Commercial

Commercial financing in California splits into two worlds: owner-users buying their own building (where SBA 7(a) and 504 put as little as 10% down on warehouses, medical offices, and retail condos) and investors financing income property (agency multifamily, NNN credit-tenant, CMBS, and bridge). The structures, lenders, and underwriting are completely different — and so is the broker work.

Owner-users: stop renting your building

If your business has two years of returns and rents its space, the SBA math deserves a look: owner-user occupancy, a typical 10% equity injection, 25-year fully-amortized terms, and the rent you already pay converted into equity in your own building. The 504 variant adds a fixed-rate CDC second. Combined 7(a)+504 can reach $10 million under the July 4, 2026 coordination rule; individual 7(a) is still $5 million. Ownership is a 2026 gate: 100% U.S. citizen or U.S. national (SBA Procedural Notice 5000-876626, March 1, 2026). These are conversation starters, not a lock.

Investors: match the capital to the asset

Stabilized 5+ unit multifamily belongs with agency lenders; single-tenant NNN with investment-grade credit prices like a bond; transitional assets need bridge debt with a clear exit. The mistake I see most is taking a bank's recourse mini-perm when an agency or conduit execution would have been non-recourse at a better spread — because the borrower only talked to their deposit bank.

The CCIM difference

I hold the CCIM designation — the commercial industry's investment-analysis credential, held by roughly the top 6% of commercial practitioners — and run a commercial brokerage practice alongside the mortgage desk. The underwriting you get here is the same cap-rate, DSCR, and sensitivity analysis an institutional buyer would run, not a residential broker improvising on a commercial file.