A strategic network isn't a spreadsheet.
Most broker lender panels are a spreadsheet of names and criteria. Sehbaaz on what actually makes a lender network worth having.
Sehbaaz, our Head of Investments & Strategic Partnerships, on the difference between a panel of lenders and a network that actually works for clients.
Most broker panels are spreadsheets. Names, contact details, headline criteria, a few notes from the last conversation. The panel looks impressive when it is printed out. It tells you almost nothing about what will happen when one of those lenders gets a real case. I am quite sceptical of lender networks built that way. A relationship only becomes valuable when you know what the lender will actually do under pressure, not just what they say at the introduction.
There are three things I look for before we commit Credco to a lender relationship. The first is access: who actually makes the credit decision, and how close to that person can we get when we need to? The second is honesty: does the lender tell us the difficult things up front, or do we find them out later in the process? The third is consistency: when a deal becomes complicated, does the appetite hold, or does the conversation suddenly become harder? Those three things tell you whether a lender will be there when it matters, or just when it is easy.
A strategic network needs to be live. I treat ours as live market intelligence rather than a static spreadsheet. What is the lender actually completing this quarter, not just claiming to write? What ticket size are they happy with right now, not the marketing range? Where is the credit team becoming cautious, and which structures are they actively asking for more of? That information comes from regular conversations and from tracking the outcomes of real cases. It also requires honesty in the other direction. We tell lenders when something is not ready, rather than sending them deals that waste their time.
The relationships we keep are the ones where trust runs both ways. Across bridging and development finance, auction finance, buy-to-let and the wider specialist book, the lender we recommend is the one we know is going to deliver for the borrower's actual circumstances, not the one whose logo looks impressive on a slide. Get in touch if you would like to be part of how that works.
“I treat our lender network as live market intelligence rather than a static spreadsheet. A strategic network is built through trust on both sides, not by sending every opportunity to everyone on the panel.”