Go with your gut.............

We have all received those phone calls, the seemingly too good to be true opportunity. You wonder, why are they calling me? Why aren't the big boys dancing all over this seemingly air tight opportunity. STOP, the truth is they probably already have and either spit this deal out, priced it too high for the borrower or knew something character related that made the deal unbankable in their institution. GO WITH THIS. What does that mean? Ask them why they are coming to you and what other banks they are talking to. That always garners a few creative answers, more often than not with the eyes shifting everywhere but on you.

The real fun begins when right after telling you about the great deal they ask the banker's favorite question "so what's my rate". ATTENTION anyone out there looking for money. Try to at least give the banker your business name and maybe even your full name before dropping this daisy of a question on us. AND understand that we need to do a lot more than hear a good story before we can even quote any type of rate. So maybe hold that question in your pocket for a while, we know you are thinking it so stay with us, we'll get around to it after we vet the deal a bit....you know the things like how are you going to pay us, what can we sell if you don't, and do you have anything to fall back on to give us time to work this through if things don't go as planned (called the guarantor, more on this later).....

So I'm side tracked, that's going to happen a lot. The point is if a deal walks in out of the blue and its too good to be true, it is. 9 out of 10 times the person will need the money yesterday and will immediately (after asking rate) ask how you can circumvent your policy on his or her behalf to get the deal done fast. NOTHING GOOD EVER HAPPENS QUICKLY. So as the banker, set the expectation of timing and get them your list of everything (yes everything, not just the first two pages of the tax return sir, we bankers like the whole bloody thing), and please, please, please get a nice juicy list of references. By now your gut isn't liking how this feels at all, listen to it and start peeling those layers of that onion, on your timeline, not theirs.