The deal
What you’re paying, what it’s worth now, what it will be worth renovated, and whether the spread between those numbers survives the cost of the work and the cost of the money. If the deal doesn’t work on paper, nothing about your personal financial profile rescues it.
This is the opposite of consumer underwriting, where the borrower is the subject and the property is collateral.
The scope of work
A written scope with real numbers against it. Not a finished contractor bid necessarily (early on, a considered estimate is enough to have a conversation), but something that shows you know what the job is.
A scope that’s obviously light for the work described is a signal. So is one that hasn’t accounted for permits, or for the things you find once walls are open.
Experience and liquidity
Track record helps and its absence isn’t fatal. A first-time flipper with a sound deal, a credible contractor and reserves behind them is a workable file. A first-time flipper with a thin deal and no cushion is not, and the gap between those two isn’t experience. It’s margin for error.
Reserve and experience overlays are lender-specific and change, so nobody should quote you a rule as though it were universal.
The exit
This is the one that matters most, because bridge and rehab loans are built to be temporary. Are you selling, or holding and refinancing into long-term financing? The answer changes which lender fits and what the whole structure should look like.
If the plan is to hold, line up the permanent takeout at the same time as the rehab loan rather than after. The most common expensive mistake in this space is finishing a rehab and only then discovering the refinance is harder than expected while the short-term note keeps running.
The administrative thing that delays files
Entity vesting. The borrowing entity needs to match the deed and the purchase contract. Sorting that out at the start costs an afternoon; sorting it out three days before closing costs the deal.