Severity that means something
Most due diligence risk ratings are high, medium and low. Which sounds rigorous and commits to nothing, because none of the three tells you what to do differently on Tuesday.
A risk on a deal in Trace carries a decision impact instead, and each level names an actual decision.
The four
- Information only: worth knowing, changes nothing. Most of what a report contains.
- Material: changes the price, the conditions, or the advice you're giving.
- Settlement blocker: this has to be resolved before the deal can complete.
- Walk-away risk: the one where the right answer might be no.
The top two are flagged in red, because they're the two that change what happens next rather than what you know.
Naming the top of the scale is the point
Plenty of systems will let you mark something high. Very few make you say out loud that a finding might be a reason not to buy, and that sentence is precisely the one a client needs to hear early, from you, rather than late, from a solicitor.
A risk with a soft label gets a soft response. That is usually the whole story.
It follows the finding, not the risk
One detail that catches people out: the cost estimate lives on the finding, not on the risk you converted it into. It carries through to the negotiation position either way, whether or not you also raised a formal risk from it. So a finding worth eighteen thousand dollars counts once, in the place you'd expect it, without you having to remember which object you attached the number to.
Risks are also only ever created from a finding. There's no create-from-scratch button, and that's on purpose. A risk with no evidence behind it is an opinion, and opinions don't hold up six months later.
We're building this with a small first group of buyer's agents. If your current severity scale is three words and a gut feel, we'd like to talk to you.
Apply for a founding partner spot