Commercial financing, placed with the lender whose appetite fits the deal.
Every commercial lender has a credit box, and most of what determines whether a deal funds is whether it landed in front of the right one. Leverage, asset class, geography, sponsor strength and liquidity requirements vary more than people expect.
I work through a national network of banks, credit unions, debt funds, agency and SBA lenders, along with direct relationships with commercial bankers here in Metro Atlanta. Bring me the deal and I’ll tell you where it fits, or whether it doesn’t.
On this page
Owners, investors, and the people who advise them
Principals in the transaction
Advisors & lending partners
Transaction types and asset classes
Start with what is happening with the property, then the kind of property involved. Both shape the structure and the lenders whose appetite may fit.
What is happening with the property?Transaction
What kind of property is it?Asset class
Why lender fit decides most of it.
Good placement starts before a deal reaches a lender. I pressure-test the structure, leverage, coverage, sponsor strength and liquidity first, then match the deal to lenders whose current appetite fits. The goal isn’t simply to get a term sheet. It’s to put forward a deal that can survive credit review and make sense for the borrower long term.
Assess
Place
Execute
Run the numbers before you call a lender
Four ratios decide most commercial deals. If you know where yours land before you go looking for debt, you stop spending weeks on lenders who were never going to fund it. Free, and it doesn’t ask for your email.
Working estimateUse the numbers to identify constraints and questions before lender underwriting begins.
Property
Debt terms
| Year | Payments | Principal | Interest | Ending balance |
|---|
Estimates for planning. Actual structure, pricing and proceeds come out of a lender’s underwriting on the real property and the real borrower.
Four ratios shape most deals. The rest is sponsor and structure.
A lender is evaluating two things at once: whether the property services the debt with room to spare, and whether you can carry it if it doesn’t. The ratios below cover the property. Liquidity, experience, recourse, asset class and location decide how much room a lender gives you on them.
Coverage
DSCR
Net operating income ÷ annual debt service
The ratio that most often sets your loan size. At 1.25x the property throws off $1.25 for every dollar of payment. Many lenders floor somewhere between 1.20x and 1.25x, though it moves with asset class and lender type. When a deal gets cut back, coverage is commonly the constraint that ran out first.
Debt yield
Net operating income ÷ loan amount
The one investors skip and lenders don’t. It ignores rate and it ignores appraised value, so it can’t be improved by cheap debt or a generous appraisal. That’s exactly why it exists. Nine to ten percent is a common floor, depending on the lender and the asset.
Leverage & structure
LTV
Loan amount ÷ property value
The one everyone quotes and the one that binds least often. It matters at the margins and on lower-income-producing assets. On a stabilized property the coverage test often binds before the leverage test does.
Term vs. amortization
Payment size vs. payoff date
Two different numbers, and mixing them up is expensive. Amortization sets the payment. Term sets when the loan comes due. A 25-year amortization on a 7-year term leaves a balloon, and refinancing it is a rate risk you own, not the lender.
Bring me a deal that didn’t pencil.
Thirty minutes. Worst case, you leave knowing which ratio or part of the structure is holding the deal back.
If you have a rent roll, T-12, purchase details or construction budget, send it over. If you don’t, start with the address and what you’re trying to accomplish.