The DIP is where cases quietly die
A decision in principle feels like a yes. Often, it’s where the case starts dying.
What a DIP actually is
A decision in principle is a lender’s early view, given before the real underwriting has happened. It’s useful — it tells you a lender is interested and roughly on what terms. But it’s conditional, and the conditions are the whole ballgame. The valuation still has to come in, the underwriting still has to be done, and the file still has to hold up. Plenty of cases clear the DIP and then fall over weeks later, when the real work exposes something that was always going to be a problem.
The worst place to lose a case
You’ve told your client it’s happening. You’ve turned down other options. The clock has run down. And then, late in the process, it collapses.
Credit-backed loans flip the order
Instead of an early view followed by underwriting, the underwriting happens first. On suitable cases, what you receive is a fully underwritten, credit-backed offer, with the valuation already factored in, subject only to standard legal completion. The hard questions have already been asked and answered, so there’s no cliff-edge waiting three weeks out.
The difference in one line
A decision in principle is a promise to decide later. A credit-backed offer is the decision, already made.
Worth being clear-eyed about
A credit-backed offer isn’t a guarantee of funding, and legals still have to complete like any case. But it removes the single biggest point of collapse in a bridging case: the gap between “yes in principle” and “yes, underwritten”. Close that gap and you stop losing cases you should have won.
If you’ve ever had a case die in underwriting after the DIP came through, this is the part of Broka worth paying attention to.
