How to Use LenderMatrix Search Filters to Find the Right Lender

LenderMatrix is a marketplace where lenders and brokers publish the loan programs they offer, with the criteria they actually lend to, and borrowers search those programs or describe a deal once and see which fit. The search is only as useful as the filters you use. This guide walks through every filter on the program search and the lender directory, explains what each one does and when to use it, shows how to type a search in plain English, and ends with a method for turning a search into a short list of lenders worth your time.

Two Ways to Search

You can search the marketplace, which means filtering published programs the way you would filter listings on any marketplace, or you can describe your deal once with Get Funding and let the site compare your answers with every program’s published criteria, showing what matched, what did not and what is missing. Both use the same underlying data: the criteria each lender published. Searching is faster for exploring; Get Funding is better when you are ready to contact lenders, because it carries your answers to them and shows them your fit before they reply.

Typing a Search in Plain English

The keyword box reads sentences. Type “bridge under $5M in Texas non-recourse” and the search sets the loan type to bridge, the maximum amount to $5 million, the state to Texas and recourse to non-recourse, then shows what it understood in a line that reads “Read as: Texas; up to $5,000,000; Bridge; Non-recourse”. Anything it does not recognize stays as a keyword matched against program and lender names. It understands:

• States by name or two-letter code in capitals (“in CA”).
• Amounts: “$2M to $10M”, “under $750k”, “over $1 million”, or a bare figure as the exact amount you need.
• Rates (“under 8% rate”), leverage (“75% LTV”), coverage (“1.25x DSCR”), credit (“650 credit”), closing speed (“close in 21 days”) and terms (“10 year”).
• Loan types, property types, industries, uses of funds and lender types, with common nicknames: hard money, 7a, LOC, ABL, warehouse, dispensary.
• Flags: non-recourse, interest-only, no personal guarantee, owner-occupied, fixed, variable, nationwide, bad credit, bankruptcy, broker co-op, responsive.
• Sorts: cheapest, fastest, newest, largest.

The filters tick themselves to match, so you can see exactly how the sentence was read and change anything that is wrong. A choice you make in the panel always wins over what the sentence implied.

The Filters, One by One

Financing Category

Commercial real estate or business financing. Choosing one changes which loan types, property types or industries are offered below. Leave it blank to search both.

Loan Type

The product: acquisition, refinance, bridge, construction, permanent, SBA 7(a), term loan, line of credit, equipment, and so on. If you are not sure which you need, start with the use of funds instead and let the programs that finance that use show you the types.

Loan Amount From and To

A range. The search returns programs whose own minimum and maximum overlap your range, so a program that lends $1 million to $20 million appears for a search from $2 million to $5 million. Use the range when you are exploring what exists at your size. The optional exact amount field, below it, is for a specific need: it returns only programs whose range contains that figure.

State

Programs that lend in the state, including nationwide programs. County and city fields in More filters narrow further for lenders that list them.

Property Types, Industries and Uses of Funds

These are tick lists. Tick several and the search returns programs that match any of them; tick everything and the group stops filtering. Property types appear for commercial real estate, industries for business financing, and uses of funds for both. Lenders that do not restrict a group match every value in it.

Lender Type and Direct Lender or Broker

Bank, credit union, CDFI, SBA lender, private lender, debt fund and so on, and whether the listing is from a lender that funds with its own money or a broker that places loans. Both have their place; brokers reach lenders you cannot, and direct lenders answer for their own terms. Many borrowers search both and compare.

Your Credit Score

Hides programs whose published minimum score is above yours. Programs with no published minimum stay in the results. Enter your real score; the filter does not pull credit and lenders will verify later anyway.

LTV and LTC Needed

The leverage you need, as a percentage of value or cost. The search returns programs whose published maximum is at least that high. If you need 75% and a program tops out at 65%, it is hidden, which saves you a conversation that would end the same way.

Your DSCR, Annual Revenue and Months in Business

Your figures. The search hides programs whose published minimums you do not meet. Lenders that publish no minimum still appear.

