Use These 4 Tips To Determine If Your Commercial Mortgage Lender Is On The Level

Not properly vetting a commercial mortgage lender can quickly get your company into hot water. Research and careful evaluation separates true professionals from pretenders.

Any business deal can go under when a partner comes into the deal in bad faith. It is extremely important for your company to to research, evaluate and vet each professional you work with before moving forward on an expensive real estate project. This includes the person responsible for providing your company with the capital needed to fund the real estate investment in the first place.

For example, an unscrupulous lender may provide your company with advice that exposes the borrower to more risk while helping their own bottom line. In other scenarios, an incompetent lender may provide your company with bad information about the market, leading to your company making a critical error in investment strategy. Want some tips to make sure your company doesn’t get stuck working with a subpar lender? The following tips are a big help.

1. Trust Informal Interactions – A gut feeling goes a long way when it comes to evaluating a commercial mortgage lender. Let small interactions, like inappropriate tone in email or seemingly toxic internal communications, speak volumes. Better to judge a book by its cover than to discover that members of your commercial lending team have some serious personality problems.

2. Review Customer Feedback – Thanks to the Internet, consumers have more weapons in their pockets than ever before. The same goes for organizations searching for a top tier commercial real estate loan. Better Business Bureau and other online customer review portals clue you into the lending institutions your company is better off avoiding.

3. Pick Their Brain – Most lenders keep lots of information handy on their website or may try to guide customers via simplified handouts or presentations. A lender’s ability to regurgitate information, however, does not reflect his or her ability to problem solve on the fly or keep their cool in a high-pressure situation. That’s why it pays to push lenders out of their comfort zone. Ask them a few what-if scenarios and see how they respond. Those that respond with hesitation and half-answers are less likely to be the lender you’re looking to work with.

4. Shop Their Offer – Think a lender’s offer is too good to be true? Maybe you think the opposite and are convinced that you could get better terms from another financial partner. Put it to the test. There’s nothing that says you have to bite on every loan offer that’s given to you. Find out how long a lender will lock discussed loan terms and take the time to shop around. Consider lenders who appear aggressively resistant to the idea of you comparing terms as having already showed their hand.

Partnering With A Proven Lender Makes The Difference For A Commercial Mortgage
Members of your company will feel that much more confident about a major real estate investment when working with an experienced, trusted lender.

Any professional lender worth their salt will be happy to show off their experience via their portfolio.

Tired of managing personalities at a traditional lending institution like a bank? Consider a new approach by working with a friendly, helpful private lender to get your commercial mortgage.

Dennis Dahlberg
Broker/RI/CEO/MLO
Level 4 Funding LLC Private Hard Money Lender
Arizona Tel: (623) 582-4444
Texas Tel: (512) 516-1177
Dennis@level4funding.com NMLS 1057378 | AZMB 0923961 | MLO 1057378
22601 N 19th Ave Suite 112 | Phoenix | AZ | 85027
111 Congress Ave |Austin | Texas | 78701

About the Author: Dennis has been working in the real estate industry in some capacity for the last 40 years. He purchased his first property when he was just 18 years old. He quickly learned about the amazing investment opportunities provided by trust deed investing and hard money loans. His desire to help others make money in real estate investing led him to specialize in alternative funding for real estate investors who may have trouble getting a traditional bank loan. Dennis is passionate about alternative funding sources and sharing his knowledge with others to help make their dreams come true. Dennis has been married to his wonderful wife for 42 years. They have 2 beautiful daughters 5 amazing grandchildren. Dennis has been an Arizona resident for the past 40 years.