Track the rate.
Time the close.

A commercial real estate loan is debt secured by income-producing property: multifamily, office, retail, industrial, hospitality, and others. Unlike a residential mortgage, it's underwritten on the property's cash flow first and the sponsor's strength second.

Most loans price as a benchmark plus a spread. The benchmark is a Treasury yield or a SOFR swap. The spread is the lender's charge for risk and profit. Knowing both is how you sanity-check any quote.

SOFR, the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, replaced LIBOR as the standard short-term benchmark. Almost every floating-rate commercial loan written today is priced over SOFR or a SOFR swap.

Fixed locks the rate for the life of the loan, usually pricing off Treasuries. Floating moves with a short-term index (today, SOFR), and typically costs less up front but carries rate risk. Floating rates are standard on bridge and construction debt.

Recourse means the borrower personally guarantees repayment. Non-recourse means the lender's remedy is generally limited to the property, with carve-outs for fraud, bankruptcy, and similar "bad boy" acts. Most CMBS and agency loans are non-recourse.

Permanent loans run 5, 7, or 10 years fixed, usually with 25–30 year amortization. Bridge debt is 1–3 years floating. Construction debt is term-of-build plus a stabilization period. Agency multifamily can stretch to 30 years fixed.

Stabilized assets typically see 60–75% LTV from balance sheet and CMBS lenders, with agency multifamily reaching 75–80%. Bridge and construction lenders often quote on loan-to-cost instead, commonly 65–75% LTC.

DSCR is net operating income divided by annual debt service. Lenders usually require 1.20x–1.25x for permanent debt and tighter for stress-tested floating debt. The lower the ratio, the less margin for error.

Strong, in-place cash flow. Conservative leverage. Experienced sponsorship. Clean reporting. A property in a market lenders want exposure to. Each of those moves the spread down. None of them move the benchmark.

Stabilized multifamily and industrial currently see the deepest capital pools and tightest spreads. Office is the hardest in most markets. Retail and hospitality sit in between, with execution depending heavily on sponsor and location.

Yes, most commercial loans can be refinanced, subject to prepayment terms. Watch for yield maintenance or defeasance on fixed-rate paper, which can make early refis expensive. Floating-rate bridge debt is generally open after a short lockout.

Expect 1–3% of loan amount across lender legal, title, appraisal, environmental, engineering, origination, and recording. Larger and more complex deals trend toward the lower end as a percentage; smaller deals run higher.

A clean permanent loan typically closes in 45–75 days from application. Bridge debt can close in 30 days when needed. Construction loans run longer because of plan and budget review. Agency closings are the most predictable on timeline.

A rent roll, trailing-12 operating statements, a current pro forma, the purchase contract or existing loan documents, sponsor financials and REO schedule, entity organizational documents, and third-party reports once you're under application.

You publish a deal once. Active CRE lenders see it, indicate interest, and send quotes. You compare real numbers from real lenders side by side, instead of forwarding the same OM to ten contacts and hoping someone bites.