The grounded workflow
Yes, Claude by Anthropic can support commercial real estate underwriting, and it is at its best when grounded in the actual deal documents: the OM, the T-12, and the rent roll. The approach PSV builds on is simple: Claude reads your files, fills your underwriting template, and cites the page or line behind every number, and a person verifies the work before it reaches committee. Ungrounded, no general model should be trusted with committee-ready figures. Grounded and cited, Claude is a strong first pass on the documents, with every number traceable to its source.
The workflow
Upload the actual OM, T-12, and rent roll. The model must work from your files, not from general knowledge of what a deal like this usually looks like.
Spell out your underwriting assumptions and thresholds, and name the exact template to fill. The output arrives in your format, not the model's.
Every rent, expense, and assumption gets the page or line it came from. A number without a source is a number you cannot use.
A person checks the citations, chases the anomalies, and signs off. Claude drafts the first pass. The underwriter owns the numbers.
This is how PSV builds CRE AI on Claude by Anthropic: cited truth as a system property, in a workflow your team owns. The same setup is taught in CRE AI training and deployed for firms.
Division of labor
Weighing ChatGPT for real estate underwriting instead? The same grounding rules apply to any model. See the full Claude vs ChatGPT for CRE comparison.
Failure modes
Asked about a deal without the documents, a model answers from general knowledge, and it sounds right. The fix is structural: give it the files and restrict it to them.
A figure with no trail cannot be checked, so it cannot be trusted. A required citation per figure makes every number traceable to its source document.
Left loose, outputs arrive in a different shape every time. A stated template and standing rules keep the work consistent, and keep the workflow yours.
All three trace to the same root: an ungrounded model with no obligation to show its work. The grounded setup removes the root, which is why it comes first in CRE AI done properly.
Frequently asked
Keep reading
The CRE AI Institute, by PSV, teaches this exact underwriting workflow on a real practice deal, with Claude reading the documents and citing its sources. 7-day free trial. $0 today.
PSV Research Desk
Source-cited reporting on the workflows in this guide.
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