Why take this school instead of figuring it out alone
You can learn commercial finance on your own, one declined deal at a time. The school gives you the whole path in order, with the tools to do the work from the first lesson.
The whole business, in order
How lenders think, every major loan type, packaging, getting paid, underwriting and finding clients. Each lesson builds on the last, with a knowledge check before you move on.
Tools that do the heavy lifting
Loan Finder screens a request, Package Builder builds the checklist and the Loan Request Summary, and the Calculators run the numbers. You use them in the school and with your clients.
Practice before your first client
In the capstone you build three complete loan packages from case files, so your first real file is not your first package.
Marketing and your first clients
A one-page business plan, a clear message, a 30-day plan for your first ten clients, the marketing habits that keep inquiries coming and how to measure them, with a worksheet for each.
Fewer costly mistakes
The wrong lender, a missing fee agreement, an incomplete package or an unclear fee can cost a deal. The lessons show you how to avoid each one.
Rules you know to check
Regulator contacts for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, SBA fee disclosure, and the advertising, email and calling rules to confirm before you market or take a client.
Learn at your own pace. Lifetime access includes every update, and the six tools stay yours after graduation.
It is easier to learn than it looks
Commercial finance has a reputation for being complicated. It is not. It is a small number of moving parts that repeat on every deal:
- About a dozen loan types. SBA 7(a), SBA 504, conventional real estate, equipment loans and leases, lines of credit, working capital, refinancing, state programs, USDA, export and bridge. You will know all of them.
- Two core ratios. Debt service coverage and loan to value. Learn these alongside credit, equity, eligibility and the lender's other requirements. The Calculators help with the arithmetic.
- One package. The same documents, the same sources and uses table and the same two-page summary, adjusted by loan type. The Package Builder generates the checklist and writes the summary with you.
- Lender relationships. Knowing which bank, credit union, CDC or equipment lender wants which deal. Your Lender Matrix holds that knowledge.
If you are a real estate agent or a loan officer, skills such as finding clients, collecting documents and managing transactions give you a useful foundation. The school adds commercial financing knowledge, lender selection and loan packaging. If you are starting your first brokerage, begin with the business setup lessons and work through the practice files.
What you will be able to do when you finish
- Plan your business setup: the entity, the state requirements to verify, the fee agreement, the tools and your website or intake process.
- Sign up with lenders as an approved broker or referral partner, including SBA lenders and the lenders behind state programs, and know what each one wants.
- Run an initial ten-minute screen to identify possible financing fits, questions to ask and missing documents.
- Explain SBA 7(a), SBA 504, conventional, equipment, lines of credit, refinancing, state programs and bridge financing to a client in plain language.
- Run a commercial building's own numbers, income, value, debt coverage and cash on cash, and tell a client when a building does not pay.
- Prepare a loan package for lender review: the financials, the checklist, the sources and uses and the Loan Request Summary, then select suitable lenders for submission.
- Read every document in the file the way the underwriter does, tax returns, personal statements, credit reports, rent rolls and operating statements, and underwrite a conventional, an SBA and a construction request.
- Get paid: fee agreements, fee ranges, and how fees are disclosed on SBA loans.
- Write a one-page business plan and a 30-day plan for your first ten clients, then find clients through referral partners, lenders, your website and steady marketing, within the advertising rules.
Who teaches this
The lessons were written by a practitioner, not a marketer. The author owned and ran a commercial lending and real estate brokerage with more than 25 staff for ten years, worked on the bank side as a business banker at two national banks and as a financial advisor at two national firms, and has spent years working with SBA lenders and the SBA loan programs. The tools in this course were built from that experience. Every lesson teaches what a loan officer actually looks for, because the author has sat on both sides of the desk.
Start with Module 1 today
Enroll, sign in with the link we email you, and the first lesson is open. All six tools are available from the first day.