How to place a loan with a bank or a credit union

The process from first call to closing, at a bank and at a credit union, and how to choose and reach the right lender.

• How to pick banks for a deal with public data Public filings cannot tell you which bank will say yes. They can tell you which banks are large enough, already hold loans like yours and lend where the property is. That is enough to turn four thousand banks into six phone calls. For Brokers, Borrowers
• How to place a commercial loan with a bank A bank loan moves through the same stages every time. Knowing them tells you what the bank needs at each point, what its answer means, and where time is lost. For Brokers, Borrowers
• What to do after a bank says no to a business loan One bank's no is one lender's answer, and the reasons are yours to ask for. They usually point to a constraint you can name. For Borrowers, Brokers
• How to place a business loan with a credit union Credit unions make business loans, and some make a lot of them. Three things are different from a bank: the borrower must be a member, most credit unions work under a cap on business loans, and the limit to one borrower is set against net worth. For Brokers, Borrowers, Credit union lenders
• How to find the right person at a bank for a loan The main number reaches a branch. A commercial loan is handled by a commercial lender, and at many banks there are only a few. Finding that person is half the work of a first contact. For Brokers
• How a loan broker works with community banks A community bank will take a good loan from a broker it trusts. Trust comes from three things: the bank knows who is paying you, your packages are accurate, and you bring loans that fit what the bank does. For Brokers

What a lender wants to see before it spends time on a loan, lane by lane.

• SBA 7(a) loan package checklist A 7(a) package is the bank's usual file plus SBA's own list. Know which items SBA requires and you can have them ready before the first call. For Brokers, Borrowers
• What a lender-ready loan package looks like A lender decides in minutes whether to keep reading. A package that answers the first five questions on one page, and backs each answer with a document, gets read. For Brokers, Borrowers
• SBA 504 loan package checklist A 504 project has three parties, two loans and a closing date set by a monthly bond sale. Build the package for all three. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Owner-occupied commercial real estate loan checklist When a business borrows on the building it works in, the lender is underwriting the business first and the building second. The package has to prove both. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Investor commercial real estate loan checklist On an investor property the rent pays the loan. The package is the evidence for the rent: who pays it, for how long, what it costs to collect, and who stands behind the borrower if it stops. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Small balance multifamily loan checklist Most apartment loans are small. Local banks, credit unions and the agencies' small loan programs all compete for them, and each wants the same core package with a different emphasis. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Multifamily loan checklist for 5+ unit properties A larger apartment loan can go to five kinds of lender. They want much the same package. They differ on recourse, term, prepayment, speed and what they ask of the sponsor. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Construction loan package checklist A construction lender is lending against a building that does not exist yet. The package has to show what it will cost, who will build it, where every dollar comes from, and how the loan gets repaid when it is done. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Residential development loan package checklist Lots and houses are repaid one sale at a time. A lender on a subdivision or a group of homes is underwriting how fast those sales will come and what happens to the loan if they slow down. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Business line of credit package checklist A line of credit pays for the gap between spending money and collecting it. The lender wants to see that the gap is real, that it closes, and what it can take as collateral while it is open. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Equipment financing package checklist Equipment is the simplest thing a business borrows for. There is a price, an invoice and a machine the lender can take back. The package is short, and the choices are about term, lien and who the lender is. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Farm loan package checklist A farm lender reads a balance sheet, a production record and a cash flow budget. The land is the collateral. The crop or the herd is the repayment, and it comes in once or twice a year. For Brokers, Borrowers

The ratios, the cash flow and the guarantor, read the way a credit officer reads them.

• How bankers evaluate a commercial loan deal A credit officer asks one question five ways: how will this loan be repaid, and what happens if it is not? Knowing the five tests lets you size a request before you send it. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Global cash flow, explained step by step A property can cover its loan while the people behind it cannot cover their other debts. Global cash flow is the test that looks at all of it at once. For Brokers, Borrowers
• Guarantor strength and recourse, explained A guaranty is the lender's second way out. Whether you sign one, how much it covers and what the lender checks before accepting it shape a commercial loan as much as the rate does. For Brokers, Borrowers

How the 7(a) and 504 programs work in practice, and how SBA lenders differ from each other.

• SBA Preferred Lenders Program and Express: how they differ Some SBA lenders decide a loan on their own authority and some send it to SBA first. The difference changes who reads your file and who carries the risk. For Brokers, Borrowers, Bankers
• SBA 7(a) or 504: which fits your loan Both are SBA loans, and they work differently. The choice usually turns on what you are buying and how much cash you can put in. For Brokers, Borrowers

Lending limits, concentration guidance, leverage limits and participations, explained in plain terms.

• The legal lending limit, explained A bank may not lend more than a set share of its capital to one borrower. The rule explains why a large loan gets shared, and why a lender can say a request is too big for it. For Brokers, Bankers
• The CRE concentration guidance, explained Bank regulators watch how much commercial real estate a bank holds against its capital. The guidance sets two screens. It does not set a limit, and it does not count owner-occupied buildings. For Brokers, Bankers, Borrowers
• Supervisory loan to value limits and HVCRE, explained Two federal rules shape how much a bank will lend against real estate: a table of loan to value ceilings, and a capital rule that makes some construction loans cost the bank more to hold. For Brokers, Borrowers, Bankers
• Loan participations, explained A participation lets one lender make a loan that is too large for it to hold alone. The borrower signs with one lender. Behind that lender, others own pieces of the loan and share its risk. For Brokers, Bankers, Credit union lenders

What each public file holds, what it leaves out, and how to use it without fooling yourself.

• How to read a bank call report as a loan searcher Every bank files a call report each quarter. One schedule in it lists the bank's loans by kind. Read that schedule and you know what the bank holds. You still do not know what it made last quarter. For Brokers, Bankers
• How to read HMDA data for multifamily and investor loans HMDA is the one public file that lists individual apartment and rental-house loans by lender, amount, county and year. It covers loans on dwellings only, and not every lender reports. For Brokers, Borrowers, Bankers
• How to read Community Reinvestment Act data CRA data is the only public count of small business and small farm loans made by county. It is reported by larger banks only, in three size bands, with no borrower and no loan detail. For Brokers, Bankers
• How to read SBA 7(a) and 504 loan data The SBA publishes the 7(a) and 504 loans it guarantees, lender by lender, every quarter. It is the best public record of who lends to small businesses, and it is easy to misread. For Brokers, Borrowers, Bankers
• How to read a credit union's 5300 call report Credit unions file their own call report, NCUA Form 5300, every quarter. For commercial loans it says more than a bank's report does: it counts the loans, and it reports what was made during the year. For Brokers, Credit union lenders

Working with brokers, and what a broker sees when they look at your institution.

• What brokers see about your bank or credit union Every bank and credit union has a page here, built from public filings. This guide says what is on it, where each number comes from, what you can correct and add, and what nothing can change. For Bankers, Credit union lenders
• A credit union lender's guide to working with brokers Brokers bring loans a credit union would not otherwise see. Taking them well means four checks before credit: can the borrower join, is there room under the cap, is the loan inside the limit to one borrower, and who pays the broker. For Credit union lenders
• A banker's guide to working with loan brokers Broker-sourced loans are ordinary business for many banks. Handling them well is mostly a matter of knowing who the broker is, who pays them, and keeping the credit work your own. For Bankers

• Calculators and the deal summary builder9 tools that run in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or saved.
• Glossary193 lending terms, each with how it shows up in the public data.
• Loan CompsDescribe a deal and see which lenders have made loans like it, with the recorded loans behind each one.