This significantly expands the number of small businesses eligible to take advantage of this program. Originally, the SBA regulations limited eligibility only to mortgages with balloon payments due on or before Dec 31, 2012. The expansion announced today lifts that limitation.

SBA will issue an official policy notice prior to April 6th that is expected to include additional “technical adjustments” to the program that will enhance its effectiveness.

• Keep in mind, the SBA 504 Refi program has only a 2-year life – it will end in October 2012 – and a limited allocation of funds. Do not wait to take advantage of this opportunity to provide attractive, stable, long-term financing for your clients who have mortgages based on real estate values that have declined over the past two years.

• Refinance existing, non-SBA, commercial real estate debt using SBA 504, below-market, FIXED rate financing.

• You can refinance loan amounts up to 90% of current appraised property value (or 100% of the outstanding principal – whichever is lower). Loans in excess of 90% of appraisal can be refinanced with additional collateral.

Have you ever heard the story about the CEO, the lawyer and the accountant who went deer hunting? As the three walked through the forest a large buck bolted from the brush and ran as fast as it could away from the perceived danger. Simultaneously all three of the hunters raised their rifles, pulled their triggers and loosed rounds towards the fleeing prey.

The buck staggered and fell headfirst down the hill as the three hunters raised their arms in triumph, whooping about what great shots they were. Running to the buck they looked down and saw only one bullet hole in the head of the buck. Now they had no way of knowing whose bullet had killed the deer. So they didn’t know who got to take the trophy home.

At that point a game warden emerged from the field behind them and asked why they look so confused. On hearing their dilemma the warden looked down at the buck, asked what the hunters did for a living and nodded his head as if the answer was obvious. Turning to the group he rendered his judgment: “The deer was killed by the CEO.”

Simultaneously the lawyer and the accountant raised their objections and said there is no way the game warden can tell that they were not responsible for hitting the deer. The game warden said that it was obvious that the CEO had fired the lethal shot. Pointing at the wound in the deer’s head he said, “Look… the shot went in one ear and out the other.”

The moral of the story is quite obvious. When the CEO talks to people in his company they tend to let what he has to say go in one ear and out the other since they have heard it all before… and expect that they will hear it all again. I suppose that’s just human nature.

As CEO of NAI Capital I have been training brokers for years and, like a voice in the wilderness, I have become accustomed to what I say going in one ear and out the other of brokers pretending to listen to what I had to say. Nonetheless, I keep trying even though I know that I will not hit my target with every shot.

My hope is that every now and again my effort hits the target and reaches its goal of influencing one broker at a time in building a more successful career by incorporating what I have to say into the broker’s way of doing business. All I ask of you is just a few minutes considering what I have to say. I know for sure that it will go into one ear of all of you. All I can hope is that for some of you it won’t just as quickly go out the other.

Draw a Picture of God

Did you hear about the little girl in kindergarten whose teacher asked her class to draw a picture of God? As soon as the teacher gave the assignment the little girl cheerfully grabbed her crayons and started drawing feverishly while the rest of the students looked at the teacher with blank stares, wondering how it’s possible to draw a picture of God.

After a few minutes the teacher quietly walked up to the little girl who was busily scratching her crayons on the colorful sheet beneath her hands. The teacher explained to the little girl that she had asked the students to draw a picture of God to drive home the point that we all have different ideas about God, and that it is impossible to draw a picture of God.

The little girl kept drawing. Finally the teacher gently explained to the little girl that nobody knows what God looks like. The little girl did not look up from her drawing. All she said was, “In a few minutes they will.”

All I ask of my readers is to give me a few minutes to suggest to you that there is a way to draw an image of a successful broker. It’s not quite as mysterious as trying to draw a picture of God, but there is a way to draw a picture of long-term success as a commercial real estate broker. And it will only take a few minutes to draw that picture for you.

Maybe you are saying that nobody knows how to draw a picture of how to become a successful real estate broker. “In a few minutes they will.”