Letter From Terry Luker: What Do You Do When the Industry Icon Goes Away?
What Do You Do When the Industry Icon Goes Away?
How does the void get filled?
Do you leave the vacuum running and wait to see what or who fills it?
Three of us - myself, Terry Luker, along with Jeff Luker and Jon Cosentino - chose to try and fill the void while also changing our industry’s direction. Our industry is the commercial loan brokering industry, a trillion-dollar transactional industry.
Over the past eleven years, I founded two businesses - Alternative Capital Solutions, a commercial loan brokering company and later a direct lender, Commercial Capital BIDCO. As I look back at my time in the industry, I realize there are two companies that were instrumental in the growth of my businesses - Commercial Capital Training Group (CCTG) and The National Alliance of Commercial Loan Brokers (NACLB). CCTG was the company that provided commercial loan broker training. I attended that training in December of 2013. The NACLB was the association and conference that we attended for many years. I was given the Commercial Loan Broker Rookie of the Year award in 2014 and in 2016 I received the Commercial Loan Broker of the Year award. These awards were presented by the NACLB at their annual conference.
Both CCTG and NACLB were owned by Kris Roglieri. Kris is now involved in multiple lawsuits resulting from business activities he had through another company he owns, Prime Venture Capital Lending. I am personally familiar with the lending tactics he used with this new company as he had promised me that he could get my lending company, Commercial Capital BIDCO, a $100,000,000 line of credit. Our firm sent in the $35,000 due diligence fee and began the process of acquiring that line of credit. Thankfully we have an awesome attorney who quickly saw through the scheme, and we did not move forward with a loan. We were going to be required to place $20,000,000 on deposit in an interest reserve account. Our attorney could not get comfortable with the agreements and advised me that Kris would have complete control over those funds to do whatever he wanted with. Our attorney told me that it appeared to be a Ponzi Scheme and in turn saved my company and my family from certain financial disaster as we could not afford to lose $20,000,000.
With CCTG and the NACLB closing, there was a massive void in our industry. I had previously tried (and as we have now discovered, many of his staff had tried) to convince Kris to take the conference to a more education-based focus as an association. As a direct lender, we work with commercial loan brokers every day and we see first-hand the struggles that many of them have. Many do not have the knowledge needed to take a deal from the beginning relationship with the borrower to the funding with a lender. They simply do not have the necessary training and experience to get it done.
Our team has decided to bring a superior level of training and education to both our new association and conference, the Commercial Loan Broker Association, as well as our new training company, The Commercial Loan Broker Academy. Our association and academy will be different. We have planned for our first conference to take place in Orlando this October 1-3, 2024. We want the conference to bring lenders, vendors and brokers together to not only meet and network, but to execute plans that will give the brokers’ clients access to the funds they need to grow and expand their businesses. We want lenders to be able to know, with confidence, that the brokers they are working with have the knowledge base needed to get the deal to them with the correct structure and documentation needed for them to make an informed decision on funding those transactions. That is a win for everyone when we accomplish this. The CLBA conference will be more educational focused to help fulfill this need in our industry.
With our new training academy, we want to increase the chances of success for every new commercial loan broker. When I started in this business 11 years ago, there were three things I had to do every day: 1) I had to find clients that needed my services, 2) find lenders that would lend to my clients, and 3) package my clients’ loan requests in the format that lenders wanted. I was burning the candle at both ends!
We want to change that. One of the best things that we ever did at our company is that we built our own credit team. At Alternative Capital Solutions, we underwrite every deal that we represent. ACS does all the underwriting for our lending company. We also underwrite participation deals that we do between banks. We have multiple bank partners that utilize us to find participating bank partners for deals they want to fund that might be too big for their bank or might just want to spread some of the risk to participant partners. Our credit underwriting sets us apart from every other commercial loan brokering company.
We are going to leverage that credit underwriting and provide access to our team for those students who attend our training academy. In addition, we are going to allow our student graduates access to our lender book in order to help fund their deals. As you can see, if we provide the deal packaging and underwriting to our graduates and we provide our lending relationships to our graduates, all they must do is go find their clients. We believe this will be a great recipe for success for our graduate students.
