StackSource can arrange a CMBS (commercial mortgage backed securities) loan for eligible commercial property investments. CMBS lending is typically a fit for loans $1 Million or greater, on stabilized office, industrial, retail, hospitality, or multi-family assets. Your StackSource capital advisor will be able to analyze your property to determine suitability for a CMBS loan. If so, you'll be able to compare both CMBS and non-securitized loan options.
CMBS loans are non-recourse (subject to industry standard "bad-boy" carve-outs), meaning the borrower is not responsible for the full loan amount out of pocket in the case of a default. This does not mean the loan sponsor cannot suffer a loss of equity on their investment.
CMBS loans are originated in a two-step process. First, a CMBS lender (sometimes called an Issuer or a Loan Contributor) will issue a term sheet to the prospective borrower, outlining the loan amount, rate, and terms of the potential loan. Upon approval and due diligence including third-party reports (appraisal, environmental, etc), the loan will typically then be included in a CMBS "conduit", which is a pool of CMBS loans. The conduit is then Securitized, which means it is broken up into bonds that can be bought and sold by investors. There may be multiple Loan Contributors that all pooled loans into the same Conduit, so there will be one or more Bookrunners that are in charge of selling those bonds.
Start Your Loan RequestNow that the borrower has a loan in place that is sliced up and owned by bond investors, their main point of contact for the loan is the Servicer, which was selected by the Bookrunner during securitization. CMBS loan servicing can have a bad reputation compared to balance sheet lenders, because the Bookrunner may squeeze the servicer's margin in order to keep down costs and make the loan terms most competitive (and pad their own profit), leading to an understaffed and less efficient servicing experience.
The major pros and cons between these two popular low-rate lending options.
The reasons a borrower may want to pursue a CMBS loan, and a couple notes of caution.