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Commercial Deal Due-Diligence Checklist

Everything to check before you close on a commercial property or sign a lease, in the order it comes up.

Who it is for: Buyers and tenants looking at small commercial property or a lease in [Market] for the first time.

[site].com/creText or comment CREStart the brief →
Mock cover of The Colorado Commercial Deal Due-Diligence Checklist, an example lead magnet for Commercial Real Estate Unfiltered
Mock-up of The Colorado Commercial Deal Due-Diligence Checklist for Commercial Real Estate Unfiltered (Caleb David, Colorado). Cover and first page; the full contents are below.

Why it works

Why this magnet fits this audience

Commercial buyers are few and the stakes are high, so a thorough checklist is worth more to them than any amount of content. Each item maps to a guest you have already interviewed (inspector, attorney, lender, broker), which makes the checklist easy to compile and easy to keep mentioning.

Best for

Commercial real estate show, or an investor show that regularly covers small commercial and leasing.

Effort

To create
A few hours from a checklist template; budget the brief's 6 to 10 hour guide range as a ceiling, plus attorney review of the lease chapter
To refresh
Annually
Basis
Templated-guide range from the brief; the brief gives no separate figure for this checklist

What's inside

A sample table of contents

Bracketed items are placeholders. The real version uses your market, your show and your numbers.

Commercial Deal Due-Diligence Checklist

Template contents · e.g. The Colorado Commercial Deal Due-Diligence Checklist

Contents

  1. 01Deal screen: ten questions before you spend money on diligence
  2. 02Financial review: rent roll, leases, expenses, what to verify
  3. 03Physical: roof, HVAC, environmental, ADA
  4. 04Title, survey and zoning in [county]
  5. 05Lease review: the clauses that cost money later
  6. 06Financing: what lenders ask for on commercial
  7. 07The diligence timeline and who does what
  8. 08Red flags we have seen in [Market]
Sample page
Commercial diligence is a list, and the list is long. This checklist puts it in the order a deal actually unfolds in [Market], starting with ten questions that cost nothing and screen out most bad deals before anyone pays for a report. The financial chapter is about verification, not analysis: a rent roll is a claim until you have seen the leases. The lease chapter reads the clauses that bite later, and the lending chapter lists what a commercial lender will ask for so the request does not surprise you. The red-flag page is from deals our guests walked away from. Use it.

On air

How to mention it on air

Same read, every episode, at the end. Say the URL twice and give the keyword for anyone who is driving. The editor drops the QR code over the closing line in the video version.

  1. 1.Put the magnet on a short URL. Create a landing page for the Commercial Deal Due-Diligence Checklist at [site].com/cre: under 15 characters, no dashes or numbers, not the homepage.
  2. 2.Choose one keyword. Set up CRE as a text keyword or a comment-to-DM keyword so listeners can get the magnet without typing a URL.
  3. 3.Add the 20-second read to every episode. The script on the right.
  4. 4.Show a QR code and pin the link. Overlay a QR code during the closing line of the video version, and put the link in the YouTube description and a pinned comment.
  5. 5.Tag the link per episode. Use a UTM-tagged link on each placement so the hosting stats show which episode produced each sign-up.

The 20-second read, as Caleb David would say it

about 20 seconds

“Looking at a commercial property or a lease in Colorado? Grab our due-diligence checklist: every item to verify before you close, in the order it comes up, with the red flags we've seen. It's free at davidcommercial.com/cre. That's davidcommercial.com/cre. Or comment CRE and I'll send it.”

davidcommercial.com/creCRE

Example read for Commercial Real Estate Unfiltered; the [number] is the host's text keyword line.

Generic version, with [Show] and [City] placeholders

“Looking at a commercial property or a lease? Grab our due-diligence checklist: every item to verify before you close, in the order it comes up, with the red flags we've seen. It's free at [site].com/cre. That's [site].com/cre. Or comment CRE and I'll send it.”

[site].com/creCRE

Placements

Where to put it

  • Landing page at [site].com/cre with the ten-question deal screen teased above the form
  • Mentioned in every commercial broker, inspector, attorney and lender episode; linked in show notes
  • YouTube description, pinned comment and QR during the closing CTA
  • Reels: one red flag per reel, ending with 'Comment CRE'
  • Quote cards from commercial guests carry the short URL

Follow-up

The five emails after the download

A magnet without follow-up is a download, not a lead. Subject lines and the point of each email.

  1. 1Your due-diligence checklist

    Deliver it; ask what kind of property they are looking at.

  2. 2Ten questions before you spend a dollar

    The deal screen, expanded.

  3. 3A rent roll is a claim

    Financial verification chapter; link an episode.

  4. 4The lease clause that cost a client

    An anonymized example from a guest.

  5. 5Want a second set of eyes?

    Offer a deal review call.

The brief

What we need from you to build it

A short questionnaire, about 10 minutes. Skip anything you don't know; we'll ask on the call. This is what it covers.

For every magnet

  • Your show name
  • Your website (where the magnet will live)
  • Who can add a page to your website?
  • Brand kit
  • Where should new leads go?
  • CRM name (if any)
  • Phone number for the text keyword (optional)
  • Instagram / Facebook handle for the comment keyword
  • Preferred short URL path
  • Does your brokerage need to approve consumer-facing material?
  • Broker or compliance contact (if needed)
  • When do you want to start mentioning it on air?

For the Commercial Deal Due-Diligence Checklist

  • Asset types (office, retail, industrial, multifamily, land)
  • Your due-diligence items, in order
  • Attorney, lender, inspector or environmental partners to quote
  • Who reviews it before publishing?
Start the brief

Your answers are saved in your browser as you type, so you can come back to it.

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Use this for my show

Tell us about your show and your market and we'll build the Commercial Deal Due-Diligence Checklist around it: the document, the short URL on your show website, the QR overlay, the keyword and the follow-up emails.

No obligation.

Use this for my show