An alternative to cumbersome bank lending

What we actually do

Guardian Commercial Lending is a commercial mortgage brokerage. We are not a bank, and that is the point. A bank has one set of products and one credit box, and if your file does not fit it, you get a no with no explanation attached.

We work across a range of lenders — conventional, agency, SBA, private and bridge — and our value is knowing which of them is genuinely interested in a deal like yours right now. Lender appetite shifts constantly. A program that was aggressive on hospitality last quarter may have pulled back entirely this one. Keeping track of that is the work.

How we prefer to operate

Three things shape how we handle a file:

We tell you early if it will not work. Some deals are not financeable in the current market at the price the borrower needs. Finding that out in week one is worth far more than a polite maybe that runs for two months.

We ask for everything up front. The single biggest cause of a slow closing is an incomplete file. When the documents are in hand at application, most conventional loans close in 35 to 45 days. When they are not, it drags.

We stay on it. Your financing is a priority from the start of the process to the moment your goal is accomplished — not just until the file leaves our desk.

Leadership

Larry Dennis, President, has spent his career in sales and marketing, with the last stretch of it entirely in real estate and commercial lending. His value to borrowers is a practical one: he knows the loan process end to end, and he knows which programs actually fit which situations — which is the difference between a file that closes and a file that circles.

He and his staff treat your financing as a top priority from the beginning of the process until it is done.

Where we lend

Our office is in Sandy, Utah. Our lending is nationwide — we place loans in all 50 states, and the property can be anywhere in the country. Much of our work comes from repeat borrowers and referral partners who send us the deals their own bank could not do.

Our specialty practices

Two areas where we have unusual depth:

• Senior housing and healthcare. We are a national broker and lender funding assisted living facilities through both Fannie Mae and HUD programs, and have funded some of the largest assisted living providers in the country as well as small community-based operators.
• Borrowers banks decline. Start-ups, B/C/D credit, asset-based files and time-sensitive closings — the deals that are perfectly sound but do not fit a template.