--- title: What Types of Lenders Are Making Commercial Loans?  Part 1 description: What commercial lenders offer the lowest commercial loan interest rates? Who is the next cheapest lender making commercial loans? image: https://info.c-loans.com/hubfs/Financial%20district.jpg --- [![c-loans-logo-2025](https://info.c-loans.com/hs-fs/hubfs/images/c-loans-logo-2025.png?width=183&height=86&name=c-loans-logo-2025.png)](https://c-loans.com) [Terms of Use](https://www.c-loans.com/terms-of-use) | [Disclaimer](https://www.c-loans.com/disclaimer) | [Blog](https://info.c-loans.com/) # Commercial Loans and Fun Blog ## [What Types of Lenders Are Making Commercial Loans?  Part 1](https://info.c-loans.com/what-types-of-lenders-are-making-commercial-loans-part-1) Posted by [George Blackburne](https://info.c-loans.com/author/george-blackburne) on Tue, Mar 19, 2019 - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) ![Financial district](https://info.c-loans.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Financial%20district.jpg?width=275&name=Financial%20district.jpg)Twenty years ago, if you wanted a commercial loan, you might have applied to a savings and loan association, a thrift and loan association, or even a credit company.  None of these company types are making many commercial loans today; so I am not even going to bother to describe them.  They have gone the way of the buffalo. All new commercial lenders have entered the commercial loan market.  I will describe each type of commercial lender active in the market today, starting with the ones with the lowest interest rates. [![Free Commercial Loan Placement Kit](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/882eb54a-a8b4-4c38-a2ed-605338b6f07a.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/882eb54a-a8b4-4c38-a2ed-605338b6f07a)   ![Beep Beep ](https://info.c-loans.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Beep%20Beep%20.jpg?width=417&name=Beep%20Beep%20.jpg)   [![Earn 25.4% Annual Yield - Attorney Sponsor in Business For 39 years](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/83629e8e-4f46-48e8-9054-cdef870f79a3.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/83629e8e-4f46-48e8-9054-cdef870f79a3)   **Life Companies:** The term, ***life company***, is short for life insurance company.  For the last 50 years, life companies have always offered the absolute lowest commercial loan interest rates. Life companies offer ***fixed*** interest rates for up to ten years at rates as low as 175 to 200 basis points (1.75% to 2%) over [ten-year Treasuries](https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=US10Y).  That's the good news about life companies.  The bad news is that life companies do not lend to mortals like you and me. In order the qualify for a commercial loan from a life company, the loan must usually be larger than $5 million, the property must usually be less than ten years old, it must usually be located in a primary location in a football team city, and the property must usually be office, retail, or industrial.  The property also has to be ***gorgeous***, and the maximum loan-to-value ratio that you are likely to achieve is 55% to 58% LTV.   [![Nine-Hour Video Training Course How to Broker Commercial Loans](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/2fa994cb-f6ac-4671-821f-b4bd48cb5f1f.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/2fa994cb-f6ac-4671-821f-b4bd48cb5f1f)   ![Camping-1](https://info.c-loans.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Camping-1.jpg?width=373&name=Camping-1.jpg)   [![Are You a Developer?  Is Your Construction Lender Requiring More Equity?](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/0af0620a-006a-4de1-9b37-cb9e915d3122.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/0af0620a-006a-4de1-9b37-cb9e915d3122)   Like I said, life companies do not lend to folks like you and me.  They lend to investors so stinking wealthy that they don't want a lot of leverage.  They want the cash flow.   **Conduits:** A ***conduit*** is short for Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit ("REMIC").  A conduit is a specialized commercial mortgage company that originates large commercial real estate loans for their eventual placement in the ***Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities*** ("CMBS") market. These conduit loans are aggregated in a giant pool of $2 billion or so, and then bonds, backed by the commercial mortgages in the pool, are issued and sold off by Wall Street-like investment bankers to life companies, pension plans, family trusts, bond funds, and other institutional investors.   [![Earn 11% to 12% Interest Since 1980](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/80333ce3-b6a5-4bf7-9687-52c156ed5457.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/80333ce3-b6a5-4bf7-9687-52c156ed5457)   ![Hot Doggie](https://info.c-loans.