Maximum Starting Rate and Term Needed

Programs whose published starting rate is at or below your limit, and programs whose maximum term is at least what you need.

Recourse

Non-recourse available, or full recourse. Non-recourse limits your personal liability to the property; it is common on stabilized property and rare on bridge and construction loans.

Close Within Days

Programs whose published closing time is at or under your deadline. Useful when a purchase contract sets the date.

Occupancy, Rate Type, Interest-Only and Personal Guarantee

Owner-user or investment property; fixed or variable rate; whether interest-only payments are available; and whether a personal guarantee is not required or is case by case.

Considers Credit Challenges, and Considers a Past Bankruptcy or Foreclosure

Lenders that state they will look at a file with late payments, low scores, or a discharged bankruptcy or past foreclosure. Combine with “Your credit score” to find lenders that both publish a minimum you meet and say they consider the story. Our guide to financing with credit challenges explains what to expect.

Works With Brokers (Pays Broker Fees)

For brokers: lenders that state they accept broker-referred deals and pay broker compensation. For borrowers working with a broker, this is the set your broker can place you with.

Responsive Lenders Only

Lenders that have earned the response-time badge by replying to requests quickly. The badge is calculated from real response times and cannot be bought.

Nationwide, Public Contact Details, Featured

Programs that lend in every state; lenders whose phone and email are shown on their profile; and lenders in paid placement. Featured placement never changes whether a program fits or how its match is scored; it affects position only.

Sorting

Relevance orders by how well the program fits what you searched. Interest rate puts the lowest published starting rate first. Loan amount puts the largest maximum first. Closing speed puts the fastest first. Newest shows recently published programs. Featured shows paid placement first. When you type “cheapest” or “fastest” into the keyword box, the sort changes to match.

Reading a Program Card

Each card shows the program name, the lender and its type, the loan range, where it lends, the published starting rate where there is one, the closing time, highlights such as maximum leverage, minimum credit or “Considers credit challenges”, and badges for responsiveness and for demo data. Open the program to read the full criteria, the lender’s notes and disclosures, and similar programs to compare. Save programs you want to come back to; saved programs appear in your dashboard.

From Search to Short List

1. Start wide. Category, state and the amount range. Note how many programs exist at your size in your state.
2. Add the deal’s hard facts. Loan type or use of funds, property type or industry. These are the criteria lenders treat as yes-or-no.
3. Add your constraints. Credit score, leverage needed, closing deadline, recourse. Each one removes programs that would decline you later.
4. Sort by what matters most to you: rate, speed or amount.
5. Open the top five to eight and read the full criteria. Look for the things cards cannot show: prepayment terms, fees, exclusions, and the lender’s notes.
6. Save the search so you are told when a new program matches, and save the programs you like.
7. Send one request. Get Funding carries your answers to the lenders you pick, shows them your fit, and tracks their responses in your dashboard. Nothing goes to a lender you did not select, and lenders cannot see each other.

Three Searches, Worked

A buyer with a contract. You are buying a $3.2 million self-storage facility in Arizona, closing in forty-five days, with a 680 score, and you need 70% leverage. Type “self storage Arizona $3.2M close in 45 days 680 credit 70% ltv” and the search sets property type, state, exact amount, closing deadline, credit score and leverage. Sort by closing speed. Open the programs that remain and read their prepayment terms; a buyer who may refinance within a few years wants a step-down penalty, not yield maintenance. Save the two or three you like and send one request.

A business owner replacing a line of credit. Your distribution company needs a $500,000 line, has four years of history, $6 million of revenue and an owner with a 640 score. Choose business financing, loan type business line of credit, revenue $6 million, months in business 48, credit 640, and tick “Considers credit challenges”. Compare the programs on their rate type, draw terms and personal guarantee requirement, which the program pages list. Asset-based lenders and factors will also appear if you search by use of funds, working capital, instead of by loan type.

