Eastern Union Funding, one of the nation’s leading commercial real estate debt brokerages, reported an increase in originations of more than 20 percent during the first quarter of 2016, in comparison to first quarter 2015 figures.
Closings are up 15 percent, with almost $1.25 billion in transactions in the pipeline for the second quarter.
The robust transaction volume is in part due to Eastern Union’s formation of the industry’s first quote-and-term-sheet (QTS) division to connect lenders with the firm’s mortgage brokers and clients, according to Ira Zlotowitz, president and co-founder of Eastern Union Funding.
The new QTS division, named for the quotes and term sheets used to compare loan options, consists of financial specialists who shop clients’ deals to the market, and return to those clients an assortment of the best financing terms available from potential lenders.
QTS frees Eastern Union’s mortgage brokers to focus on client service and closing deals, and eliminates the potential for some lenders to be overlooked due to broker preferences.
“By consolidating the process of marketing our clients’ loan parameters to lenders and gathering quotes for all of our deals out of a single division, we have simultaneously boosted efficiency and increased the time that brokers devote to the client,” said Zlotowitz.
“Clients benefit from Eastern Union’s relationships and patent-pending database tracking more than 175 lenders. That translates into the best deal for the client and a more uniform, efficient delivery of the information they need to select the best loan.
“Profound advancements in the availability of data compel commercial mortgage brokers to refine and structure the services they offer in order to fit the new ways that investors and developers are doing business,” Zlotowitz said.
“We are leading the industry into fee structures that still compensate the mortgage brokerage for valuable services, but also pass along savings that we can achieve through better practices and data management.”
