My borrower just sent over a signed term sheet from another lender to push my rate down

If his ARV is off by $15k your LTC just got less comfortable and 11.75 is already the concession.

The move I'd make here is go back through your own comp pulls and pin down that ARV gap before you decide anything about the rate. If you're at $420k and he's working off $435k, your real LTC is closer to 76-77 percent on a deal where the renovation scope could easily bleed. Kitchen and both baths in Raleigh can run $65k-$70k if anything opens up in the walls, and a $10k overrun on a $55k budget is not rare. The 11.75 with 2 points is reasonable if the numbers hold, but I wouldn't finalize without pulling your own comps from the last 90 days in that specific submarket, not the broader Raleigh market. The thing I'd want to know before I moved is who the regional shop is, because some of these regional hard money lenders in the Carolinas are doing aggressive volume plays right now and they're not always pricing risk correctly.

What's the other lender's draw schedule on that $55k reno budget?

If his ARV is genuinely $15k high, your real LTV is closer to 79 percent on a Raleigh duplex mid-rehab.