You are receiving this letter because you are one of my Spartans - my top-producing brokers and investor clients - of whom I am allowed to have 300. Removal instructions are below. Today we'll talk about marketing to commercial real estate brokers. And, of course, like always, we have lots of cute, clean jokes, several funny pics, and a really cool video for you.

Joke Du Jour

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-lb potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax.

Each day you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato sacks. Then try 50-lb potato sacks and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. (I'm at this level.)

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each of the sacks.

We're From the Government, and We're Here to Help

Private Money Commercial Loans Nationwide From $100,000 to $3.5MM

Is your client's commercial property partially vacant? Do you need a lender who will allow the seller to carry back a second mortgage? Does your client have a balloon payment coming due on his commercial property? Has your bank offered him a discounted pay-off? Does your borrower have less-than-stellar credit? Is your client's company losing money? We make slightly scratched-and-dented commercial loans.

Our hot, new product is a blanket loan against a portfolio of rental homes. Rental homes? Yup, as long as there are at least five homes or units, we consider this to be a commercial loan. We even offer a partial release clause. This loan is ideal for speculators.

Here is our latest rate sheet.

Blackburne & Sons is looking for commercial real estate loans that are not quite clean enough for a bank. Please click here to submit a hard money commercial loan or call me, Tom Blackburne, at (574) 210-6686.

Drought Joke

"A professor from U.C. Berkeley said we are on track for having the worst drought in 500 years. You can tell this drought is getting really bad. Today at lunch, my waiter asked if I wanted a glass of water or a future for my children. I took the water." -- Conan O'Brien

Marketing To Commercial Brokers

The correct term for a commercial real estate sales broker is a commercial broker. Commercial brokers are great sources of commercial loans for two reasons.

First of all, the typical commercial broker knows 15 to 30 commercial real estate investors, each of whom owns two to five commercial-investment properties. Since the majority of all commercial real estate loans balloon every five to ten years, the typical commercial broker has a line on sixty or so ballooning commercial loans.

Secondly, most successful commercial brokers own at least one commercial property of their own. Therefore when you market to commercial brokers, you have TWO chances of hitting the broker just when he needs a commercial loan: (1) One of his many clients might need a commercial loan; or (2) the commercial broker himself might need a commercial loan.

Need a commercial loan? Simply complete this super-easy mini-app.

Baby Planes Joke

A mother and her young son were flying Southwest Airlines from Kansas City to Chicago. The son turned from the window to his mother and asked, "If big dogs have baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don't big planes have baby planes?" The mother said, "Well, maybe that's something you could ask the stewardess." So the boy asked the stewardess, "If big dogs have baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don't big planes have baby planes?" The stewardess responded, "Did your mother tell you to ask me?" The boy admitted that this was the case. "Well, then, tell your mother that there are no baby planes because Southwest always pulls out on time. You can ask your mother to explain it to you."

Preferred Equity

If an investor wants to buy a leased commercial property, banks today will seldom lend more 58% to 62% LTV. Your buyer only wants to put down 25% of the purchase price

Quick, easy preferred equity from Blackburne & Sons fills in the missing piece of the capital stack. We'll add our $150,000 in equity dollars to your client's $250,000 downpayment to create a downpayment large enough to satisfy the bank. For more information, please call Tom Blackburne at (574) 210-6686.

Late Bus Joke

Two old women were sitting on a bench waiting for their bus. The buses were running late, and a lot of time passed. Finally, one woman turned to the other and said, "You know, I've been sitting here so long, my butt fell asleep!'. The other woman turned to her and said "I know! I heard it snoring!"

Crazy Uncle Charlie Thought He Had Him In '72...

New Apartment Program for "A" Deals

Because we have been in the commercial mortgage business for over 34 years, and because we own CommercialMortgage.com, Blackburne & Sons has been allowed to join just five other mortgage bankers to offer an incredible new apartment loan program for "A" quality deals. These loans close in our name and are sold to an institutional investor which purchased almost $400 million in apartment loans last year.

The rate is adjusted according to the desirability of the property and the area, but it starts at 3.87% and 1 point for a 30-year fully-amortized loan. For more details, please call Tom Blackburne at (574) 210-6686.

Soccer Joke

"It's a great day for a man in Brazil. He's 126 and has been called the world's oldest person. He says the highlight of his life was playing goalie for Brazil in this year's World Cup." -- Craig Ferguson

Too Busy to Broker Commercial Loans to Us? Why Not Just Refer Them Instead? We Make It Easy!

We once paid a $21,250 referral fee. Here is our referral fee program.

Robbers Get Their Just Desserts

Oops! Very satisfying video of robbers attempting to steal cash from a shopowner's family, not knowing that the shopowner was a five-time MMA National Champion.

On a Personal Note

My baby sister, Jordan, will be turning 16 years old next week (yes, I said baby sister!). Having no idea what to get a 16 yr old girl (other than a car, which wasn't an option), I struggled for days to think of what to get her. Finally, I decided to take her and mom to a Lady Antebellum concert in Indianapolis. If you are not familiar with Lady Antebellum, they are a very popular country music band. I've never been a country music fan, and I hadn't been to a concert in about 10 years - So, I was not really sure what to expect outside of cowboy hats and daisy dukes. But I went in with an open mind, and within the first few minutes of the opening act, (some guy I've never heard of) I found myself tapping my feet and clapping my hands. By the time Lady Antebellum took stage, I was able to even get our mom into it! I do not know if it was more the cocktails or the music, or the three of us dancing around making fools out of ourselves but we had a marvelous time. It is moments like these that my family, especially my teenage sister Jordan, will remember for years to come.

Don't Forget About C-Loans.com

We have a whole new crop of hungry commercial lenders on C-Loans, so if you have a commercial loan you're trying to place, it takes just four minutes to submit your deal to 750 commercial lenders. And remember, C-Loans.com is free!

Kale Joke

"A company in the U.K. is making news for developing a new vegetable called Brussel-Kale, which is a hybrid of Brussels sprouts and kale. They said, 'We got the idea from a child's nightmare.'" -- Jimmy Fallon

Get a Free E-Book on CREF

This free e-book contains seven of George's best blog articles on the subject of commercial real estate finance.

Contact Information

4811 Chippendale Drive, Suite 101, Sacramento, CA 95841 telephone: (574) 210-6686 * Fax: (916) 338-2328
Real Estate Broker -- California Bureau of Real Estate -- License Number 01330173