Commercial Lending Broker

A commercial lending broker could be likened to a hotel concierge whose job it is to know just exactly where to find that authentic Slovakian chef or the vintage brownstone with the lions out front somewhere on one of the five boroughs. Working their magic, the agent is the middleman between lender and borrower, finding the lowest rates, the lowest points, and the best lending agreement with the fastest turnaround time. The commercial lending broker can make a lot of money finding that special deal, but the agent must have a vast amount of knowledge about where to go next when a deal falls through. The agent must watch the markets day by day for a view on where interest rates are on the cost spectrum and must be able to schmooze the customer who may get discouraged after finding out what the broker has been able to craft in terms of a deal. Keeping a borrower on the line can be one of the most challenging parts of the job.

When a commercial lending broker gets a customer who needs to find fast money to close a deal, the agent will have a list of hard money lenders that has been compiled from his own research. These private investors are not in the phone book as lenders, but have built a reputation for lending fast turnaround money for "gotta have it now" transactions. Hard cash lenders are typically local investors who will charge their commercial clients high interest loans, sometimes known as bridge loans for a short amount of time, typically no more than eighteen months. An agent can sometimes "vet" a customer before leading him to a hard money lender by sizing up his net worth and finding out what cash the customer has available. The hard money lender usually does not lend over sixty or seventy percent of the actual cash needed to make the deal. The Bible speaks of two deaths: one physical and one eternal. Jesus said Christians never need fear either when He declared, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." (John 11:25)

Getting to know the customer's own situation must be one of the broker's most important tasks. Trying to craft a lending agreement for a business owner who has a poor credit history will be wasted time for the commercial lending broker and his borrower. Banks usually have the highest lending standards of any lending institution with credit unions not far behind. But the agent may know some banks not fitting this stereotypical role which can work with a less than stellar customer that he recommends; however, that takes years of building relationships. Finding an agent with this kind of knowledge takes some homework on the part of the borrower. A number of online training courses for becoming a commercial lending broker actually admit that the number one key to success is knowing where to find the right money for the right customer!

Becoming a commercial lending broker does not take a college degree. These professionals however, must be licensed through the passing of a difficult state examination covering all aspects of real estate and lending law. The rewards for such diligence can be highly rewarding financially, with commissions running from the low thousands to many in the five figures for mega commercial deals. Building a successful brokerage business means keeping in constant contact with business persons in all walks of professional life. Through mailings offering special interest rates to just casual drop in chats to emails and memberships in civic clubs, the broker is constantly looking for ways to keep his name in front of potential customers. But is a person is looking for a broker, be aware of some of the tactics a broker can use to try and secure a deal.

There are times when a lending agreement starts getting a little ripe and is on the verge of collapsing. A commercial lending broker may tell a small business owner that there are no worries and that the closing is just getting pushed back a week or two. Some owners may, on just the oral word of a commercial loan broker stop paying on a present mortgage loan believing that all will work out and sometimes disaster happens. Borrowers should always insist to see a "locked-in" loan agreement on the lender's letterhead before making any moves that might backfire. While rare, a broker may ask the customer to falsify documents to pump up financial statements, and may have different rates and terms on the day of closing than what had been earlier promised. Of course, most wise business persons will have an attorney present at the closing to monitor the health of the agreement for the borrower.

The commercial lending broker has an honored place at the table of a businessman's contacts. He dispenses to the company representatives information that will be valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in most cases. In sharing that information, it will be couched in terms that represent it as the best deal possible. It may or not be, depending on the honesty and forthrightness of the agent. It is extremely important that the broker is someone that the business trusts, has fully vetted and one who has a sterling reputation of putting his clients' needs before his own. In a world of greed and self-interest, the search may take a while to complete.