Commercial Capital BIDCO Sponsors CLBA 2024
The Commercial Loan Broker Association Conference and Expo is just around the corner! We are thrilled to be a sponsor and exhibitor at their inaugural conference this October 1-3 in Orlando, Florida. This education-focused conference is also set to offer a variety of breakout sessions and panels with topics ranging from broker resources to product-specific niche insights. Make your plans today to join us at this impactful event! We will be at booth #109 and would love to chat through deals. Learn more about the conference and get registration details at CLBAssociation.com.
A 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 Launch the Commercial Loan Broker Association
Exciting times are ahead for the teams at Alternative Capital Solutions and Commercial Capital BIDCO! In order to fill a gap within the Commercial Loan Broker industry, Terry Luker and Jeff Luker – along with business partner Jon Cosentino of Fairwinds Commercial Capital – have launched the Commercial Loan Broker Association (CLBA). Terry, Jeff and Jon created the CLBA as a way for Commercial Loan Brokers to establish meaningful relationships with lenders and other brokers across the United States, increase their deal flow, as well as tap into thoughtful professional development and education opportunities. Using their combined experience of over a century within the CRE and Finance industries, CLBA’s main goal will be to drive broker success and strengthen broker + lender relationships.
Their inaugural CLBA Conference & Expo will be hosted in Orlando, Florida at the Hilton Lake Buena Vista at Disney Springs this October 1 – 3, 2024. The Conference & Expo will take brokers and lenders into deep educational dives covering industry trends, key strategies for growth, and new technologies that will benefit their businesses. Networking and exposition hours will allow for all attendees to connect, build relationships, and talk deals with contacts across the country.
Mark Sanborn will deliver the Keynote Address for CLBA 2024. Sanborn, President of Sanborn & Associates, has spent over 30 years cultivating extraordinary leaders. Sanborn is an international bestselling author and an award-winning leadership keynote speaker who has written eight books, including the New York Times and International Bestseller, The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary, which has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. His latest book is The Intention Imperative: Three Essential Changes That Will Make You a Successful Leader Today. The CLBA is thrilled to have him kick-off their first annual Conference & Expo.
Early Bird Registration for Broker and Lender attendees is now open! Sponsorship opportunities for the Conference & Expo are also available. Information for Registration and Sponsorships can be found on the website at https://clbassociation.com/conference-2024/.
The NACLB 2023 Conference and Expo Hit the Jackpot for its 9th Year!
The National Alliance of Commercial Loan Brokers recently held its 9th annual conference and expo - allowing Commercial Lending Brokers, Direct Lenders, and Service Providers in the industry to come together across three days in Las Vegas, Nevada. Commercial Capital BIDCO was again a Silver Sponsor for the event - marking our continued support of the NACLB through the years. The NACLB Conference and Expo gives us the opportunity to showcase our direct lending strategies and expertise as a company by having a booth in the expo hall. Through this we are able to meet Brokers new the industry as well as the chance to build on existing Broker relationships.
When it comes to industry education, The NACLB strives to educate others through topic-specific panels that include seasoned industry leaders who have proven successful in their markets through the years. Peer-to-peer education is instrumental to the success of ongoing broker development. This year, our very own Marketing Director - Leah Waldrop - was able to serve on the Marketing Yourself as a New Broker panel alongside the President of Aspen Capital Solutions, Nicholas Zuchegno. In this small group breakout, Leah was able to drive home the directives for brokers across both Digital and Traditional routes of marketing. Grassroots marketing through networking and face-to-face meetings was also a vital point throughout the session as the industry continues to change and evolve with the economy. Those in attendance were very engaged and it was beneficial to see marketing strategies and ideas come to life from the perspectives of both a Marketing Director and a business owner.
When it comes to professional development and education, Terry Luker is a true advocate of mentorship and continued learning. Terry started out in the industry as a Broker when he built Alternative Capital Solutions in 2013 - he has been in those shoes and continues to work on that facet of the Commercial Lending world through ACS. He understands what a Broker needs to develop and fine tune their strategy...what tactics need to be implemented to secure growth. It is always so enlightening to see his passion for Broker development first-hand when at NACLB. Having been a NACLB Rookie of the Year award recipient as well as a Broker of the Year award recipient, it's understandable why so many other Brokers look to Terry for guidance in their own businesses and markets. The NACLB Conference and Expo is an excellent time for Terry to meet with these individuals face-to-face and find out more about their pain points and passions. The NACLB Conference and Expo is a huge opportunity for Terry and the Commercial Capital BIDCO team to explain Terry's proprietary e-learning development tool, The Commercial Broker Playbook. This is the cherry on top for a Broker who is fresh out of a commercial lending brokerage school such as The Commercial Capital Training Group or is looking to build their business. We are thankful for the NACLB and the chance to put this tool in front of Brokers across the country.
The 2023 event was definitely one for the books! George Foreman served as the conference's keynote speaker and he knocked his speech out of the park! His story and words of wisdom served as the 1-2 punch for all of those who were in attendance to take a fresh look at their business and how they can best continue to grow and adapt. All attendees, no matter their market, background or business goals left the conference refreshed and revitalized to take on 2024. The Commercial Capital BIDCO team has already hit the ground running on what we can do to adjust for the new year as well as how we can build on our successes from 2023! Thank you to the NACLB for another successful conference and thank you to all of our broker and client relationships for all that you do. We are grateful to serve you!