A firm that has structured its OM intake for one quarter holds something most firms cannot produce: a complete record of every deal that was sent to it, what each deal looked like, how each one was decided, and how long each step took. This record is more honest than any strategic plan. It describes what the firm actually did, not what the firm intends to do.
The 90-day audit is the periodic exercise of reading this record back to the firm. It is not a performance review of the team. It is a calibration check on the buy box, the broker network, and the screening discipline. The data answers questions the firm cannot answer any other way.
The audit is most useful in the first year of structured intake. It is also useful indefinitely as a check against drift.
What the Audit Inputs Are
The audit pulls from four data sources, each captured automatically during intake.
Source | Data |
|---|---|
OM extractions | Property characteristics, financials, tenants, debt |
Buy box scoring | Component and composite scores per deal |
Decisions | Pursue, hold, question, pass with rationale |
Outcomes | LOI, contract, close, lost with reason codes |
A quarter of data at a typical mid-size firm produces 60 to 200 records. The volume is small enough to review in detail and large enough to surface patterns.
The Buy Box Validity Check
The first audit dimension is whether the buy box is producing the deals the firm wants to be seeing.
Question | Data Source | What It Reveals |
|---|---|---|
What % of submissions scored above pursuit threshold? | Score distribution | Targeting accuracy |
What % of high-scoring deals were pursued? | Decision data | Discipline alignment |
What dimensions did declined deals fail on? | Score components | Buy box edges |
What dimensions did exception deals exceed on? | Component scores on pursued sub-threshold deals | Hidden buy box flex |
A firm that finds 8% of submissions above its 75% threshold and 60% of submissions below 50% has a network calibration problem: most submissions are noise. A firm that finds 35% above threshold and routinely declines them has a discipline problem or a capacity problem. Both are visible in the data.
The exception deals are particularly informative. If the firm pursued ten deals that scored below 75% in the quarter, the firm has either an off-strategy pattern that needs justification or a buy box that does not reflect actual preferences.
The Geography Distribution
A firm with a stated geographic strategy will find that the actual flow concentrates differently than the strategy specifies.
MSA | Submissions | Match Rate | Pursued | Buy Box Aligned? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Phoenix | 28 | 32% | 4 | Yes |
Atlanta | 19 | 41% | 3 | Yes |
Charlotte | 8 | 25% | 1 | Yes |
Indianapolis | 14 | 14% | 0 | No |
Tampa | 12 | 50% | 4 | Yes |
Nashville | 6 | 17% | 0 | Yes (low volume) |
This table answers questions that are otherwise impossible. Indianapolis is on the buy box but is producing low-quality flow. Nashville is on the buy box but is producing low volume. Both are signals: either invest in network development in those markets or remove them from the active buy box.
The geographic distribution also surfaces drift. If the buy box says "sunbelt" and the actual high-fit submissions are concentrated in three MSAs, the firm's effective geography is narrower than its stated one. This may be intentional and unrecognized, or it may be a network coverage gap.
The Broker Mix
The audit reveals the actual composition of the broker network in operation, distinct from the network the firm thinks it has.
Tier | Brokers | Submissions | High-Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
Top (engaged) | 6 | 38 | 19 |
Mid (occasional) | 14 | 47 | 11 |
Long tail | 41 | 78 | 9 |
Mass distribution | n/a | 22 | 1 |
The pattern is consistent across firms: a small number of brokers produce most of the high-fit flow, a long tail produces most of the volume but little fit, and mass distribution lists produce noise. The audit identifies which specific brokers occupy which tier in the firm's actual network, which is often different from the firm's mental model.
The Decision Velocity Check
The third audit dimension is how quickly the firm responded.
Decision | Median Response Time | Brokers Affected |
|---|---|---|
Pursue | 1.2 days | All |
Pass | 2.8 days | All |
Hold | 1.5 days | All |
No response sent | n/a | 32 deals across 18 brokers |
The "no response sent" line is the most consequential. A firm that took no action on 32 deals in the quarter is signaling to 18 brokers that the firm is not responsive. The brokers calibrate, and the firm sees less flow next quarter. The audit makes this visible.
A firm operating well has near-zero "no response" entries, with median response times under two days and consistent rationale for declines. A firm not operating well has a long tail of no-response, with the no-response rate concentrated in specific brokers or asset types the firm has not prioritized.
The Outcome Loop
The fourth dimension closes the loop on pursued deals.
Pursued Deal Outcome | Count | % of Pursued |
|---|---|---|
Closed | 1 | 7% |
Under LOI / contract | 2 | 14% |
Lost on price | 5 | 33% |
Lost on process | 3 | 20% |
Walked in diligence | 2 | 13% |
In progress | 2 | 13% |
The conversion rates indicate where the firm is leaking deals. A firm losing one in three pursued deals on price is losing pricing battles consistently, which is either a strategy issue (firm is bidding to win at the wrong level) or a market read issue (firm's underwriting is structurally lower than the market).
A firm losing 20% on process is losing because it is moving too slowly or signaling weakness in negotiations. A firm walking 13% on diligence is either being conservative correctly or being conservative excessively. Each pattern points to a different next conversation.
What the Audit Produces
The audit produces a one-page summary covering five dimensions.
Audit Dimension | Output |
|---|---|
Buy box validity | Adjustments to thresholds, weights, or hard filters |
Geography distribution | Markets to develop or deprioritize |
Broker mix | Tier assignments, engagement and filter decisions |
Decision velocity | Workflow changes, response standards |
Outcome conversion | Strategy and underwriting calibration |
Each dimension drives a specific action. The audit is not "did we do well" or "did we do poorly." It is a structured review with specific outputs for the next quarter.
Why Quarterly
The audit cadence matters. Monthly is too frequent: patterns are noisy, sample sizes are small, and the team does not have time to act on findings before the next audit arrives. Annual is too slow: drift compounds for nine months before anyone notices, and the year-end review becomes a retrospective rather than a calibration.
Quarterly fits the rhythm of decision-making. A buy box calibration based on Q1 data shapes Q2 screening. A broker tier update from Q2 data shapes Q3 engagement. The audit becomes a closed-loop control on the firm's deal flow rather than an after-the-fact report.
What "Done" Looks Like
A 90-day audit that produces actionable calibration meets the following criteria:
Every quarter, the firm produces a structured audit covering buy box, geography, broker mix, velocity, and outcomes.
Every audit produces specific, dated changes to operations.
Every change is reviewed in the subsequent quarter for effect.
The audit takes hours, not weeks, because the data is already structured.
The audit is reviewed by the principals, not delegated.
Findings drive buy box, network, and workflow updates explicitly.
If the audit produces interesting observations that do not change anything, the firm is reading it as a report, not as an operating tool.
Conclusion
The 90-day audit is the closing of the deal-flow loop. It takes the data structured intake produces and reads it back to the firm in a form that drives decisions. Firms that audit quarterly catch buy box drift, broker network drift, and decision velocity drift before they compound. Firms that do not audit accumulate the same drift, attribute it to market conditions, and make the wrong adjustments. The data exists. The audit is the discipline of using it. Over multiple quarters, the audit becomes the mechanism by which a firm's stated strategy stays connected to its actual operations, which is the only version of strategy that produces results.