pro forma and the refinance that repays it is tested at a rate from two years ago. This skill sizes both pieces from the lender's side, finds the test that actually caps the loan — often the refinance exit, not the LTV — and writes the extension tests before they are needed.
Works for: 5–150 unit apartment buildings bought or refinanced with a renovation plan — unit interiors, exterior and common-area work, management turnaround, or lease-up of down units. Generic commercial screening lives in loan-request-screening-and-sizing; this skill is specific to multifamily with future funding. For parsing the source documents, use rent-roll-analyst and t12-financials-parser first; for a takeout shortfall already in progress, use refinance-proceeds-gap-analyzer.
Step 1 — Intake
| Input | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase price (or payoff on a refinance) and closing costs | ✅ | Total cost basis |
| Rent roll | ✅ | Unit, type, in-place rent, market rent, lease end, status (occupied / vacant / down) |
| Trailing financials (T12, and T3 if available) | ✅ | Income and expenses as actually operated |
| Renovation (capex) budget | ✅ | Interior per unit, exterior and common area, contingency, timeline |
| Business plan | ✅ | Units renovated per month, post-renovation rent premium, time to stabilize |
| Appraisal or value estimates | ✅ | As-is and as-stabilized; mark broker estimates as unverified |
| Loan request | ✅ | Total, initial funding, future funding, rate, term, extensions |
| Takeout assumptions | Helpful | Target refinance product, rate, amortization, DSCR and LTV limits. If none, use Step 4's illustrative defaults |
| Your credit policy | Helpful | LTV, LTC, debt yield limits; if none, use illustrative defaults and say so |
Minimum viable: rent roll, T12, purchase price, capex budget, and a stabilized rent target. Without a T12 the in-place NOI is a guess — say so and mark the carry test NOT TESTED.
Step 2 — Build the two NOIs
In-place NOI is what the building earns now, not what it earned in the best month.
Reading the full skill counts as a download. The contributor receives your name, company, and email.
Ratings & reviews
No written reviews yet. If you run this on a live file, say how it went. The next lender reading this page is deciding whether to trust it.
Examination record
Run it in Claude
- Copy the install command above
- Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor
- It writes the skill in, fills in your firm’s details, and test-runs it with you
Prefer the file? The prompt above is for a package you already downloaded.
Details
More from The Helvetica Group
They publish here under a verified work email. Their other skills, and how to reach them, are on their contributor page.