RETAIL BUILDING

Any building that is used to contain retail space is considered a "Retail Building". 

Here is a list of the Classifications from the Urban Land Institute (ULI):  General Merchandising, Food, Food Service, Clothing and Accessories, Shoes, Home Furnishings, Home Appliances, Building Materials and Hardware, Automotive, Hobby, Gift, Jewelry, Liquor, Drugstores and Pharmacy, Other retail, Personal Services, Entertainment and Community and Financial. 

When going for funding, lenders will look at potential and current tenets as well as look for nationally recognized anchor tenets.  These different shopping centers are broken down into 5 categories: Convenience, Neighborhood, Community, Regional and Super-Regional.

COMMERCIAL LOAN TIPS:

1. Commercial loans take time to close
Lenders will always quote 45-60 days to close a commercial mortgage, but in reality it is more like 90-120 days for most new loans or refinance.  Especially with the climate we are in now (2007 --> 2008), lender are going to check and double everything to make sure it is in order.

2. Keep it Close
The more local the property is to your lenders home base the more they will know about your market and the more likely they are to close your loan if the numbers pencils out.  That not to say if you have deal that cash flows great a lender across the nation won't fund it.  It can be an obstacle with some lenders and local lenders tend to give better terms on their loans.

3. Never Rely on One Lender to Fund a Deal
One more time, never rely on one lender to fund your loan. It is about the right loan with the right lender in the right place.  Lenders are way too fickle these days for you to only shop your loan to one lender.  By using our Lender Database you will help increase your chances of closing a loan.   

4. Commercial Lenders Order the Appraisal
Brokers that order appraisals before they has been approved by the lender are not doing the borrower justice.  Lenders see no benefit on taking an appraisal from a broker that is closing a loan.   We call them "3rd Party Reports" for the reason that it needs to be from an independent source of information about the real estate and local area.

5. Toxic Reports
Commercial Lenders are now asking for toxic reports before funding commercial loans.  They do not want to get into a situation where they foreclose on a commercial property and then inherits the liability. Level 1 toxic reports (to start) are becoming the norm for funding deals.