How Acquisitions Work in REDA

This is the map of how REDA handles buying property. When you acquire an asset, everything runs through a single record — the acquisition deal — that carries the numbers you underwrite, the stage the purchase is at, and the paperwork that contracts it. This article names all the moving parts and the order they happen in: the inquiry, the deal, the purchase agreement, and the Property and loan that REDA creates for you along the way. It does not walk through any one task — each of those has its own how-to, linked as we go. No prior REDA experience is assumed; every term is defined as we reach it.

What "acquisition" means in REDA

REDA runs every deal — whether you're leasing a unit, lending against one, or buying one — through one shared record called an Opportunity, which we'll simply call a deal. A single deal record can play several roles, and an acquisition is one of those roles: a purchase you're running. When you open an acquisition deal you're looking at the deal in its "buying" form.

Each kind of deal has its own record page and its own progress bar — the Path — showing where it sits in its lifecycle. The acquisition Path has its own set of stages, described below.

An acquisition deal does double duty. It's both the deal — the thing that moves stage by stage from qualification to close — and the underwriting worksheet, holding the analysis numbers (the after-repair value, your cost estimates, and the ceiling offer). For the field-by-field detail of that worksheet, see Acquisition Analysis Fields.

One thing surprises newcomers: a deal can exist before any Property record does. Early on, the target's address is just typed in as text on the lead and the deal. REDA creates the actual Property record for you later, automatically, at the moment the purchase goes under contract.

The buy-side journey at a glance

Here's the whole path from first contact to a closed purchase. Each step links to its own how-to:

The seven acquisition stages

An acquisition deal moves along a fixed ladder of stages, shown as the Path across the top of the record. A new acquisition opens at Qualification. Here is the full ladder, in order, with what each one means:

The word active matters. A deal counts as active from Under Contract onward (through Clear to Close and Closed Won). Reaching active is the single event that sets off REDA's two headline automations, described next.

The two records REDA creates for you

When an acquisition deal first becomes active — the moment it reaches Under Contract — two records appear that you did not create by hand:

Neither is a glitch: they're the system getting the asset and its financing ready for you. You complete the placeholder loan with real terms, or close it out if the purchase is all cash — either way it's expected, not something you created by mistake. The full mechanics — what the Property inherits, and how to fund the purchase — live in Property Creation and Funding an Acquisition.

Key concepts and vocabulary

These terms recur across every acquisition article. Define them once here:

Who does what

Running the acquisition pipeline requires the REDA - Property Acquisition User permission set — it grants create-and-edit rights on deals, inquiries, properties, and tickets, plus the settlement codes used on the closing statement. Viewing without editing is covered by REDA - Master Data - Read Only. Deleting a Property is restricted to REDA - Master Data - Admin.

Because acquisitions create Accounts and Contacts (the seller entity and the seller's contact), you also need access to those, which your administrator grants separately from the REDA permission sets.

The moving parts, in one place

Every piece of the pipeline and where you'll find it:

A whole acquisition in one trace

To make it concrete, follow Meridian Properties buying the distressed Meridian Court, currently owned by Continental Holdings. This is the compact overview; the click-by-click lives in the sibling how-tos.

An acquisition deal record — the buying entity is Meridian Capital. The highlights panel carries Buying Account, Sale / Purchase Price, Stage (here Qualification, the first stage), Close Date and Record Type Acquisition; the Details tab below opens the underwriting fields.

The Opportunities tab — every deal lives here regardless of type. The Record Type column separates Acquisition from Leasing, Lending and Property Management; the acquisition deal shows Account Meridian Capital at Stage Qualification.

Where to go next

1. Capturing and Converting Acquisition Leads — the front of the pipeline: capture, qualify, underwrite, convert.
2. Running an Acquisition Deal — Binder to Contract — advancing the deal and recording the binder.
3. The Acquisition Purchase Agreement Ticket — the ticket that drives Under Contract.
4. Property Creation and Funding an Acquisition — the two auto-created records and how to fund the purchase.
5. Acquisition Analysis Fields — every underwriting field and the ceiling-offer math.
6. Profit Holding Rules — where the estimate defaults come from.

Frequently asked questions