Searching for good commercial real estate financing options can be a tedious task and take up a lot of your time as either an investor or a business owner. The more work you put into this search, however, the better you can understand the process and know which terms, conditions and requirements will work the best for your needs.

Understand Processing Time

Lenders get a lot of applications for loans and have to review all the pertinent information for each before deciding. This means that it can take months for your application to be either approved or denied. Some lenders will advertise quick processing times while experience has you waiting months for a decision, so make sure you can get a firm timeline from a lender who has a reputation to match.

Explore All Options

Commercial real estate lenders can be traditional banks or credit unions as well as online real estate marketplace firms and private investors. Exploring all of these options will give you a variety of terms, interest rates and funding caps to choose from so you can find the best deal for your needs. You can also find guides for how to apply for commercial property loan programs through the Small Business Administration if you are a business owner looking to occupy at least half of the property.

Build a Detailed Budget

The more robust your spending plans are, the better you can narrow down your funding needs. This can help you determine which loan options are the right ones for your new location and which ones work better for upgrading a current one. Lenders will often want to see your plans for spending the loan, including needed repair or upgrade estimates, before approving the application. Banks, marketplace firms and private investors all want to know that they are making a good investment and are likely to see returns on it. So, having projected costs and profits for your commercial property included in the application can save you time and frustration.

Finding and applying for a commercial real estate loan is a long and often frustrating process that involves a lot of research. The more thought you put into how much funding you need and how you will use the money, the easier it is to filter your options to the right lender, terms and amount before submitting an application and waiting for it to be approved. You can even filter your options by the amount of processing time applicants typically see and which lenders have the best reviews.