Commercial Mortgage Refinance - Why?

Why perform a commercial mortgage refinance? Outlender processing fees cost app. $1,000.
of necessity of course. Most borrowers face aIt's to the borrowers benefit to do a simple break even
ballooning loan that forces them to investigate options,analysis to compare these costs to multiple lenders
spend thousands on third party reports and put inand to their existing bank if they are offering to reset
many hours into the process.the loan. Often the borrower finds that the third party
Optionscosts are lower with their existing bank, but the overall
As borrowers begin the process of researching theycosts are less with another capital source than is
are often pleasantly surprised by the additional loancompeting hard to win the borrower over.
programs that have become available in the last 5Time Line
years. 30 year fixed loan programs, no cost (no 3rdFirst of all, the process to close a commercial
party report costs) commercial refinance programs,mortgage refinance is universally underestimated by
non SBA 90% financing, etc replace the traditional 5banks, lenders and brokers. Your typical loan takes 75
year balloon/20 year amortizations programs that- 90 days to close, not 45 days. In addition, there's a
have been the main stream for years.common communication error that frustrates all
Commercial cash out refinances are a common optioninvolved. For industry insiders they argue (correctly)
that many borrowers elect. Whether the borrowerthat the loan process does not begin until a
wants to simply "pay themselves" back for the thirdcommitment letter is signed and fees for third party
party fees or max out the allowable cash outreports are paid. From the borrowers perspective the
proceeds by the lender, the choice is often left to theprocess normally begins when they make a mental
borrower. Depending on the amortization period anddecision to go with a particular bank - whether or not
existing rate the borrower can often pull cash out andthe bank has received all the information they need to
still have a similar monthly payment.make a first round lending decision. This communication
By increasing the loan amortization schedule to 30error results in a further time lag that often creates
years, from the more typical 20 years, the borrowerfrustration for the borrower and everyone else
often enjoys a cash flow increase of 20% or more.involved as tension can become high.
For highly leverage investment properties or cash flowWaiting on the completion of the third party reports
tight businesses this can have a tremendous impact on(appraisal, environmental, engineering, title) take a large
their bottom line. For example, on a $1,000,000 loan,portion of the time to underwrite and close a
with a 7% interest rate, the difference in payment on acommercial mortgage refinance. It is not uncommon
20 year vs. a 30 year schedule would be $13,191 perfor an appraisal to take 8 weeks to complete. In
year.addition, many traditional funding sources will wait for
Lowering one's interest rate is an obvious desire andone report to be completed before they will order the
benefit of refinancing a commercial mortgage. This cannext; rather than doing all of the 3rd party reports
result in saving hundreds of thousands of dollars oversimultaneously.
the life of a loan. However, when a borrower faces aBorrowers can also add a tremendous amount of time
ballooning loan or adjusting rate this is not always theto the process as well. Waiting on the completion of
case. The overall market dictates most of themissing documentation (example, uncompleted tax
borrower's rate options and it's up to the borrower toreturns) is a common issue. Furthermore, if the
find the best loan program for them.borrower becomes annoyed with seemingly
Third Party Reports- Costsunimportant requested documentation and "puts off"
The costs to perform a commercial mortgagecompleting, the results is just additional time added onto
refinance are high. Appraisal's normally run betweenthe process as lenders rarely back down from
$2,000 - $5,000; title is often between $800 - $2,000;requested information.
environmental reports are around $2,000 (phase one);