# Get operations ready so a buyer will underwrite

Harbor by Signalry · hotel job `ops-ready-for-sale`
https://harbor.signalry.ai/jobs/ops-ready-for-sale

How and who for the hotel job—verified when attested. Advice unless labeled verified. This brief is a worksheet, not an appraisal and not a quote.

## The job

When I plan to sell in two to four quarters, I want the house operable on paper so a buyer’s night-audit sample does not become a price chip.

**Outcome the catalog names:** A file a buy-side desk can rebuild: PMS extracts, payroll versus occupancy, FF&E truth, open life-safety, and a GM who knows what is in the room.

**Desk:** ops
**Urgency on the catalog:** This year
**Typical budget band (catalog, not a quote):** In-house time plus $8–25k to clean the file
**Typical timeline (catalog, not a promise):** 8–16 weeks before a teaser

## Scoped brief

Selling starts in operations. A CIM cannot repair a night audit the buyer will sample. Name the files, date them, and fix the ugly ordinary while you still own the calendar.

1. **Inventory the file a buyer will demand.** PMS extracts, 24 months if you can; payroll versus occupancy; franchise or management agreement; ground lease; insurance; FF&E par; open work orders and life-safety. If a file is missing, that absence is the first job.
2. **Rebuild your own T12 before they do.** Walk occupancy, ADR, and mix from the PMS. Reconcile to the P&L. Write the gaps in English. Do not wait for a banker to discover unbooked comps.
3. **Make the GM the author, not the audience.** The person who will walk the buyer around should have written the exceptions. Housekeeping and engineering should not learn about a sale from a stranger with a camera.
4. **Close the ordinary ugly.** Open violations, a boiler you have been nursing, a missing FF&E reserve story. Cosmetics without a file are a later discount.

## When not to buy

Do not hire a teaser mill if the night audit is still a rumor. That is not marketing. It is a future concession.

## Provider shortlist

- [Sable Underwriting Desk](https://harbor.signalry.ai/providers/sable-desk) — people · Boutique acquisition underwriting. Catalog score 8.9 (post-job shape, not a verification).
- [Ashcroft Asset Advisors](https://harbor.signalry.ai/providers/ashcroft) — people · Owner asset management. Catalog score 8.8 (post-job shape, not a verification).
- [Vale Street Capex](https://harbor.signalry.ai/providers/vale-street) — people · Rooms vs public-space capex. Catalog score 8.3 (post-job shape, not a verification).
- [Ledgerlight Accounting](https://harbor.signalry.ai/providers/ledgerlight) — software · Hotel accounting & night audit export. Catalog score 7.8 (post-job shape, not a verification).
- [Close Room](https://harbor.signalry.ai/providers/close-room) — people · Hotel data rooms & sale-file hygiene. Catalog score 8.6 (post-job shape, not a verification).

## Success the brief names

- A dated index of the files a buy-side desk will ask for.
- PMS-to-P&L gaps written in English.
- The GM can walk the exceptions without a script.

## Pitfalls

- A glossy book over a night audit that cannot support it.
- Guest names in folio samples.
- A GM who hears about the sale from the buyer.

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Stable id: `ops-ready-for-sale`
Source: Harbor by Signalry · https://harbor.signalry.ai
Verified Outcome is not insurance. Do not treat a catalog score as attested proof.