Please note that the AP LOI Standard is subject to change as the APDT™ versions evolve over
time.
The purpose of the AP LOI Standard™ for Commercial Real Estate LOI
Documents is to ensure that the
information in documents are unambiguous for humans understanding and interpreted properly by
APDT™.
Following the APLS™ when drafting and authoring the LOI document will guarantee that the data
is
auto-extracted pinpoint accurately by APDT™.
APDT™ accepts the following file-types as input.
Scanned image pdf documents first need to be OCR‘ed before they can be used as input
files for
APDT™.
when drafting LOI Documents for Commercial Real Estate.
1. Current APDT™ Limitations - What to Avoid
A. Ensure Document is an NNN LOI for Commercial Real Estate
Prebeta Status:
The APDT™ Prebeta abstracts NNN LOIs for Commercial Real Estate only. We will soon add the
capability to extract information also from Purchase and Ground Lease LOIs in the near future.
B. All relevant data of an LOI must not be part of an image
Be assured that the data sought from an LOI - such as “Project
Name” - is mentioned in the LOI in
the main section as text of the LOI, not only part of an image in the document (e.g. site plan
blue print). At this moment APDT™ is not providing any OCR (optical character recognition)
services.
Naturally, this is not to say that the LOI cannot have a site plan with the project name in the
exhibits. Just make sure that the project name is also mentioned not only in a site plan in an
image, but also in the main section of the LOI document as readable text.
C. Information should be unambiguous
When listing an address for a project, make sure it is an unambiguous address. If the exact
address
is unknown, it is fine to list the approximate location such as the intersection between two
roads
(e.g. intersection of Main St. and Beach Blvd, Westminster, CA), but it is not a good idea to
provide as address which doesn‘t make sense.
Example:
1000 Sunset Blvd, Santa Monica / Hollywood, California.
This is an ambiguous property address. Sunset Blvd is a long road which goes through many cities
in California. 1000 Sunset Blvd - a location for a property - cannot belong to two cities (Santa
Monica and Hollywood) at the same time. This will confuse humans as well as APDT™.
D. Monetary value should always be preceded by a $-sign
50 per square foot
Typically not a good idea to provide rent information this way as this will confuse both humans
and APDT™. “50” could be fifty cents or fifty
dollars. All monetary value in the LOI
should be
preceded with the proper unit such as “$50 per square
foot”.
2. Best Practices
Best practices are tips and recommendations on how to draft and author an LOI document for maximum
clarity to ensure accurate data extraction.
A. Consistency in Titles and Document Structure
Titles in an LOI should have a consistent numbering and formatting style. Here‘s
an
example of an
inconsistent title structure of an LOI.
B. All Important Information should be in the main section of the LOI, not in Exhibit
Just as it would be confusing for a human to find e.g. Tenant Name in the Exhibit, instead of
having
such critical information in the main section of the document, it would be equally confusing to
APDT™ as
well. Having an Exhibit is fine, but the information is relevant, it should be also mentioned in
the
main document of an LOI document.
C. Do not use Title as a “Commenting Area”
Comments to the LOI (if needed) should not be placed into a title as this will confuse
APDT™.
Example:
USE (to conform, where applicable, to Ridgefield Lease):
Tenant shall use the Premises solely for the operation of a
limited service ...
D. Do not Use Conflicting Addresses
Below is an example which shows conflicting addresses, which will confuse humans and APDT™
alike:
Example:
RE:
VERY QUICK PIZZA LOI
1260 FM 150 (I-20 & US 40), Austin, TX
.....
PREMISES:
Approximately 2,71 square feet of space, as shown in the attached plan. Address of the
premises
will be 123 American Way, Austin, TX.
Obviously the above LOI for VERY QUICK PIZZA shows two different addresses - 1260 FM 150 (I-20 &
US
40), Austin, TX and 123 American Way, Austin, TX. APDT™ will preference to the latter, but
it
is a
best practice to avoid such conflicting addresses.
