The last issue is one of the biggest issues impacting the commercial real
estate development finance market today. A quick web search and the
developer picks the firm with the lowest up-front costs and lets things go at
that - much to their future woe!
Brokers who shotgun blast your application all over the web are doing you
no big favors. In point of fact, they may be making things worse because
nobody wants to work on underwriting a transaction that has been previewed to
hundreds or potential lenders, so they set it aside (can it). Not a good
outcome.
Your best bet is always to work with a firm that has a formal loan
correspondent relationship with a bank, insurance company, hedge fund or
whatever. If they say they have a correspondent relationship ask who it is
with. You are entitled to know. If they refuse to disclose, tell
them you will not work with them because they will not disclose. If they
do disclose, then call the entity and talk to the general counsel or chief
financial officer of the company. These people would be in the best
position to access the data required to validate the relationship.
RMC's rule of thumb is to work with mortgage
bankers and/or investment bankers because these firms have ready access to
institutions that can fund the kind of loans you are looking to obtain.
Finally, have you considered what might be accomplished if you had more
equity in the transaction... more equity as early as the pre-construction
phase? It's time you found out what can be done. If your project has
a development budget (or acquisition cost, as the case may be) of at least $2.5
million, you need to talk to Rainmaker about how you can dramatically increase
your financial investment leverage without creating more risk.
will find information pertaining to the qualification and selection process
for commercial mortgage brokers. Rainmaker Marketing Corporation has
received a lot of complaints regarding commercial 