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Hot%20Doggie.jpg?width=387&name=Hot%20Doggie.jpg)   [![Video Course - How To Market For Commercial Loans](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/c1051bad-ef5d-4c65-b573-e4432b1769ef.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/c1051bad-ef5d-4c65-b573-e4432b1769ef)   [![Fee Agreement and Fee Collection Course. Just $199.](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/b8c2bde4-6428-433c-85cd-dfd884ff4a2c.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/b8c2bde4-6428-433c-85cd-dfd884ff4a2c)   The good news about conduit lenders is that their interest rates are only about 75 basis points (0.75%) higher than those offered by life companies.  **Conduits will also lend in secondary locations in fairly large cities not quite large enough to have a football team.  In addition, the property does NOT need to look like a color, glossy postcard.** The bad news about conduits is that their minimum loan size is large - typically $4 million+.  In addition, their loan-to-value ratios are pretty low.  CMBS investors got hammered during the Great Recession, so conduit lenders now use a commercial loan underwriting ratio that few other commercial lenders use.  This ratio is the [Debt Yield Ratio](https://info.c-loans.com/Free-Debt-Yield-Ratio-Calculator).   [![Money Tight?  200-Page Income Property Underwriting Manual - $199](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/11407b27-cb27-4ae8-91af-ca91dd4067cc.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/11407b27-cb27-4ae8-91af-ca91dd4067cc)   **Ever feel useless?** ![Useless](https://info.c-loans.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Useless.jpg?width=460&name=Useless.jpg)   [![Apply For a Commercial Loan to Blackburne & Sons](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/34e9010d-6f3b-4979-93c2-9e705da5a9fc.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/34e9010d-6f3b-4979-93c2-9e705da5a9fc)   [![Need a NMLS License Or Your Renewal Hours?](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/9f6491a8-af19-4ba1-9236-8e97c3cd1d16.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/9f6491a8-af19-4ba1-9236-8e97c3cd1d16)   A Debt Yield Ratio of 9% limits many conduit loans to a maximum loan-to-value ratio of around 65% to 68%.  This is not the the kind leverage that most investors are seeking.  As a result, conduit loan originations in the past several years have been no more than 40% of their pre-2008 loan volume. We will cover Commercial Banks, Credit Unions, Wall Street Non-Prime Lenders, Bridge Lenders, and Hard Money Lenders in coming blog articles.   [![Submit Your Loan to 750 Commercial Lenders Using C-Loans.com.  It's Free!](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/9f0b2bed-fb9b-455d-b8be-17d8f7960a2a.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/9f0b2bed-fb9b-455d-b8be-17d8f7960a2a)   ![Ancient Skull](https://info.c-loans.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Ancient%20Skull.jpg?width=460&name=Ancient%20Skull.jpg)   [![Free List of 3,159 Commercial Lenders Sort By Your Own Criteria](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/edc33fe8-9d87-477b-bf2f-07a33d3d2d24.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/edc33fe8-9d87-477b-bf2f-07a33d3d2d24)   [![Free List of 200 Commercial Lenders](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/3da67ca8-0ae4-4537-a365-87388c9287a1.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/3da67ca8-0ae4-4537-a365-87388c9287a1)   [![Subscribe To Blog](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/7636800d-cf5e-48c6-88cb-f71c131eb6ee.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/7636800d-cf5e-48c6-88cb-f71c131eb6ee)   Topics: [Types of commercial lenders](https://info.c-loans.com/topic/types-of-commercial-lenders) ### George Blackburne III Owner of C-Loans, Inc. ![George Blackburne III C-Loans Owner](https://info.c-loans.com/hs-fs/hubfs/George%20Head%20Shot%20Small%205%20by%207%20copy.jpg?width=158&name=George%20Head%20Shot%20Small%205%20by%207%20copy.jpg) ### Subscribe via E-mail ### Connect with C-Loans ## [![Get the Latest Scoop on C-Loans Inc.](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/37671/bacfb58b-143e-40d7-b126-33c182b5b90b.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/37671/bacfb58b-143e-40d7-b126-33c182b5b90b) C-Loans.com® is sponsored by  C-Loans, Inc. — For more information, contact Tom Blackburne 555 University Ave., Suite 150, Sacramento, CA 95825 Telephone: (916) 338-3232 x 317 * Tom Blackburne in Indiana: (574) 210-6686 * Fax: (916) 338-2328 Real Estate Broker -- California Department of Real Estate -- License Number 01330173 Arizona Dept. of Financial Institutions – License Number 0909472 The Florida Mortgage Brokers License Number: 0708758 [Read our many client Success Stories](https://c-loans.com/mortgage-brokers-overview/success-stories/) » © 2025 C-Loans, Inc. 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