Commercial Loans and Fun Blog

Is Extend and Pretend Finally Over?

It is very rare for a commercial lender to make a fully-amortized commercial loan. Most commercial real estate loans are amortized over 20 to 25 years, and they have a large balloon payment due after either five or ten years.

When Lehman Brothers collapsed in September of 2008, the market for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) also collapsed. At its peak, over half of all commercial real estate loans (by dollar volume) were originated by conduits to enter the pipeline to become commercial mortgage-backed securities. Then, without warning, "Boom!" (as John Madden might say) the entire CMBS industry suddenly disappeared.

Not surprisingly, since September of 2008, it has become far, far more difficult for borrowers to refinance their ballooning commercial mortgage loans. Rather than force their borrowers into foreclosure and bankruptcy, the securitization trusts and commercial banks, which own most of these maturing commercial real estate loans, have been either extending their loans or patiently forbearing from filing foreclosure.

This industry-wide practice has become know as extend and pretend or delay and pray.

The "pretend" part of that phrase acknowledges the reality that a vast number, if not a majority, of all commercial real estate loans are greatly over-leveraged. Suppose a five-year commercial real estate loan was written in late 2004 at 75% loan-to-value. Commercial property values since 2004 have probably fallen in the neighborhood of 35%. This ballooning loan has therefore probably soared from 75% LTV to around 113% loan-to-value.

As long as the borrower keeps making his monthly payments, however, commercial real estate lenders across the country have been extending their loans and pretending as if these loans were still adequately secured.

Is this a crazy strategy for the commercial banks? No. This is a perfectly rational decision. The same thing happened to Blackburne & Brown, our hard money commercial lending company, during the commercial real estate smash-up in California in 1991. For years we had made first mortgages on commercial real estate up to 65% loan-to-value. When commercial real estate values in California fell by 45%, two-thirds of our commercial loan portfolio was upside down. Our borrowers owed more on the property than the commercial real estate was worth.

Nevertheless, most of our commercial real estate borrowers just continued to make their payments. By 1994 commercial real estate values had recovered, and our most of our commercial loans were back to being right-side up. No one should find this terribly surprising. Poor people don't own commercial real estate. Rich people do. And most of these wealthy commercial borrowers could afford to just keep making the payments. Therefore I have no disagreement with those securitization trusts and commercial banks who have elected to extend and pretend or delay and pray.

However, the commercial loan officers at Blackburne & Brown are starting to report that more and more banks are finally demanding that their commercial real estate borrowers pay off their ballooning commercial real estate loans. They will extend and pretend no longer.

Suppose one of your commercial borrowers has a ballooning commercial real estate loan of $750,000 but he can only qualify for a $600,000 refinance.  Blackburne & Brown Equity Preservation Fund may be able to help. The Fund will invest $150,000 in your borrower's property and pay down his ballooning loan from $750,000 to $600,000. In return, the fund will take a share of the ownership of the property. Your borrower will still run the property.

Got a commercial real estate deal where you need equity? Please email E.J. Ridings at ejridings@gmail.com.

It Has Never Has It Been Harder to Close a Commercial Loan

A buddy of mine recently sent me an interesting email that says it all about placing commercial loans today.

George,

... The markets have been turned upside down. There is a real disconnect today with what the borrowers want and think they can get and what they can realistically can get from the lending community.

We just funded a $6.5 million loan for a self-storage project at a 6.95% rate for ten years. The borrower wanted a NON-recourse loan. While there were several hundred lenders in that market for that product 18 months ago, today there are none. The exception, the life companies, are at 55% LTV. Our deal was 61% LTV without 12 months of stabilized income. The life companies would not even take a hard look at the deal. The borrower was VERY well qualified, with lots of cash and a great financial statement.

We went to over 120 lenders who would make a loan on this property type in So Cal and found only ONE who would do the deal. The deal closed, and the lender has now eliminated self-storage as a product they will lend on.

