Let it never be said I give up easily with my clients.

On the surface, you may see me and find I’m active with a number of things. If you are a client, you may not hear from me for  few days or even a week. Rest assured I’m always spending time thinking about one file or another.

I love attending lender presentations. The reason why? It gives my brain that unique opportunity to listen to the details of what products the lender has and my mind just naturally sifts through all the active, inactive or soon to be active files.

It’s almost like magic. Some key word will be said and then I stark asking questions. ‘You mentioned XXX. What about if condition YYY applies?” More often than not I either work out a deal with that lender (or at least the lender rep) for a client I’ve been trying to find a matching product. It’s a fascinating process.

Now the really good reps will look at the deal and say, well if we don’t do it, I know lender X (not them) will certainly look at that kind of deal. Except FirstLine (see last weeks post), they have an answer for almost anything.

This past month (or two)I had a file that I just simply could not find a home for. I hate to say this publicly, but I received a spam email from a private money lender (third in the last 3 weeks, they’ve found me). I asked the first two and they summarily said, NO. They’re in the BIG money deals. $5M and up. So my tiny little commercial deal didn’t meet their specs.

Lesson learned (again) if you need financing from 1 to 5M this is probably the most difficult commercial money you can try and get. Magically above $5M things suddenly open up. You are in a different class somehow. Fewer risks? Lower risk? Certainly you are likely an “accredited” investor and the rules appear to change. $100M, sure no problem. $4M, no forget it.

Anyway, back to my file. Not one to every give up easily, I’m reading through this guys email. “We do commercial of all types.” We do this. We do that. I send him an email (not expecting a response) with the rough details of my file. To my surprise, I get a response back in 15 minutes. “We’re interested, send us more info.”

We’re well past due on this file, but I just couldn’t give up on this guy. Every penny invested, but he’s eking out a living. He just needs a small break for a few months. Yes, I know I sound like a sucker, but this is one of those rare “gut” feeling deals. Too much for him too lose if someone doesn’t find him the cash. He’s got an 11 year track record in biz. Hard to beat that.

I’ve had other similar deals. Down to the wire.. client calling…. lawyer calling… any news?!?!  Um… no.  Suddenly out of the blue I get this idea how to present the file slightly differently to another lender or finally the lender reviews my file and says “oh, yes, we’ll do that.” Hallelujah.

Client calls and says,”I can’t believe you got it done.”  Heh, yeah… um me either. Pardon my surprise, but it wasn’t looking good for the home team for awhile.

Some days I swear someone is looking over my shoulder and taps me and says pay attention to this, you’ll need to use this soon.  I listen and say, hey have I got a client for you.

I love the phrase “some assembly required”. In my case, I like to say “some negotiation required”. Sometimes I get a little too far down a path and think if I don’t negotiate this one item, my client is sunk. Persistence wins the day. Some times a day late.

I have managed to negotiate an amazing deal for my clients. Pulled out all the stops, only to have the client walk. “Oh, the deal wasn’t right for me.” But, but… Chalk another one up to experience. If I encounter anything similar I’ll know where to go (or sometimes more importantly, where NOT to go) next time.

“Ninety percent of the game is half mental” -Yogi Berra. Same applies to the mortgage business. If you “check out” mentally from the deal, the deal wont get done. Even if it’s a background task, like an item on a to do list that you see periodically. Suddenly I’ll see the name and think did I try “X”? Many times a fresh perspective can be a good thing.

Catch you all next week.