Questions To Ask Potential Lenders

[Steven Pierpaoli]

My partner and I are jumping from multifamilies with conventional mortgage financing to 10-20 unit properties with plans for commercial financing. We have been fortunate to obtain warm references from a developer to a few commercial lending officers at local banks, and have some lunch meetings planned to start our relationships.

What sort of questions should we be asking our potential lending partners? I understand the preapproval concept before shopping for multifamilies, but from browsing the forums it seems that preapproval isn't quite the same for commercial properties? Should my partner and I expect to "start a file" with these bankers (income statement, credit scores, etc.) so we can then go deal shopping - or is it more typical to bring a "real" deal to these bankers?

Grateful for any advice. Thanks.