Emphasis mine.

There seems to be a general sense that all deals have equal risk and as such much emphasis is placed on returns.

Being that its a commercial loan there is much more emphasis on the income/expenses as opposed to what other properties are selling for in the area. 

When I personally value businesses, I put most of the emphasis on cash flow rather than revenue.

Its one thing to have competitive pricing and a high degree of service, but I can definitely relate with what Bill mentioned above.When I feel a borrower is highly "transactional," and non relationship oriented I will let my team know to not put too much emphasis on the file because at the end of the day the team and staff have salaries and costs that have been allocated from the bank.As a loan officer for a bank we're rated on our profitability to the company.

I've spoken to a number of conventional hard money lenders in my area who used to rely strictly on value, and now are putting more emphasis on other soft criteria.

(I don't) HML is a counter to that concept in that typically HML puts strong emphasis on the underlying property and less on the emphasis on the borrower, this brings a bit more risk.When we speak to investors who seek exposure to this asset class, we proceed from the investor backwards.

Very generically speaking, larger buildings usually come with increased barriers to entry such as more capital (or the need for partnering-which can be very good or very bad), an increased emphasis on your past "experience" as an investor, more complex asset management (especially if you are talking about something that is both REI and a business like Self Storage or other commercial endeavors).

I used to put emphasis on looking for someone with good employment history(minimum 1yr), tell them that I'll do a credit check and how I'd look for references from non-relatives i.e. their previous landlord(s) would be contacted.

If they have counsel, that will probably be your cheapest option, since you will only have to pay for time.If that isn't an option, different firms charge differently, and firms with a heavy real estate emphasis may streamline the process and reduce the payment.