How do you get the best terms for a commercial real estate loan?

Talking to various mortgage brokers and lenders is free so definitely way your options. And good mortgage officers will want to teach you.

Another way to look at it, could be to consider using a private lender who isn't interested in anything other than the asset being purchased. For example, Hard Money Lenders (not fix & flip) could be a good source.

In my experience, this is true. Different lenders have different appetites for different types of loans at different moments in time. To get the best terms, you have to talk to multiple lenders. You will most likely get very different quotes from each of them and they will all have different things that are important to them.

Consider hiring a mortgage broker. Interview more than one, ask for references and real comparable closed deal history. Make sure they are acting as your broker and not as a correspondent lender (where they are really the lender's rep not yours). Choose the best of those that qualify as such and hire them exclusively. You want your deal shopped, but having multiple groups shopping it at the same time creates confusion in the market, and that scares lenders away. You can't hire more than one attorney to try your case at the same time, don't try to hire more than one broker, or you will make the brokers work for themselves, and not for you.

I work for a CDFI, community development financial institution and we are a mission based lender. If the project serves a community we definitely look at it different and can be more flexible.

It’s important to be ?realistic? about your projected growth and exactly where the money is coming from / going. Do as much market research as you can on similar commercial properties in the area to get the most clear projections, to avoid over or underestimations as much as possible.

Knowledge of the product , area because well informed agents gives confidence to buyers and sellers . Asking the questions up front that will establish what you can and it allows you to have a strong foundation and saves time and establishes if the purchase is doable now or at a later time. Everything is possible if you are informed and honest

Before you commit to a specific lender, get a full terms sheet from them, and preferably from your second and even third choice lenders. There are a lot of terms beyond the top three to five bullet points most people initially quote. Interest rate, amortization, loan term, LTV/loan amount are all important, but so are recourse clauses, holdbacks, contingencies, cash management and default triggers - and cures, and all those don't normally show up in an initial quote, but they should in a full and detailed terms sheet.