Business Financing and Commercial Loan

The problems which need to be anticipated for a commercial loan are probably more serious and more numerous than most business owners expect. Most commercial borrowers will be totally unfamiliar with a number of the business financing issues. Although each problem will not be applicable to all loans, the potential difficulties will be relevant to business cash advance, business opportunity and commercial real estate investment property financing.

Commercial Loan Advisory Reports -

We have published separate commercial loan advisory reports which provide a comprehensive discussion of the major problems likely to be encountered in typical business financing and commercial real estate loan circumstances. For example, one report focuses on common business opportunity investment financing difficulties. In another report, we discussed the obstacles usually experienced with SBA loan refinancing.

The Black Ice Analogy: Unseen Business Financing Problems -

The focus in this article is to highlight several of the more obscure commercial loan problems. A commercial borrower should consider such obscure business financing problems to be extremely important. When ice is virtually invisible on a road surface, this is usually referred to as black ice. Drivers who have experienced this hazardous condition are likely to realize that invisible business finance problems are equally dangerous for the financial health of a business.

Online Business Finance Applications -

The first relatively unknown business financing problem involves the increasing use of internet technology by commercial lenders. Many commercial loan sites encourage borrowers to submit an online application. This is not a prudent way for a business owner to proceed with their commercial financing.

It is important that business owners understand that it is not in their best interest to submit an online business financing application. For a more detailed understanding of why an online commercial loan application is inadvisable and how to proceed in a search for viable financing, borrowers should review the report entitled How and Why to Avoid the Online Business Loan Application Trap.

Recall Provisions for a Commercial Mortgage -

The next obscure but nevertheless serious business financing problem to anticipate involves the use of loan recall terms by a lender. Commercial loan recall covenants mean that the lender can force the borrower to repay early by calling the loan before it would normally expire. Many traditional commercial lenders routinely place recall clauses in their commercial mortgage conditions, but this potential concern is not applicable to all borrowers since some financing agreements will not allow a loan recall possibility.

The circumstances which can cause a recall will vary but can commonly include periodic lender review of financial statements, tax returns and credit history. If prescribed levels of income, credit scores or other benchmarks are not present, then the lender will typically notify the commercial borrower that they must pay off the loan within a 30-90 day period.

When they receive a commercial loan recall, borrowers will need to act promptly. Prudent borrowers will exclude lenders that require recall agreements when evaluating business financing options. For commercial borrowers who have recall provisions in their current business loan agreement, it will be equally wise to consider refinancing their commercial mortgage before a recall occurs so that refinancing is accomplished according to the preferred timetable of the business owner.

Balloon Payments and Short-term Business Loans -

Another often overlooked commercial financing problem is the increasing emphasis on short-term financing by many commercial lenders. How long is a long-term commercial loan? Depending on individual business financing circumstances, the preferred loan period is likely to be between 10 and 30 years. Unfortunately many business lenders often consider three years as the maximum period before a balloon payment will be due for a commercial mortgage.

With a balloon payment condition, a business owner will be required to either pay the remaining loan balance or refinance. This kind of loan is a short-term commercial loan instead of long-term and should be avoided whenever feasible. Longer-term business financing will often be the critical difference that facilitates a successful business investment because new financing will not be required for many years and business loan payments will usually be reduced.

Inexperienced Commercial Real Estate Loan Lenders and Advisors -

The final example of a problem that is not obvious to most commercial borrowers involves a shortage of business loan experts providing candid advice to business owners. Business financing and business investing has become increasingly specialized in recent years. There have been some recent real estate and business investment developments that have made this process even more complicated. The current turmoil in residential real estate investment property has resulted in an increasing number of residential lenders and advisors attempting to become active in commercial loan activities.

This is an almost impossible transition for most residential lenders and advisors. There are over 25 critical differences between residential and commercial property investing. As a result, these new and inexperienced commercial financing advisors frequently provide woefully inadequate advice and potentially disastrous business financing for their clients.

Construction Loans and Commercial Mortgages

Commercial construction financing and commercial real estate loans are presenting a number of new challenges for commercial borrowers. As a result, small business owners should anticipate that they are likely to encounter some new but generally avoidable problems when they are seeking working capital funding and commercial mortgages.

There have always been complex problems for business owners to avoid when seeking commercial loans. By most accounts, these difficulties are now expected to multiply because we appear to be entering a period which will be characterized by even more uncertainties in the economy. Prior standards for commercial mortgages are likely to change suddenly and with little advance notice by lenders if the current financial turmoil continues.

This article will evaluate why commercial construction loans have become harder to obtain and will discuss possible commercial finance funding solutions. It is much more likely that borrowers will need to look beyond their local area for business financing help because of current economic uncertainties in combination with less capital available for commercial mortgages in general and construction financing in particular. In many areas of the United States, virtually all business construction funding sources are effectively inactive at this time in addressing new loan requests.

Even before business finance funding options became more limited recently, construction loans were generally considered to be riskier than other commercial financing by most lenders. For a commercial lender, the most significant risk factors for commercial construction financing usually include the following: (1) a commercial property cannot produce revenues which will be used to repay a loan until the property is completed and occupied; (2) a substantial risk factor is the possibility for contractor liens; and (3) many commercial construction projects take more time to complete than originally projected and/or exceed initial cost estimates. Due to widespread business losses in the construction industry, the risk of contractor liens is a major concern for commercial lenders. In any event, current delinquencies in loan payments for commercial construction financing are running well above normal.

Construction financing for homebuilders has always been viewed separately by lenders because the eventual owners of single-family homes are individuals rather than businesses. From a commercial lending perspective, it is likely that the current difficulties seen in residential construction are indirectly impacting the availability of construction funding for commercial properties because the potential for contractor liens incurred during residential projects can quickly reduce the financial stability of contractors involved in both residential and commercial construction projects. This is a further reason why lenders are increasingly focusing on the risk of contractor liens as a rationale for providing less construction financing.

The feasibility of real estate investments has traditionally included an enduring theme of "location, location and location" which reflects the importance of a specific locale for investing. This is still an important factor when lenders evaluate the prospects for commercial real estate loans involving both existing commercial properties and new construction. A lender is likely to be most comfortable with a stable to growing revenue stream for a business which will in turn result in a stable to growing property valuation, thus preserving collateral for the commercial mortgage loan.

Although there are significant regional variations, we are witnessing decreases in both commercial and residential property values throughout the United States for the first time in several years. A severe recession will result in decreasing income for many businesses over an extended period of time, and it is very difficult for either lenders or borrowers to project when this downward trend will reverse.

Working Capital Financing and Commercial Loans Hurt by Business Lending Changes

Recent business banking changes have reduced commercial loan choices for many small businesses. This article describes several key change areas that should be anticipated by commercial borrowers.

Business owners will need to be especially skeptical and diligent as they approach business lenders to obtain working capital loans and small business loans. Regardless of business income or creditworthiness, many banks have effectively stopped making any new commercial loans to small businesses. In addition to these four potential risk factors and changes for commercial lending, there are additional problems that should be anticipated much as with the proverbial iceberg.

Unfortunately these banks are not announcing publicly that they have discontinued working capital activities. This means that while they might accept small business financing applications, they do not intend to actually finalize commercial financing in all cases. This approach has clearly frustrated and angered business borrowers.

The four recent business banking changes described in this article are likely to impact most business owners. If a commercial borrower wants to continue their present banking relationship, in most cases they will find that the business lender changes are permanent and cannot be avoided.

In the first example of commercial lending changes, for small business financing programs many small business owners have already discovered an inflated fee structure from most banks. Needing to find a revenue source to replace diminishing income from business loans (which has resulted from bank decisions to decrease business financing activity) is perhaps one bank perspective for the commercial financing fee increases. Except for unusual and unavoidable circumstances, borrowers should review different business funding sources when they encounter increased business loan fees levied by their current bank.

A second significant commercial lender change is demonstrated by revised guidelines for refinancing commercial mortgage loans. In almost all cases, business bankers have dramatically reduced the loan-to-value percentages that they will lend. In some areas and for specific types of businesses, many banks will no longer lend over half of the appraised value. The difficulty for a commercial borrower refinancing an existing commercial loan reaches a crisis level very quickly when this happens. In many cases the original business financing was based on a much higher percentage of business value than the bank is currently willing to provide. When a current appraisal reports a decrease in value since the original loan was made, the lending problem is further compounded. This outcome is especially common in the midst of a distressed economy which leads to decreased commercial income that in turn often produces a lower commercial property value.

The difficulty of locating investment property financing illustrates another business banking change. If the commercial property is considered to be owner-occupied (the owner occupies a substantial portion of the building), more banks will be interested in making commercial mortgages. Investors that do not occupy the property often own commercial investments like shopping centers and apartments. For many banks, it appears that they are currently restricting their commercial lending activities to those which qualify for Small Business Administration financing (SBA loans) which generally exclude investor-owned situations.