Scenario: Acquiring a Distressed Asset

This walkthrough follows a buy-side deal from the first lead to a funded, leasable asset — showing how the acquisition lead, the binder and contract, the Purchase Agreement ticket, automatic property creation, loan funding, and leasing prep fit together in order. It sequences the features and points to the article that owns each; it does not re-derive the underwriting math. We follow Meridian Capital (Meridian's internal purchasing entity) acquiring a distressed asset — Meridian Court — with an after-repair value of 400,000, a ceiling offer (MAO) of 300,000, an accepted offer of 280,000, financed with a 750,000 rehab loan, and handed off ready to lease. Two automatic moments are worth watching for: REDA creates the property record when the deal reaches Under Contract, and auto-creates a placeholder loan at the same instant.

The story at a glance

Meridian's buying entity, Meridian Capital, is acquiring a distressed asset — Meridian Court — and financing it with a 750,000 rehab loan. An acquisition is a record on the Opportunities tab — the same "deal" object used across REDA — and it advances through a fixed set of Stages shown as a Path:

Qualification → Inspection → Offering → Under Contract → Clear to Close → Closed Won (or Closed Lost)

Note the order: Inspection comes before Offering. You inspect the asset, then make your offer. The early stages are hand-driven, but Under Contract is written by the Purchase Agreement ticket — and reaching it triggers the two automatic creations that make acquisitions distinctive. Acquisitions have no "Contract Out" stage, so don't borrow the sale ladder.

The timeline

The whole acquisition in one table — who acts, what REDA does in response, and which article owns each step.

Act 1 — Lead to deal

The buy-side inquiry captures the target address and the underwriting block. Blank cost estimates seed from the region's Profit & Holding Rule, and the Maximum Allowable Offer (MAO) computes from the After-Repair Value minus the three estimates. On Convert, REDA creates the Account, Contact, the Acquisition opportunity, and a primary Seller contact role, dropping the deal at Qualification.

One verified subtlety catches people out: the MAO and commission fields do not map across on conversion. Instead, MAO recomputes identically on the deal from the same ARV-minus-estimates formula — so the number looks the same, but it was regenerated, not carried. Detail: Acquisition Leads and Converting Inquiries.

Act 2 — Inspect, offer, binder

The early stages advance by hand, and in this order: Qualification → Inspection → Offering. You inspect the asset first, revising the cost estimates as you learn more (MAO recomputes each time, giving you a live ceiling for the offer), and only then move to Offering to make the offer.

Record the binder with Binder = Yes and all three details together, or the all-or-nothing gate fires:

The binder is optional — but if you set Binder = Yes, all three fields are required. Detail: Binder & Contract and Acquisition Analysis.

Act 3 — The Purchase Agreement ticket

As with a sale, Under Contract is ticket-driven, not hand-edited. On the Acq - Purchase Agreement ticket, setting Contract Signed (or Closed) moves the deal to Under Contract. Remember there is no "Contract Out" stage on an acquisition — the ticket takes the deal straight to Under Contract. Attach the signed contract before you close the ticket. Detail: The Purchase Agreement Ticket.

Act 4 — Property and placeholder loan auto-created

This is the moment that makes acquisitions distinctive. The instant the deal first becomes active — reaching Under Contract with no property linked yet — REDA does two things at once.

You don't build either record by hand — they appear together the moment the deal activates. Detail: Property Creation & Funding and Lending Overview.

Act 5 — Fund with a loan

Complete the placeholder loan (the one REDA named TBD) — Loan Amount 750,000 and its terms — then advance it toward Funded. Two consistency gates keep the loan tied to the right deal: the borrower must be the buying Account, and the collateral must be the acquisition's property.

As the loan becomes active, its amount rolls up onto the acquisition. The full lending mechanics — terms, disbursements, and payoffs — are in Creating a Loan, and the whole loan lifecycle (originate, disburse, record payments, pay off) is walked end to end in A Loan from Origination to Payoff.

Act 6 — Prep for leasing

Because the property inherited a Leasing Rule when it was created, it is already most of the way to being leasable — it just needs an Owner Account and a Leasing Rule in place, both of which arrived automatically. Finish any remaining leasing setup, advance the acquisition to Closed Won, and the asset can start taking applications. Detail: Making a Property Leasable, then hand off to From Application to Move-In.

The numbers, reconciled

The underwriting figures aren't re-derived here — that math lives in Acquisition Analysis. This table just shows where each one lands as the deal runs.

Where to go next

1. How Acquisitions Work — the stage ladder and the underwriting model.
2. The Purchase Agreement Ticket — the ticket that takes the deal to Under Contract.
3. Property Creation & Funding — the auto-created property and placeholder loan, in full.
4. A Loan from Origination to Payoff — the loan side of this deal, end to end.
5. Making a Property Leasable — finishing the setup so the asset can lease.

Frequently asked questions