The 10-year yield continued its downward trend once more.  There seems to be enough global and economic uncertainty to keep yields down.  The 10-year yield has been in this downward trending channel dating back to the beginning of July.

Articles of Interest:

The Los Angeles Daily News reported “City works against affordable housing.” The editorial piece looks at a recent San Jose ruling against affordable housing.

Dan Gonzales (a San Jose Real Estate Attorney) shared “Federal government expands high-priced residential real estate reporting obligations aimed at combatting money laundering.”

CETUSNews.com shared “Vultures Begin to Circle Commercial Real Estate.”

Exceeding Client Expectations:

Last week, I provided a link to a video that focused on what clients want from their advisors.  The point of that video was to have all of us reflect on what our clients’ experience is by working with each of us.

Hopefully, you took a look at what you do and how you exceed your clients’ expectations greatly.  And, of course, I did the same.

For many of us, what we do well we take for granted.  And, even though we work with people every day that we think truly understand our value added, that is often not the case.  Today, I am going to share a few tidbits and then get back to enjoying the holiday weekend.

One of my business partners asked me who do I use for commercial loans.  Now, the question seemed silly to me at first.  However, I must take some blame as I must not explain what or how I do what I do very well.  Being a Strategic Commercial Mortgage Broker, my role is to find lending solutions for my clients and/or business partners.  Much of my business comes from Bankers who do not have solutions for their clients.  They come to me to keep their relationships intact; and they use me as part of their virtual team.

Now I meet with these clients and determine what it is that needs to be solved.  Now back to the question regarding who do I use for my commercial loans.  I do not use any one source.  Each financial institution has their own offerings.  I maintain my own database of which institution to use for what situation.  Deciding on which institution to use is based on what the financial objectives of the client are.  And I would be doing a major disservice to the client if I just used one source!

So, sourcing a loan is but one piece of the puzzle.  Now, in order to achieve an excellent client experience, I need to be able to get the loan funded.  This is where the challenges are unknown.  Sometimes all the parties in a transaction are so strong that everything goes smoothly.  That is definitely the exception.  My role is to keep things moving forward for the benefit of the client.  There is far too much money at risk to just source the loan and expect others to ensure a successful purchase or refinance.

Being a control freak, I treat the money involved as my own.  I am looking for areas of weakness that might cause the transaction to fail.  Anticipating problems allows me to work with all partners to come up with remedies that allow the deal to continue moving forward.  I often have written here that the more problem solver types involved, then all the better.  In my often-shared depiction of the business partners in a transaction (see chart), one can see all the potential areas where problems can arise.  Either the client needs to connect all these professionals or one of us needs to jump in to protect the client’s overall interests.

This may not be OUR job, but it is how we create that experience where the client feels very appreciative of our efforts.  This is how we win their confidence.  This is how we become worthy of their introductions to others that want us as part of their team.

Hopefully, this helps you understand the importance of what you do.  I am only scratching the surface, but I feel I have gone on long enough for this week.  As always, I am happy to discuss this should you wish to go deeper.

Should you have any strategic financing questions, feel free to give me a call.