Info on community loans and lenders. Lenders highlighted with active web-links are financial supporters of this site; the others are here out of the pure maple syrupy goodness of my heart… Either way, the list is not complete. There are thousands of banks out there and they can be found on numerous directories.
Lending is given its own page here as it is and should be seen as a special product/service/situation somewhat separate and apart from the ongoing banking services for your association (most often decided unilaterally (and appropriately so) by your management firm or staff). Some banks have general conditions that require you to be a full-service banking client, others may require some level of banking or investment relationship dring the life of the loan, etc.
These are important questions to ask early in your loan-search.
An experienced manager or broker can assist with separating the chaff, as it were, and be invaluable especially when when time and money are short in the face of needed repairs or upgrades . If a manager is tasked with researching and arranging for a loan, you (the board or community members) should expect to pay your management firm additional fees for this kind of extraordinary service (mostly labor, minimal costs). Some management firms will absorb or otherwise build into their ongoing management fee; others may have a fee-schedule for “additional services” beyond the standard services identified in the base management agreement. (If your community is managed by an on-site staff, an extra-fee may not be appropriate, but this really depends on the structure of both you budgeting and your staff work-plan. Have upfront discussion and understand the opportunity costs and impacts on the normal workload from both the loan and project-management efforts.)
Address the issue up front, ask for an estimate of time and material (“T&M”) or a flat rate or a (very small) percentage of approved-loan amount and move along. Getting a loan is an important business transaction and the related efforts of the professionals involved in sourcing, applying for, gaining approval, closing, funding and servicing of that loan are best and rightly viewed as a standard element of a capital improvement project.
