Term Sheet

A term sheet (or letter of intent) is the lender’s written summary of the loan it proposes to make: amount, rate or spread, term, amortization, recourse, fees, reserves, covenants, and the conditions — appraisal, environmental, committee approval — standing between the proposal and a closing. It is usually expressly non-binding on the loan itself, though deposit and exclusivity provisions within it may bind.

For borrowers, the term sheet is the unit of comparison shopping. Rates get the attention, but deals are more often won or lost on the quieter lines: the recourse and carve-out language, the prepayment structure, deposit requirements, and covenant tests that will govern life after closing. Collecting two or three term sheets does more than create leverage — it reveals which terms are market and which are one lender’s preference.

The observed-terms module on our lender profiles is, in effect, a running log of term-sheet-level intelligence: what specific lenders have actually quoted, on what property types, and when.