Borrowers in most cases are still not realistic about what they will accept vs. the market. There is no 100% financing. The borrower must have 25% to 35% equity in the deals today. For refi's the borrower must have a DSCR of at least !.25:1, and even Fannie Mae wants 1.20:1 for apartments. And FNMA has a new requirement that they want you to own at least four multi-family projects, or have owned that total (in the past), if they are to consider you for a loan ...

R. H. Adams

This mortgage broker had to submit his commercial loan to 120 different commercial lenders before finding the one commercial lender who would do the deal. He didn't quit. To his credit, he pushed on and on until he found a home for the deal. You will probably have to do the same with your own commercial loans.

I have often said, "Sometimes placing a commercial loan is as difficult as finding a wife for your best friend. You can set him up with a lovely girl that is the right age, the right size, the right level of beauty, and the right religion ... and still there is just no chemistry or fireworks. All you can do is keep setting your friend up with new ladies. It becomes a numbers game."

So if you are trying to place a commercial loan with a bank or a life insurance company today, you may have to submit your commercial loan to 50 to 100 commercial lenders ... until you find just the right chemistry.

A Hypothecation is a Loan Against a Commercial Loan

Suppose a wealthy commercial real estate investor owns a commercial building free and clear. A potential buyer makes a good offer on the commercial building, subject to obtaining a new commercial mortgage loan at 7% from his bank for 75% of the purchase price. The wealthy commercial property owner accepts the offer.

Unfortunately the commercial lending world is in turmoil right now. Banks are afraid to make new commercial loans for more than around 62% loan-to-value. The bank turns down our borrower's 75% LTV commercial loan application, and the deal looks like it is going to fall apart.

Then the commercial real estate broker has an idea. He convinces the wealthy owner to carry back a commercial loan for 75% of the purchase price at 7% interest. After all, the wealthy investor owns the commercial building free and clear. The buyer puts down 25% of the purchase price in cash, and the deal closes.

Now let's scroll forward four years. The stock market has tanked, and the wealthy investor is not so wealthy anymore. He has lost 70% of his stock investments, and now he desperately needs cash to fix up an empty office building that he owns.

He takes his $750,000 first mortgage note that he owns to a number of commercial mortgage companies that specialize in discounting commercial notes. (By the way, if you ever want to sell a commercial note at a discount, please call me, George Blackburne, at 574-360-2486.)

Because his commercial loan has a 27-year remaining term and the note rate is only 7%, he learns that he will have to discount it by close to 28 points in order to sell it. He would have to give up over $200,000 if he tried to sell his note at a discount; and he really only needs the money for about 18 months. He is going to use the money to pay for the tenant improvements on his vacant office building. Once the new tenants move in, he'll be able to easily refinance the building and pull out lots of dough.

The investor therefore calls his clever commercial real estate broker, and the broker tells him to just hypothecate his first mortgage note. A hypothecation is a loan secured by a mortgage receivable. It's a loan secured by a loan.  In this case, the investor will be pledging his $750,000 first mortgage note as security for a new hypothecation loan of $500,000.

The advantage of hypothecation loan, compared to selling a mortgage receivable at a discount, is that the investor won't have to discount his perfectly performing first mortgage note by over $200,000. He'll just pay a modest 3 point loan fee on the new, smaller $500,000 loan. The interest rate on the hypothecation, typically around 12%, is admittedly higher than what a bank would charge for a new commercial loan, but banks are not really lending right now. In addition, our investor really only needs to borrow the money for about 18 months, until his new tenants move into his vacant office building and he refinances the building. It's far better to pay 12% on $500,000 for 18 months than to suffer a $200,000+ discount if he tries to sell his commercial loan.

If you own a commercial first mortgage note that you would like to either hypothecate or sell, please call me, George Blackburne, at 574-360-2486.

Here Are Some Quick Valuation Methods Used By Commercial Real Estate Brokers and Appraisers

Suppose you are a commercial loan broker or commercial mortgage banker. A commercial borrower comes to you and applies for a multifamily loan on his 32-unit apartment building. He absolutely needs $3 million in apartment financing. Is his commercial loan request reasonable, or is he wasting your time?

