Commercial Loans and Fun Blog

office building for sale.jpg First of all, let's get our terminology correct. A commercial broker is NOT a commercial loan broker. A commercial broker is a commercial real estate broker - a guy who helps investors buy, sell, and lease out commercial properties. You see their signs on commercial buildings all over town.

A second thing is that, by custom, sales agents working for commercial real estate brokers call themselves "commercial brokers", even though they are not brokers themselves and the brokerage license is held by their boss. It's just the custom and practice in the industry.

Now, in a recent blog article, I wrote that commercial loan brokers should advertise heavily to bankers for their turndowns. In fact, I said that sixty percent of the contacts on a commercial mortgage broker's mailing list should be bankers. Why? Because the first place that most borrowers call when seeking a new commercial loan is their own bank. Since the typical commercial estate loan officer working for a bank is a sleepy, fifty-year-old guy on salary - a guy who often has little appetite to make more commercial loans - the typical bank loan officer turns down a TON of commercial loan applicants. The loan is too big, too small, too far away, or the wrong type of property.

By the way, if you should meet a banker making commercial loans, be sure to do a swap with me and get a fee commercial mortgage marketing course or a free list of 750 commercial lenders. And guys, this is an Honor System swap, so please don't cheat. The banker has to work for a FDIC-insured bank or a NCUSIF-insured credit union. A bunch of uneducated guys have inserted their own names, when they are just commercial loan agents. Grrrrr. C'mon, guys, its an Honor System. Honesty applies to people of all colors and creeds.

Are you an ambitious, new commercial mortgage broker with a hunger to learn? Get me seven legitimate bankers, and I'll send you your choice of my nine-hour commercial mortgage brokerage course, my course on becoming a hard money broker, or my wonderful practice course for commercial mortgage brokers with with one to three years of experience. This is a special deal for the first five guys only. Please send your lists to george@blackburne.com.

Okay, now back to commercial brokers. The typical commercial broker has as his clients thirty or more commercial real estate investors. Many of these investors own multiple commercial properties. The good news for commercial loan brokers is that most commercial loans have a balloon coming due every five to ten years. This means that the typical commercial broker will have several investor clients in need of a commercial refinance every year. If you cultivate a relationship with this commercial broker, he should be good for several loans every year. Feel free to pay your commercial brokers a referral fee. Referral fees on commercial loans are perfectly legal.

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Now we have finally reached the biggest point of today's training article. Most successful commercial brokers own commercial property themselves. When you market to them for their referrals, they will sometimes need a commercial loan of their own. It's a two-for-one special.

Commercial real estate brokers are a great source of leads for commercial loans. They call themselves "commercial brokers", even though a particular commercial broker may only have a real estate salesman's license, as opposed to an actual broker's license.

The typical commercial broker will have a dozen or so core clients. These are wealthy real estate investors who each might own three to six commercial kellerwilliams properties. Since most commercial real estate loans have a balloon payment every five to ten years, these 12 core real estate investors will have balloon payments coming due on a regular basis.

The typical commercial broker handles many duties for his core clients, often including helping them refinance their ballooning commercial loans. Since he seldom earns a fee for helping his clients place their commercial loans, the typical commercial broker is very receptive to solicitations from commercial mortgage brokers. He views a commercial mortgage broker as someone who is going to reduce his work load.

While many residential brokers treat mortgage brokers like dog poop, commercial brokers treat mortgage brokers like dear friends. This courtesy extends all the way to the receptionist. If you call the receptionist of a commercial brokerage company, she will often and cheerfully provide you with a list of all of the brokers in the office and their email addresses!

It's therefore easy to build as huge email list of commercial brokers in your city. Simply look for realty signs on commercial buildings that read, "For Lease" or "For Sale". Dictate the phone number of these commercial realty offices into the tape recorder application on your smart phone. Then, when you get back to the office, simply call the receptionist and ask her to please email you a list of the brokers in the office.