Barnett Capital, the Chicago-based family office lender that underwrites residential fix-and-flip and fix-and-hold loans as well as commercial triple-net lease financing, has partnered with Box to drastically speed up the work of underwriters by automatically extracting key information from leases and appraisals. By integrating Box with Salesforce, then using Box Extract to pull and structure key information, the company has made the process of underwriting faster by a factor of 60.
In the fast-paced, high-stakes world of real estate finance, efficiency and organization are key to staying ahead. Hours spent slogging through files to find key information slows down business, leading to missed investment opportunities, delayed deal closings, and inefficient capital deployment.
Barnett Capital’s real estate businesses acquire, renovate, build, sell, and manage a variety of residential and commercial properties, while its financing businesses provide creative debt-based financing solutions on collateral such as real estate.
In these varied transactions, the firm routinely manages large volumes of unstructured documents — including appraisals and leases that can run 100+ pages — and depends on timely access to specific data to make fast lending decisions. “Originally,” recalls Director Dan Nikolich, “we had to read through those hundreds of pages to get the data we needed.”
Nikolich knew that advancements in AI could drastically speed up the process. But he wanted to avoid expensive tool sprawl — having to partner with multiple vendors to extract data with AI. He sought to consolidate content on a single platform that would enable AI extraction, respect content permissions, and keep the existing Salesforce workflow relevant.
That platform turned out to be Box.
Key achievements:
- 60× faster underwriting: 35–40 questions answered per doc in ~1 minute
- Consolidated platform: Box + Salesforce replaced multiple point tools
- Secure intake and reduced headcount needs with Box Shield and automation
From an hour to a minute with Box Extract
Before Box, underwriters spent significant time poring over dense documents to locate critical terms and dates.This was not easy. Even though they’re digitized and in the cloud, the appraisals, lease documents, and other legal files Barnett deals with lack a consistent format, making it hard to quickly find critical information.
“With both appraisals and leases,” Nikolich says, “there were questions that our team was asking on a regular basis. But there’s no standard residential lease or appraisal format.” They looked for a better way to locate those details quickly and at scale.
First, Barnett centralized deal files in Box and integrated Box with Salesforce to create one source of truth for all files. They then applied Box Extract to automatically extract structured metadata from the unstructured leases and appraisals, enabling the team to surface contract terms and dates as searchable attributes.
Barnett leverages automated Box Relay workflows to trigger downstream processes and keep underwriting moving, while Box’s integrations keep content accessible inside Salesforce without creating separate storage silos.
Nikolich says, “Now, we can quickly ask the same 35 to 40 questions of every doc.” Consequently, a task that used to take an hour now takes about a minute — a staggering 60-times faster turnaround. This leap in speed means underwriters spend substantially less time hunting for details and more time focusing on deal analysis.
By applying metadata extraction, a task that used to take an hour now takes about a minute.
Because extraction runs inside Box and maps to metadata templates, those attributes are also available for search, reporting, and automation across the lifecycle.
Safer, more secure document sharing and collaboration
Before adopting Box, Barnett Capital relied on email to collect documentation from customers, which posed risks in terms of both security and efficiency. Using Box Forms allowed the company to provide clients with secure links, where they could upload files directly into designated folders protected by Box Shield, adding an extra layer of content security.
Using Box for content sharing also allows Barnett Capital to send sensitive financial documents such as payoff letters back to customers securely. In this way, the shift to Intelligent Content Management with Box has radically improved data protection, and it has also made new projects and products possible.
Embracing a partnership for success
Barnett has reshaped how it works with data, which in turn has enabled it to streamline document management, underwrite processes, and make customer workflows far more efficient. The company has since successfully scaled operations without adding headcount: “This puts time back in our day. Even with our business growing, we haven’t needed to hire more people,” Nikolich says.
This puts time back in our day. Even with our business growing, we haven’t needed to hire more people.
Next steps include pushing extracted metadata into Salesforce for cleaner underwriting data hygiene, creating Box Hubs for onboarding and intern ramp-up, and expanding Box Doc Gen and Box Sign to streamline document lifecycle and signatures.
Barnett Capital’s story offers valuable lessons for any company looking to modernize its processes without sacrificing quality or control. The right technology partnerships can unlock tremendous value, putting time back in your day and empowering your team to focus on what matters most.
To learn more about how Barnett Capital works with Box watch the video of the conversation with Dan Nikolich:
