Commercial Real Estate Investing From A-Z 8 Things You Should Know About Real Estate Financing
Today we are continuing our conversation around commercial financing, we will learn how you can get a commercial real estate loan, ways to partner up with seasoned operators, how to find lenders that can make creative financing available to you, and a few other valuable things. We are interviewing John Pascal, Managing Director of Paramount Capital Advisors (PCA).
You can read this interview here: https://montecarlorei.com/8-things-you-should-know-about-real-estate-financing/
Let's start with the basics: is a job needed for first time investors, does the credit score matter, what is the minimum down payment for that type of investor?
From a lender standpoint it’s very important that the borrower has experience executing the business plan that they’re proposing. It’s a little bit difficult to get financing for first time investors or developers. Generally, who I deal with are more experienced real estate groups because it’s just very difficult to finance the deal otherwise. But I would encourage anybody who is looking at getting into the business to maybe partner with, or work with a group that has done it once what they’re proposing to do. And it’s also important that the borrower has a good balance sheet. Typically a lender would like to see net worth equal to or above the loan amount, and liquidity, meaning cash or marketable securities equal to at least 10% of the loan amount.
What are typical deal killers when trying to get a loan?
The lack of financial capability, i.e. net worth and liquidity. The parameters for that are more stringent with a traditional bank than they are with a private equity lender. The other hurdle is the experience of the borrower. The more experience, the easier it’ll be to find financing because the lender will have comfort that the borrower can execute on their business plan. The strategy itself is also important. If a borrower says “I can sell this property in a 4% cap rate and that’s my way of paying the loan back”. It has to be realistic, and proven in the market. Are 4% cap rates prevalent in the market, and can that be proven out to the lender? Those three things are really critical for getting the loan approved.
I heard that you are very creative on getting financing, I would love to hear some examples of your creativity.
It all boils down to having a good understanding of the capital markets, and which capital sources are doing what. I spend a lot of my time understanding what different lenders with different equity sources are interested in doing. One example was that there was a developer of a hotel in the Atlanta area whose lenders were looking to foreclose on the asset, and the property was in a good location. It just was at the time completed and about a year or so prior to me getting involved, and it was just ramping up, basically it was under water. The vultures were circling, and the borrower came to me to try to figure out a solution. It was a situation where a traditional lender probably wouldn’t have looked at this deal because the deal was underwater, but I brought in a private equity firm to recognize that there was going to be some value in the deal. There were probably 15 or 16 lenders on the deal, and we negotiated with each of the lenders to take them out. It was like herding cats. The bottom line was that I found a private equity firm who would do the deal. They certainly charged a lot of money to do it, but today the property is doing great.
John Pascal
www.paramountcapitaladvisors.com
john@paramountcapitaladvisors.com
(312) 767-3320