Find Your Niche—Learn About Loans To Buy Or Rehab Apartment Buildings

APARTMENT OR MULTI-FAMILY LENDERS can be found in most urban and suburban
areas. Even so, many wealth builders looking to acquire an apartment building can use a good loan Finder to steer them in the right direction. And many potential borrowers will pay a good commission to a loan Finder that helps them find the best loan possible.

A MULTI-FAMILY BUILDING IS ONE THAT HAS FIVE OR MORE UNITS. The most common purpose of most apartment building loans is to fund the purchase or refinance of a multifamily building. Loans for rehabbing buildings are just as important, however. A large number of commercial lenders make this type of loan. Look for lenders that offer loan packages for rehabbing apartment buildings. Here are your steps:

1. Gather all the information from your client as to what financing he or she needs. This might include loan applications, summaries of the proposed purchase/rehab, plans to produce an income from the building, and so on.
2. Draw up a “C” list (long list) of all potential lenders from a source such as the list below.
3. Sift through each lender’s information, one at a time.
4. Pay special attention to basic data such as the geographic areas, loan purpose, loan type, and loan requirements and details of each lender.
5. Based on Steps 2 and 3, narrow your “C” list to a “B” list (middle list) of lenders to examine more closely. For example, you can eliminate “C” lenders that don’t make loans in the area where the building is located.
6. Compare the types of funding that each one offers.
7. Make note of each lender that might make the size and types of loans you seek in your area
8. Select your “A” list (short list) of lenders to study further and to contact for more information or a loan application.
   

AS A FINDER, YOU CAN DO EACH OF THESE STEPS for your client, who willprobably be busy on other projects. Your client may offer to work together with you in drafting your “A” or “B” lists. If your client doesn’t suggest this, suggest it to the client. With a little experience and motivation, you and your client can make a winning team.

Special Funding for Financial Brokers

You Can Become the Loan Expert for Special Loans

If you or a client of yours has a small business in need of funding,
you may have looked at common sources of money—business
partners, family, conventional bank loans, even SBA 7A guaranteed
loans from banks and non-bank lenders. If you’ve tried these
and met with little or no success, don’t give up.

There are many “niche” or special financing programs
for small businesses throughout the United States.
Some niche loan programs are targeted to help specific
industries grow in a particular area. Some are targeted
to improve the economy in a region, state, or local area.
Some are targeted to specific groups of people. Nearly
all niche loan programs have a social, economic development
or community development purpose.

Tips for Financial Brokers

If you are a commercial loan broker or you want to
become one, finding good niche markets that can
give you great broker income may mean focusing on
commercial loan deals. Without limiting yourself
to any specific kind of loan, you can turn your focus
to one or more of the available niche markets in
commercial lending to increase your immediate and
long term income. Take another look at the niche areas
of commercial lending above to see what a wide range
of commercial lending exists.

By concentrating on commercial loans that require
hard money loans, you can find a niche within a niche.
The more focused you get, the smaller your potential
market, so be careful to keep enough commercial loan
niches in your sights to keep the loan requests flowing.

The advantage of taking the time to specialize in a niche
commercial loan market is simple. Once you put
in the legwork to identify, contact and establish a
relationship with direct commercial loan funding sources,
regardless of whether they are hard money lenders or
non-hard money lenders—you can establish yourself
as the expert in those kinds of loans in the area where you work.

You will have a ready source for funding the niche commercial
loans you’ve chosen to specialize in, and you’ll not only get direct
requests from borrowers, but also from other brokers who’ll call
you and ask you to cooperate on this kind of loan.

To be successful, promote yourself on Internet forums, through
email and advertising to your target groups, and by offering your
thoughts on your commercial loan niche market to newspapers,
magazines, and Internet e-zines.

Write articles about such things as your specialty, how to
prepare a commercial loan package for best results, what to look
for to help ensure which lender best suits the loan request and
more. Don’t be afraid to educate your fellow brokers. By doing so,
you’ll show your expertise in more areas than the ones you share
in your commercial loan specialty articles. Other brokers, as well
as borrowers, will still come to you—after all, you are the expert
in your commercial loan niche market.