If you knew approximately how much his apartment building was worth, you could quickly check the loan-to-value ratio to make sure that it didn't exceed 75%. Few multifamily lenders, other than Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA, will make apartment loans in excess of 75% LTV today.

One quick technique is the Gross Rent Multiplier. Take the annual rent of the apartment project and multiply it by the typical multiplier for your area. For example, suppose the annual gross rents for this project are $500,000 (about $1,300 per month per unit). If apartment buildings in this area are selling for a Gross Rent Multiplier of between 7 and 9 and the project is just of average quality, you might multiply $500,000 by 8 to give you a rough estimate of value of $4 million. A loan request of $3 million versus a $4 million value (75% LTV) is about the maximum loan amount that the borrower could hope to get.

Another technique is a market approach to valuation called the Price Per Unit. Suppose comparable apartment projects in this area are selling for $90,000 to $130,000 per unit. Because the subject apartment building is average and it is located in an average area of town, you might choose to use $110,000 per unit.  Thirty-two units times $110,000 per unit gives you an estimated value of around $3.52 million. Gee, a $3 million loan against a $3.52 million property isn't looking too promising. If you're busy, maybe you don't take on this loan, especially if the borrower absolutely must get $3 million.

"But, George, my office is located in Billings, Montana. I don't have a clue how much apartment buildings are selling for per unit in Atlanta, Georgia."

Here's a trick. The commercial brokerage firm of Marcus & Millichap (marcusmillichap.com) is well-known for refusing to take listings on over-valued multifamily properties. In other words, if the market value of an apartment building is $3 million, they won't list the building for $4 million.  So go to their web site, find some nearby and comparable apartment buildings, and determine the listing price per unit. Then you should probably reduce the price per unit by 7% to 10% to get a rough estimate of the market.  You can do the same thing using LoopNet.com.

Another commercial property valuation technique, the Capitalization Method, could be used to value the multifamily property. Suppose the borrower hands you a fact sheet containing a reasonable looking pro forma operating statement. If you knew that apartment buildings were selling in that area for 5.75% to 6.75% cap rates, you could merely divide the NOI by the cap rate to arrive at a rough estimate of the value of the building. For example, suppose the borrower provides you with a reasonable-looking pro forma perating statement. According to his own numbers, his NOI is just $220,000 per year. If you divide $220,000 in net operating income by an estimated market cap rate of 6.25%, you'll get around $3.5 million.

This borrower is probably hosed. He has a $3 million ballooning loan, and yet the building is only worth around $3.5 million. Unless this guy can bring another $400,000 in equity to the closing table, he may end up losing the apartment building in foreclosure. His best bet is to plead with the lender for an extension or a loan modification. By quickly valuing the property, you may have saved yourself a lot of wasted effort.

If you need a loan on apartment building, you can apply to 750 commercial lenders in just four minutes using C-Loans.com.

Comments at a Recent Banking Conference

“Last week, I hosted a meeting of mortgage lenders,” continued last night’s emcee. “They got together all the mortgage lenders in Britain who are still in business. I felt sorry for the guy. All alone…

“Today, a guy goes into a bank and he says… ‘I’d like to talk to you about a loan…’ and the banker says to him, ‘Great…how much can you lend us?’

Interesting Report from National Mortgage News Online

No one can be terribly surprised that the other shoe has finally fallen.  According to a June 22nd report from National Mortgage News Online:

Commercial Real Estate Prices Fall 8.6% in April

Commercial real estate prices as measured by Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices decreased 8.6% in April, leaving the index at 25.3% below its level a year ago and 29.5% below the peak in prices measured in October 2007.

According to Moody's, the large negative return for April likely reflects that deals closed during that month were negotiated at the end of 2008 and in the first quarter of 2009, when securities markets and overall sentiment were plunging. "The size of April's decline, following a 5.5% decline in January, also suggests that sellers are beginning to capitulate to the realities of commercial real estate markets," says Moody's managing director Nick Levidy.