I am excited about where we are as an industry, but I am more excited about where we can take our industry. This is not a one-person success or fail opportunity. This is an opportunity for all of us who love what we do, to come together and grow our industry in education, morals, ethics and accountability. Come be part of a new direction. I hope to see you all in Orlando this October!
By: Terry Luker, Founder and Owner:
Alternative Capital Solutions, Commercial Capital BIDCO, The Commercial Loan Broker Academy, the Commercial Loan Broker Association, and The Commercial Broker Playbook
Terry Luker and Jeff Luker Sit Down with DealMaker Talks! Podcast
Continuing the celebration of Alternative Capital Solutions' 10 Year Anniversary, Jeff and Terry Luker recently sat down with Rita Garwood of the DealMaker Talks! podcast. In this episode of the Commercial Lending Industry podcast, Terry and Jeff highlight the path to ACS' milestone anniversary...the ups and downs through the last decade as a business as well as what they are both looking forward to with the next 10 years of business. Terry Luker's motto is to provide outside-the-box lending solutions and when a loan doesn't fit a certain box...build a new box. This interview certainly evolves around that motto and how it has provided a path for Alternative Capital Solutions' continued success.
Rookie broker? Looking to enter the Commercial Lending industry...or even wanting to learn more as a veteran broker? Catch the full podcast interview with Terry and Jeff via the link HERE!
Taking a Deal to the Finish Line: A Marketer’s Perspective
Alternative Capital Solutions’ Marketing Director, Leah Runge Waldrop, was recently featured in Deal Maker Magazine’s latest issue. In this article, Leah was able to share her perspective on Marketing’s role when it comes to getting a across the finish line. Leah maps out the key areas to focus as a commercial lending broker – whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned vet to the industry. Marketing should not be an overlooked role or department within your company, but instead one that should be strategically supported in order to grow your brand and your business – thus aiding you in the process of closing deals.
Here’s a quick snippet from the article:
“It will be difficult, to say the least, to get a deal off the starting line if the runner doesn’t know how you can help them get to the finish line – and at best, it will be an uphill race. At the end of the day, you must continue to tell your story and experience as a commercial loan broker to your current clients throughout the loan process. By utilizing the tactics from your marketing strategy to narrate the story and paint the picture, your clients will be reminded throughout the deal that you have the expertise and creativity to help them reach their goals.”
Read the article in full on Deal Maker Magazine’s website linked below!
https://www.dealmaker-magazine.com/magazine/taking-a-deal-to-the-finish-line-a-marketers-perspective
Mentors That Last
Thank you to DealMaker Magazine for featuring Terry Luker's article, "Mentors That Last," in their latest issue. In the article, Terry champions the idea of mentorship and how everyone in our industry cannot only benefit from having a mentor, but how we can also build up the next generation of commercial lending brokers by mentoring to those who are new to this genre of lending. He also notes how this can be a revitalizing way to keep a pulse on new trends. "Working with young brokers keeps me on my toes and allows me to remember where we have come from as a company," says Terry Luker.
Terry also gives tribute to those who took the time to mentor him when building Alternative Capital Solutions 10 years ago. Terry can attest to the value and importance that mentorship can have on our successes as an individual and a professional.
Read the article in full on DealMaker Magazine's website linked HERE.
Terry Luker launches Deal Talk Podcast
Terry Luker, founder and CEO of both Alternative Capital Solutions and the Commercial Broker Playbook, recently launched his podcast, Deal Talk - For Commercial Brokers and Lenders. This style podcast serves to educate commercial brokers and lenders on creative deal structure, how to overcome objections in our current economy, as well as highlight meaningful discussions with other leaders in the commercial real estate lending world. Season 1 of the podcast has included in-depth background stories from his first book, "YES!," where he dives into greater detail around the ins and outs of getting his first ten deals past the finish line and funded. Season 2 is launching soon and will feature interviews and conversations from closing attorneys, the founder of The Commercial Capital Training Group, and more!
Join us for Deal Talk on YouTube and Spotify! Click the links below to view past episodes as well as subscribe for new episode alerts.
Click here to listen on YouTube.
Click here to listen on Spotify.