The condition of the market has improved during the last couple of months. Technically speaking the recession may be over; we may be increasing gross domestic product again. But, sadly, the market meltdown goes on. A lot of banks are extremely worried about further deterioration commercial real estate valuations and growing commercial mortgage delinquencies. They worry that more large percentage write downs of their CRE investment portfolios might be necessary damaging their legal solvency. Banks on the side are very cautious about funding.
Other financial institutions, even healthy ones, together with insurance firms are looking at their investment capital as they wait the coming wave of new polices from Washington. Authorities are applying current rules more thoroughly than before while guaranteeing even tougher financing guidelines are on the way. Loan providers will not grant a loan seriously until they determine what the regulating environment will seem like. As the administration promotes lending with their words they are aggravating it with their heavy handed measures.
For most borrowers the solution has been private lending. Privately financed, popularly known as “hard money” commercial mortgages are funded by private individuals or privately owned companies. These unique lenders often secure the loans they write in their own investment portfolios rather than sell them to the secondary mortgage bond market. Private hard money lenders are not regulated by the State or federal Authorities so they enjoy much more versatility and can finance loans quicker than banks can. Multi-million dollar loans can close in less than ten days if the offer works well with the hard money lender.
The disadvantage to private lending is that costs and points are greatly greater than bank interest rates and that a lot more equity is necessary. Private lending almost always top ten percent with at least 3 origination points and loan-to-value ratios rarely exceed 65 percent
The financial meltdown has caused many good loans to be denied by banks. Further, slipping property values cause it to be even more difficult to be entitled to standard funding. Hard money lenders are often able to finance deals that banking institutions are being compelled to turn away. Private lending has become an integral piece of commercial real estate finance. Borrowers prefer to have a nice, low interest bank loan with good agreements, but that sort of financing is simply not easily accessible today. Private hard money lending is now popular finance and, for many struggling investors, may be the only-game-in-town.