The South has been the worst performing region over the last year, with an annual decline of more than 20%. Commercial real estate has performed worse in Southern California than in the Western region as a whole. In Southern California, the office market has been the worst performer, with prices dropping 22.2% in the last year.

Just Learned an Interesting New Term of Art - Lien Clearing

As a hard money commercial lender, Blackburne & Brown has to foreclose on about ten to fifteen commercial properties every year. Contrary to what you may think, we never make money when we foreclose on property - never. I wish we didn't have to do it, but it's a necessary evil in this industry.

After foreclosing on ten to fifteen properties every year for the past twenty-five years, I have noticed an interesting fact. Hardly no one ever bids at commercial foreclosure sales. We have sold a commercial property at a foreclosure sale just once in twenty-five years.

Therefore, if you are the holder of a junior lien on a commercial property that goes to a foreclosure sale by the first mortgage ... well, you're toast. No one is going to over-bid the amount of the first mortgage. You will almost surely be wiped out by the foreclosure.

This week we foreclosed on an office in the foothills of the Sierras. It's a beautiful building. There was a $2 million second mortgage behind our $3.3 million first mortgage, and this second mortgage loan was completely wiped out.

We also wiped out a $350,000 mechanics lien that was junior to our loan.

As we prepared for the foreclosure, one of our attorneys used an interesting term: lien-clearing. Our successful foreclosure cleared off the title to the property and left us owning the property free and clear of any competing claims for the property.

The junior lienholders, in my opinion, made a fatal error when they failed to cure our senior loan. The second mortgage holder and the mechanics lien holder should have banded together and each chipped in enough dough to payoff our first mortgage.

Instead, they went to the foreclosure sale hoping that someone would over-bid our first mortgage. In real life, this never happens.

Just Bought a Discounted Note That Was Originated By an Investment Bank

When the secondary market for commercial loans suddenly disappeared in late 2007, a great many banks, investment banks, and mortgage bankers were caught with unsold commercial mortgage loans on their lines of credit. Many of these commercial lenders are now anxious to get the commercial loans off their books.

Blackburne & Brown, our hard money commercial lending company, just syndicated today a group of private investors to buy a commercial mortgage note at a discount. The loan was originally made at 7.35%, and we bought it to yield approximately 12.75%. We sold it out to our hungry network of private investors in just one afternoon.

Would you please let me know if your bank or your commercial mortgage company has any commercial first mortgage loans for sale at a discount? You can reach me, George Blackburne, at 574-360-2486 or at george@blackburne.com

The Rent Might Not Be What the Borrower is Representing

Suppose you're a commercial lender, and you foreclose on commercial building. The good news is that the building still has a tenant. According to the lease in your commercial loan file, the tenant is obligated to pay $10,000 per month. Hooray.

Now the bad news. The tenant advises you that the lease in your commercial loan file is fraudulent. In order to obtain commercial financing, the borrower submitted a dummy lease. The tenant's signature on the dummy lease was forged. The real rent is only $2,700 per month! Ouch.

Okay, what did the lender do wrong? The commercial lender should have obtained an estoppel agreement from the tenant before making his loan.

What on earth does estoppel mean anyway? Estoppel is a a rule of evidence whereby a person is barred from denying the truth of a fact that has already been settled. To understand this definition, let's take a look at our current situation.

Suppose we had sent an Estoppel Agreement to the tenant that said that the rent was $10,000 per month, the lease was still in force, the lease still had ten years to run, and the landlord had performed all of his required duties under the lease. If the tenant had signed the Estoppel Agreement, agreeing that the lease terms described in the Estoppel Agreement were the actual lease terms, then the tenant would have been bound by the fraudulent lease terms, rather than the terms of the true lease.

