We enable our clients to achieve their goals efficiently and effectively.
Commercial Lending Group, Inc. acts as your professional mortgage consultant and manages every detail of the loan process. We provide our clients with the most current market and lender information to ensure the best terms and rates for our clients. We deliver superior results for our clients and have earned an excellent reputation in the industry, as well as the trust and confidence of borrowers and lenders nationwide.
1. Conversation
This is the single most important, yet often overlooked, part of the lending process. We begin every loan by talking with our clients about not only their initial request, but also their goals and objectives. Their answers help us navigate them to the right lenders and programs quickly. There is no sense working for the long-term fixed rate, high prepayment penalty for a client when their actual intent is to hold the property for 2-3 years.
The end of the process is the last place you want these items uncovered. We take the time up front to get to know our clients and their needs before looking at options. Doing this work up front saves time, energy, and most importantly, frustration. In our experience, it’s also the place most lenders fail. Ready to get started?
2. Data Collection
Once we have established what our clients are looking for, we move on to collection property and personal data. For the property, all lenders need operating history, current rent rolls, and description of improvements. On the borrower side, lenders need personal financial statements showing assets and liabilities along with personal tax returns. That information builds the case that the borrower is strong enough to support the loan request.
It is also during this part of the process when we can assess and work on any weak spots that need addressing before lender submission. This is another area many lenders and brokers fail! They don’t review information before submission. If there are weak spots or areas which need explanation, much better to have that with the information instead of having an underwriter find it as that in our experience gets underwriters to start looking for other faults. If there’s a wart in the file, better to get out in front of it and work through it.
3. Submission
That leads to the next step which is submission to the lender of choice to obtain a formal offer (Term Sheet or Letter of Interest) with the specific terms for the loan requested. During that part of the process, additional information or clarification may be requested from the letter in order for them to be comfortable proceeding.
However, at the end of that, the lender will issue an offer specific to the property. If the terms are acceptable, the offer is signed and a deposit sent to the lender to cover the reports they will need – typically an MAI appraisal, Property Condition Assessment (PCA) and/or a Level 1 Environmental Report.
4. Packaging
Once we have the term sheet in hand and the reports have been ordered, the file gets turned over to processing. In our office, the processor completes the loan package the lender needs for their underwriter and credit authorities to approve the loan. That process typically involves completing lender specific forms and collecting additional information their team requests for the final package. Often times it is during this part of the process snags can occur if the data is not reviewed before submission. As mentioned above, careful review of that information allows us to spot inconsistencies, omissions, or just flat out mistakes which can be addressed prior to forwarding to the lender. In most cases, those issues are not material, but could cause an underwriter to ask more questions than necessary and slow the entire process.
5. Closing
When the completed package has been fully underwritten and approved, a formal loan commitment is issued by the lender. Rather than pass the commitment directly to the borrower, we review the commitment ensuring that all the terms from the original Term Sheet have been met. We also look for specific closing conditions which need to be sorted and dealt with prior to loan documents being issued. Once the commitment and conditions have been checked, we forward the commitment to the borrower. In most cases, we then have a quick discussion with the borrower to review the basics of the commitment and what’s needed in order to obtain the final loan documents and move the file to closing. It is during this phase of the process we – or any good mortgage broker – works with escrow coordinating document signing (generally done with mobile notaries) and begin working on the final escrow settlement statement. In addition, we work to ensure the loan documents are accurate and consistent with the loan commitment. Surprisingly that is not always the case and from time to time mistakes are caught helping to avoid closing complication
6. Post-Closing
After the loan has closed, we make it a practice to maintain a copy of the loan documents in our system in the event the borrower has questions down the road. In addition, most lenders do not automatically provide a copy of appraisals and property condition reports. We request those directly from the lender and forward them to our clients. While not necessarily the easiest to read, they do provide useful information regarding the property and the valuation.
In addition, as we maintain relationships with all our clients, we from time to time can assist when questions arise with their lender on issues such as annual reporting requirements, deposits, or impound accounts.
The sections above represent the general course of the loan process. While there are variations given the complexity of commercial loans, these steps should provide a reliable basis as you work through the lending process. As always, independent of an actual loan request, please feel free to contact us with any questions. We are happy to assist in any way we can.
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Commercial Lending Group, Inc. is a volume leader in the commercial lending brokerage business, priding ourselves on serving commercial investors with expertise gained over our combined 50+ years of experience.
