Seller retains earnest money and may pursue all remedies available at law or in equity.
You lose the deposit and can still be exposed to additional damages. That changes the downside of the deal immediately.
3,000 lease files reviewed
XTO Energy ExxonMobil
20 years contract review
Your DD period is counting down. Know what you are signing.
I review the contracts inside the deal before your leverage disappears: customer agreements, vendor contracts, leases, operating agreements, APAs, PSAs, and related documents. Built for SMB buyers under LOI, searchers, SBA buyers, independent sponsors, and real estate investors facing real deadlines.
48-hour reports · First review from 1,500 · Strictly confidential
3,000
Lease files and contracts reviewed at institutional scale
20
Years in contract, title, and transaction-adjacent work
48h
Commercial report turnaround on most first reviews
1,500
First engagement priced below a typical law-firm sprint
The problem
The clause that costs you the deal is usually the one nobody flagged.
Your agent says the contract is standard. It is not standard. It is the seller’s attorney’s contract, written to protect the seller. The work here is to find where the contract shifts risk, widens remedies, or buries economics before your deposit goes hard.
Rent roll provided for informational purposes only and is not warranted.
The income you are underwriting may not be guaranteed by anyone. If the numbers are wrong, your recourse may already be gone.
CAM includes all costs incurred in operating, maintaining, and improving the property.
That language can move capital projects and uncapped pass-through costs onto you with no real ceiling.
Manager receives 20% of distributions before member capital is returned.
Waterfall drafting can move economics away from you long before the model makes it obvious.
How it works
Three steps. Forty-eight hours. Your report.
Fast enough to matter. Structured enough to use in an actual deal conversation.
Step 01
You send me the deal
Upload the documents, tell me the due diligence deadline, and flag what is already making you uneasy. That is enough to start.
Step 02
I find what is wrong and how to fix it
Every clause is read for asymmetric remedies, revenue reliability, transfer limits, operational friction, and economics hidden in the drafting.
Step 03
You know exactly what to negotiate
You receive a deal summary, a ranked risk report, and a negotiation playbook with a debrief call so the next conversation starts from clarity.
What you receive
A report that shows what to negotiate and what would have cost you.
This is a commercial diligence read built to show where the document changes downside, leverage, economics, or post-close risk.
Deal summary, red-flag report, negotiation playbook.
The deliverable is built so you can actually use it in conversations with the seller, your attorney, and your lenders — not just file it away as another memo.
Sample critical finding
If Buyer fails to close, Seller shall retain the Earnest Money as liquidated damages AND shall have the right to pursue any other remedies available at law or in equity, including specific performance.
Risk: Seller keeps your deposit and can still sue you for more. Your exposure is not capped.
Pricing
Simple pricing for live transactions.
One engagement to start. A retainer only if the deal flow justifies it. No bloated ladders and no portfolio-review clutter.
First review
1,500For first-time clients with one live deal
- One transaction review
- Ranked risk report
- Negotiation playbook
- 30-minute debrief call
Standard engagement
2,500For the normal one-off diligence review
- Commercial contracts inside the deal reviewed
- Priority issues and negotiation guidance
- Built for LOI-to-close time pressure
Retainer
5,000For repeat deal flow and active buyers
- Ongoing access across multiple live reviews
- Faster intake across deals in motion
- Best fit only once the volume is real
Positioned against law-firm hourly review, but with a different job to do: identify commercial exposure, clarify negotiating leverage, and show what the contracts mean for the economics of the deal.
Who I work with
You close deals. This is how you close them better.
The fit is strongest when you are under LOI, under a due diligence deadline, or both.
Real estate investors
Your DD period is 14 days. You need the commercial read before earnest money goes hard and your leverage disappears.
M&A buyers and search fund operators
You signed the LOI. You need to know whether the APA is market-standard or seller-skewed before committing to full legal diligence.
SBA buyers and first-time acquirers
You do not have in-house counsel, and the quality of the drafting still changes what the business is worth to you.
Independent sponsors
You need a fast commercial read on the contract stack before legal spend rises and the deal absorbs more momentum.
FAQ
Straight answers.
The service is designed to sit beside legal counsel, not replace it. The point is to see the commercial risk clearly while there is still time to negotiate.
How is this different from running my contract through an AI tool?
This is expert-led review anchored in institutional contract work. Technology is not the product. Judgment is.
I already have a real estate attorney. Why do I need this?
Many clients use both. The advantage here is a faster commercial read on what changes downside, leverage, and economics before legal spend gets deeper.
Is this legal advice?
No. This is commercial due diligence. Legal conclusions still belong with counsel.
What contract types do you cover?
Customer agreements, vendor contracts, leases, APAs, PSAs, operating agreements, and related commercial deal documents.
How do you handle confidentiality?
Engagements are handled confidentially, and an NDA can be signed before document transfer if needed.
What if I want to talk through a deal before committing?
That is normal. Use the call option and send the basics first so the conversation starts with the real issue.
About
I have spent 20 years reading the contracts other people sign without reading.
Before Deal Sense, the work was contract and lease analysis at XTO Energy, an ExxonMobil company, plus independent work for Morning Star Resources and Jetta Operating. The through-line is the same: read for exposure, read for asymmetry, and read for the clause that changes the economics more than the summary ever will.
Institutional review experience, applied to middle-market deals.
I also invest in real estate myself. That means the work is not abstract. I know what it feels like to be staring at a diligence deadline, deciding whether to go hard on earnest money before you know everything you need to know.
Deal Sense exists because institutional contract expertise and the investor’s perspective rarely live in the same place. Attorneys charge by the hour and take a week. Generic tools summarize what the contract says. Neither tells you what it means for your specific deal, what is negotiable, and what language to demand before you sign.
Next step
Send the deal before the leverage disappears.
Five minutes to submit. Commercial review structured for live deals. Debrief call included.