The lack of prepaid rent is another item that needs to be addressed in the estoppel agreement. Suppose the tenant recorded his lease, so the lease was senior to the mortgage. Right before the commercial property owner loses the property in foreclosure, the owner approaches the tenant and say, "Say, I'm in a cash crunch.  You owe me $100,000 in rent for the rest of the year. I will reduce my rent to just $60,000 if you prepay it now." The tenant would be sorely tempted to accept that offer.

If the commercial lender then foreclosed, the commercial lender would be forced to honor the deal made by the prior owner, even if the former commercial property owner took the $60,000 and spent it on cocaine for his trashy girlfriend.

This is one of the reasons why commercial lenders do not like to be subordinate to recorded commercial leases.

Need a commercial loan? You can apply to hundreds of commercial lenders in just four minutes using C-Loans.com. And C-Loans is free!

What on Earth Does Attornment Mean?

Suppose ABC Rent-a-Car wants to build a commercial building on a specific, high-traffic-count lot in the City.  ABC Rent-a-Car offers to buy the land from the property owner, but the commercial property owner wants to leave this valuable commercial lot to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He refuses to sell.

The commercial property owner, however, is willing to lease the land to ABC Rent-a-Car on a long term basis. ABC Rent-a-Car tries to negotiate a lease of the land for 99 years, the longest term allowed by law. Had the commercial property owner unwisely leased the land to the car rental company for 100 years, the courts would have ruled that this lease was in fact an installment sale! Title to the property would pass to the car rental company. The maximum term of a land lease is 99 years.

The old man, however, refuses to lease the bare commercial land for longer than 75 years, which the car rental company decides is sufficient. The parties execute a land lease for 75 years at an amount that pays the old man a return of about 8% annually on the value of the land, with a cost of living escalator every five years. This would be a very typical deal.

The rental car company, however, insists on a land lease clause requiring any future lender to sign a Subordination, Non-Disturbance and Attornment Agreement. After all, it's only fair. The rental car company is going to spend $800,000 constructing a building on the property at the rental car company's own expense.

What a deal! The property owner gets $40,000 a year triple-net rent on his land lease AND when the lease expires, both the land and the building revert back to his heirs. (I recently ran across a wealthy family trust that has the land lease on an entire city block on Michigan Avenue - the hottest shopping strip - in Chicago. The land lessees built skyscrapers all along that block, and these skyscapers are poised to revert back to the grandchildren of the trust settlor after 99 years. Holy Smackeral! We're talking about a billion dollars worth of buildings!)

Okay, let's scroll forward about ten years. Suddenly the old man is in need of some dough. Maybe he just got a young, new wife. He takes his land lease to the bank and pledges it to the bank for a $500,000 loan. When the bank pulls a title commitment (preliminary report), they find out that ABC Rent-a-Car has recorded their land lease against the title. The bank contacts the attorney for the rental car company and says, "Hey, we want to record our mortgage against the property, and we have to be in first position. We please need for you to subordinate your land lease to our mortgage."

Counsel for the car rental company then responds, "Okay, we'll agree to subordinate, as long as you sign our Subordination, Non-Disturbance and Attornment Agreement." The attorney exchange documents and cut a deal. The new first mortgage is recorded, and the car rental company subordinates it's land lease.

The old man's new wife ends up being a spendthrift and drives him into bankruptcy. The bank forecloses on the property, which is now improved with a gleaming, modern automotive center. The REO property manager for the bank contacts ABC Rent-a-Car and tells them, "Hey, our foreclosure just cut off your lease. You were paying only $40,000 per year for this beautiful facility, but the fair market rent for the property is now at least $100,000 per year. You'll have to start paying us $100,000 per year if you want to continue to rent the property."

"Not so fast, Bucko," replies the attorney for the car rental company. Please check the Subordination, Non-Disturbance and Attornment Agreement that your bank executed. Under the terms of that agreement, your bank promised not to disturb our existing lease if you foreclosed. Now that you have completed the foreclosure, we certainly agree to attorn. Attornment is a word from feudal times that means acknowledging a new lord. In this case, the rental car company acknowledges that all future rent is owned to the new landlord, in this case the bank.

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