Inside FirstPass: How Security Properties Built Its Own AI Underwriting Engine - Security Properties [Skip to content](#content) This is a Notification Important information goes here [ Call To Action ](https://www.yahoo.com/) #### [X](#) [ ![Security Properties logo: a blue square with white curved lines forming a stylized S, next to the words "SECURITY" in blue and "PROPERTIES" in black.](https://securityproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Site-Logo.svg) ](https://securityproperties.com) | [ ](#) | [ Start A Conversation ](https://securityproperties.com/sp-contact-us/) [ ](https://securityproperties.com/sp-contact-us/) [ ](#elementor-action%3Aaction%3Doff_canvas%3Aopen%26settings%3DeyJpZCI6Ijg1MTllNjgiLCJkaXNwbGF5TW9kZSI6Im9wZW4ifQ%3D%3D) [ ](#elementor-action%3Aaction%3Doff_canvas%3Aopen%26settings%3DeyJpZCI6Ijg1MTllNjgiLCJkaXNwbGF5TW9kZSI6Im9wZW4ifQ%3D%3D) Search [ ![Security Properties logo: a blue square with white curved lines forming a stylized S, next to the words "SECURITY" in blue and "PROPERTIES" in black.](https://securityproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Site-Logo.svg) ](https://securityproperties.com) [ ](#elementor-action%3Aaction%3Doff_canvas%3Aclose%26settings%3DeyJpZCI6Ijg1MTllNjgiLCJkaXNwbGF5TW9kZSI6ImNsb3NlIn0%3D) Search [ ](https://securityproperties.com/blog/) [ Back to Blog ](https://securityproperties.com/blog/) Term Here October 30, 2026 # Inside FirstPass: How Security Properties Built Its Own AI Underwriting Engine ![Security Properties](https://securityproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/SPR_Icon_SOCIAL-MEDIA-RGB-150x150.jpg) By Security Properties Security Properties has launched FirstPass, a proprietary AI underwriting engine built in-house on 57 years of the firm’s own operating data. A first read on an offering memorandum once took an analyst four to five hours. It now takes under five minutes, and every output is reviewed by the acquisitions team before any decision is made. ![Security Properties team members look at a computer screen in the office.](https://securityproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/26-04_SecurityProperties-095.jpg) For decades, the first read on a multifamily acquisition looked the same: an analyst opens an offering memorandum, pulls the rent roll and financial statements, and spends the better part of a day translating raw operating data into a usable underwriting model. That process — four to five hours per deal, done by hand — has effectively defined how fast a firm can move on an opportunity. Security Properties just changed that math. The firm has launched FirstPass, a proprietary underwriting application built entirely in-house and powered by artificial intelligence trained on decades of Security Properties’ own underwriting and operating data. What used to take an analyst most of a day now takes less than five minutes. FirstPass has already been running quietly across the firm’s acquisition pipeline for several months, including on deals currently under evaluation. ## What FirstPass Actually Does At its core, FirstPass automates the least glamorous but highest-stakes part of due diligence: turning messy source documents into a clean, usable model. It ingests the operating statements that come in during due diligence such as rent rolls and financial statements and uses a machine learning algorithm to classify that data and load it directly into Security Properties’ underwriting model. From there, it does more than just data entry. FirstPass pulls current U.S. Treasury rates and layers in deal-specific inputs to generate a forward-looking view of operating performance across multiple scenarios. Because the turnaround is nearly instant, the team can run it continuously throughout underwriting, refreshing assumptions as new information comes in rather than locking in a single static analysis early and hoping it holds. ## Why Speed Changes the Deal Funnel, Not Just the Workload The obvious benefit is efficiency. The less obvious and arguably more important benefit is what efficiency does to deal sourcing. An offering memorandum that once absorbed most of an analyst’s day can now get a rigorous first read before the firm commits any meaningful resources. That means Security Properties can screen more opportunities, across more markets more frequently, and reserve the team’s time for the deals worth pursuing. “FirstPass changes the math on how many opportunities we can seriously evaluate,” said Mark Bates, Chief Investment Officer at Security Properties. “We can now run a rigorous first analysis on a deal the moment an offering memorandum hits our desk, before we ever enter due diligence. That means we turn over far more stones to find diamonds. We cast a wider net, and we only pursue the very best opportunities for our investors.” ## The Trust Question Behind Every AI Tool in CRE AI is moving from experimentation to execution across commercial real estate, but most of the industry conversation still circles one question: can investors actually trust the machine’s output? Security Properties’ answer is structural, not rhetorical. Rather than license a third-party product trained on generic market data, the firm built FirstPass on its own operational history — 57 years of investing through every kind of market cycle — and built in a permanent human checkpoint. Every output is reviewed by the firm’s analysts and acquisitions professionals before any investment decision is made. “The quality of the output is a direct result of the quality of the input,” said Éamon Finneran, Senior Director of Operations and Technology at Security Properties, who led FirstPass’s development. “We are feeding the model clean, actual operational data from our own portfolio history, not scraped market averages. And the machine never has the last word. Our analysts and acquisitions team review every result, so what you get is the efficiency of AI paired with the subject matter expertise of a trained human eye. That blend is where the real advantage lives.” ## A Data Advantage That’s Hard to Copy The reason this works is less about the algorithm and more about what it was trained on. Security Properties has operated through multiple full market cycles, which means the firm has a genuinely rare historical record of how assets behave when conditions deteriorate. That history informs both the model and the team reviewing its output, sharpening judgment about when a deal can go sideways. “Our investors trust us to be disciplined stewards of their capital, and FirstPass makes that discipline scalable,” Bates added. “It lets us match the right capital with the right opportunity faster than ever, without ever compromising the rigor that has defined this firm for more than five decades.” ### Related Articles [ ![Security Properties' team members working in the office.](https://securityproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/26-04_SecurityProperties-047-150x150.jpg) ### What Happens Before We Commit: Inside SP’s Due Diligence Nov 5, 2026 ![Security Properties](https://securityproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/SPR_Icon_SOCIAL-MEDIA-RGB-150x150.jpg) By Security Properties ](https://securityproperties.com/blog/what-happens-before-we-commit-inside-sps-due-diligence/) [ ![Courtyard at Cooper Apartments](https://securityproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Print-19-150x150.jpg) ### Security Properties Acquires 186-Unit Cooper Apartments in North Seattle at 28% Below Its 2019 Sale Price Nov 2, 2026 ![Security Properties](https://securityproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/SPR_Icon_SOCIAL-MEDIA-RGB-150x150.jpg) By Security Properties ](https://securityproperties.com/blog/security-properties-acquires-186-unit-cooper-apartments-in-north-seattle-at-28-below-its-2019-sale-price/) [ ![Front entry to The Villas at Kennedy Creek](https://securityproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/1-150x150.jpg) ### Security Properties Acquires Tumwater, WA Villas at Kennedy Creek Oct 30, 2026 ![Security Properties](https://securityproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/SPR_Icon_SOCIAL-MEDIA-RGB-150x150.jpg) By Security Properties ](https://securityproperties.com/blog/security-properties-acquires-tumwater-wa-villas-at-kennedy-creek/) #### PLACEHOLDER BLOCK FOR NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. 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