Free CRE tool
The complete commercial real estate due diligence checklist
Every item your team needs to diligence before closing a commercial real estate deal. Select your asset class below to see a tailored checklist covering legal, financial, physical, market, and financing workstreams.
Hospitality due diligence focuses on RevPAR trends, brand compliance, and FF&E condition. This checklist covers the workstreams hospitality acquisition teams run from LOI through closing.
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Legal and title
Financial and operational
Physical and environmental
Market and competition
Lender and financing
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What is commercial real estate due diligence?
Commercial real estate due diligence is the structured verification process an acquisition team runs between contract execution and closing. The goal is to confirm that everything the seller represented is true, that the underwriting assumptions hold up, that the physical asset is in the condition described, and that the legal and environmental status of the property will not create problems after close. Every CRE transaction runs some version of this process. The quality of the diligence determines the quality of the close.
A standard CRE due diligence period runs 30 to 60 days, negotiated in the purchase and sale agreement. Inside that window, the team is working five parallel workstreams: legal and title, financial and operational, physical and environmental, market and competition, and lender and financing. The workstreams have dependencies (the lender orders the appraisal after the LOI, the environmental firm schedules a Phase I early because turnaround is long, the title company delivers the commitment before closing counsel can draft the PSA), so sequencing matters.
The most common structural mistake is starting environmental and title workstreams late. Phase I environmental site assessments have 2 to 4 week turnaround times. Title commitments have their own lead times. Teams that wait until week two of a 30-day DD window to order these items end up extending the closing date or closing without them. The checklist below reflects the sequencing discipline the best CRE acquisition teams apply.
How CRE due diligence differs by asset class
Core diligence items (title, environmental Phase I, rent roll, T-12, insurance) are universal across commercial real estate asset classes. Beyond the core, every asset class has specific items that are either unique or significantly more important.
Multifamily teams focus on unit-level inspections, rent roll reconciliation against actual deposits, and bad debt history. Office teams focus on tenant credit reports, WALT calculation, lease rollover schedules, and CAM reconciliation. Industrial teams focus on clear height, column spacing, loading capacity, truck court access, and power capacity.
Retail teams focus on co-tenancy clauses, anchor tenant credit, percentage rent history, and reciprocal easement agreements. Hospitality teams focus on RevPAR trends, franchise disclosure documents, PIP requirements, and FF&E reserve adequacy. Land teams focus on entitlement status, zoning variances, wetlands delineation, geotechnical reports, and utility availability.
Select your asset class in the tool above to see the full tailored checklist.
How MotionCRE automates your DD checklist
A checklist on a piece of paper is useful. A checklist built into the deal workspace where the team already works is much more useful. MotionCRE turns this checklist into native task lists inside every deal workspace, with owners, deadlines, and the supporting document attached to each completed item.
When a new deal is created, the team picks the asset class and MotionCRE pre-populates the task list with the relevant DD checklist items. As each item is completed, the person closing the task uploads the supporting document (title commitment, Phase I report, appraisal, rent roll) directly to the task, and it becomes part of the deal workspace permanently. The weekly DD review meeting becomes a filter applied to the pipeline: "show me every task that is incomplete and due this week."
See the task management feature for how tasks track owners and deadlines, the file storage feature for how supporting documents are versioned and searchable, and the virtual data room feature for how the completed DD package gets shared with your lender.
Common questions
What is a commercial real estate due diligence checklist?
A commercial real estate due diligence checklist is the structured list of documents, inspections, and verifications an acquisition team completes between contract execution and closing. It covers five workstreams: legal and title, financial and operational, physical and environmental, market and competition, and lender and financing. Every CRE acquisition team runs some version of this checklist on every deal.
How long is the CRE due diligence period?
Standard commercial real estate due diligence periods run 30 to 60 days after contract execution, though the exact length is negotiated in the purchase and sale agreement. Environmental workstreams can extend that timeline if a Phase II is required. The most common structural mistake is starting environmental and title workstreams late because they have the longest external dependencies.
Does the due diligence checklist vary by asset class?
Yes. Core items (title, environmental, rent roll, T-12) are universal, but each asset class adds specific workstreams. Multifamily adds unit-level inspections and rent roll reconciliation. Office adds tenant credit review and lease rollover analysis. Industrial adds site access and loading specs. Retail adds co-tenancy clause review. Hospitality adds brand compliance and RevPAR benchmarking. This tool lets you select your asset class to see the tailored checklist.
How do CRE teams track due diligence items in practice?
The weakest teams use a Word document or shared spreadsheet. The better teams use a task management system with named owners, deadlines, and status tracking per item, where each completed item has the supporting document attached. MotionCRE builds due diligence into the deal workspace: every checklist item becomes a task, each task has an owner and a deadline, and the document upload that satisfies the task is automatically version-controlled and searchable.
Can I download this checklist as a PDF?
You can email the checklist to yourself using the form below and forward the email to your deal file. The checklist is also visible and interactive on this page if you want to use it directly. For teams that want the checklist built into every deal as tracked tasks with owners and deadlines, start a 14-day free trial of MotionCRE.
Is this checklist complete for every deal?
This tool covers the core workstreams for a typical commercial real estate acquisition. Every deal has unique items (municipal requirements, historic preservation, SBA lending conditions, joint venture structures) that require tailoring. Treat this as the baseline you start from, not the definitive list for any single transaction.