Besides Private Money Lenders, There are Other Mortgage Lenders, as Well
The better you understand SF Partners Mortgage and our role in the commercial mortgage industry, the better you will understand when our products are the right fit for your clients.

Types of Commercial Mortgage Lenders
A property is typically considered to be “commercial” if it is non-residential or, it is residential and contains five or more units. Commercial mortgage lenders range in type from large commercial banks to private individuals who may do a few loans a year.

Conventional Lenders
Conventional lenders extend commercial mortgages with the intention of retaining the generated asset as part of the company's portfolio. Conventional lenders are credit companies, banks, S&Ls, and insurance companies, however, REITs, pension funds, Fannie Mae/DUS and FHA lenders also fit into this category for residential loans.

Non Conforming Lenders
These non-bank lenders include stated-income/stated-asset lenders, low doc/no doc lenders and private money lenders where the loaned funds generally come from a private entity or non regulated source of capital. These lenders are typically more flexible than their institutional lender counterparts and they typically look for non-bankable deals that may pose higher risk. These lenders specialize in loans where credit scores may not be perfect and the amount of documentation necessary to close a loan is less than that of a conventional lender. Loan turn around time is typically faster than conventional outlets, however, interest and points charged may be a little higher.

Hard Money Lenders
These lenders are typically private lenders that focus on deals where the only underwriting considerations are the equity in the collateral (i.e., value of the real property). As long as a hard money lender is satisfied there is sufficient protection based on the loan to value of the real estate, a deal can be had. Because hard money lenders typically do not look at credit, income or other factors that impact the ultimate repayment of the loan, interest rates and points charged tend to be substantially higher than most other commercial lenders due to the risk involved.

Where Does SF Partners Mortgage Fit?
SF Partners Mortgage resides in the category of private money lenders, which is closely akin to the non conforming lender category described above. With that said, we are more flexible than most non conforming lenders in our ability to make common sense and outside the box lending decisions. While our focus is on more than just the value of the property (i.e, hard money), we have done plenty of deals that would have otherwise gone hard money (despite the loan having positive attributes other than just the real estate) simply because the borrower was unable to find another category of lender. Consequently, we have saved many borrowers substantial fees, points, and interest by providing the opportunity to enjoy the flexibility of private money without the expenses of hard money.