A broker placing a deal. Your client needs a $12 million bridge loan on a value-add multifamily property in Georgia, non-recourse. Tick “Works with brokers”, set state, loan type, amount range $10 million to $15 million, property type multifamily and recourse non-recourse. The Lenders view shows which companies have active programs in that space; the Programs view shows the programs themselves. Lenders that welcome brokers say so, which saves the first phone call.

Understanding “Potential Match”

When you use Get Funding, each program shows a potential match percentage and the criteria behind it: the ones that lined up, the ones that did not, and the answers that would sharpen the result. Hard requirements such as state, loan size and property type rule a program in or out. Weighted criteria such as leverage, coverage and experience shape the percentage. The working is shown so you can check it, and lenders see the same comparison when your request arrives. It is a rules-based comparison against published criteria, not underwriting, and paid placement never changes it.

Searching the Lender Directory

The Lenders view answers a different question: not which programs fit, but which companies are active in your space. It filters by lender type, direct lender or broker, state, and, through each lender’s active programs, by category, industry served, property type, loan type, loan amount range and responsiveness. Use it to find lenders with a presence in your market before you narrow to programs, or switch between the Programs and Lenders views on the results bar with the same search.

State and Loan-Type Pages

Every state has pages for each property type, industry, loan type and use of funds, and every loan type, industry and use has a page of its own. They are the same search with a preset, plus a summary of what lenders in that corner typically require, a preparation checklist and related guides. Change any filter on those pages and the search moves to the full results page with your choice kept.

Saved Searches and Alerts

A saved search is its filters. Save one from the results bar, choose daily or weekly alerts, and you are emailed when a new program matches. Every saved search has a forwardable link; anyone you send it to can see the current matches and subscribe by email without an account.

What the Search Cannot Tell You

It compares your inputs with what lenders published. It cannot tell you whether a lender will approve you, what rate you will actually receive, or whether a lender’s criteria are current, although lenders are reminded to keep them so. A potential match is not an approval, a pre-approval or an offer. Treat the search as the fastest way to find the lenders worth talking to, and treat the conversation with each lender as the place where the real terms are set.

Your Dashboard After a Search

Once you have an account, the dashboard keeps everything a search produces: saved programs, saved searches with their alerts, the requests you have sent, each lender’s status and messages, and the match report you can share with an advisor or co-borrower. Lenders mark requests viewed, contacted, in underwriting, term sheet issued, funded or closed, and the dashboard shows those statuses in plain words, with milestones once a deal is moving. You can send an update to every lender at once, withdraw from one lender, close a request, or duplicate it to start a new one with the answers filled in. None of it costs anything, and no lender sees which other lenders you contacted.

Tips

• If a search returns nothing, remove the most restrictive filter first, usually leverage or rate. The site also offers to tell lenders what you were looking for when fewer than three programs match.
• Searching by use of funds catches programs across several loan types.
• Lenders’ published minimums are often firm; their maximums are often negotiable.
• Read the lender’s notes on the program page; exclusions live there.
• The calculators on the Loan Calculators page turn your figures into the DSCR, LTV and payment numbers the filters ask for.

For Lenders: What the Filters Mean for Your Program

Every filter above is a field on your program. A blank field matches every search for that filter; a filled field matches only searches it fits. Publishing your minimum loan size, states, property types or industries, leverage, credit minimum and closing time puts you in front of the borrowers who fit and out of the way of those who do not. The optional answers, considers credit challenges, considers a past bankruptcy, works with brokers, are shown on your card and searched directly; leave them unticked if they are not true, because borrowers filter on them. Our guide to writing a program covers the rest.

Summary

LenderMatrix search is a set of filters that mirror the criteria lenders publish: size, geography, type, leverage, coverage, credit, speed, recourse, rate type and a handful of yes-or-no answers about who a lender will consider. Type what you need in plain English, let the filters tick themselves, adjust what is wrong, sort by what matters, read the full criteria on the programs that remain, and send one request to the lenders you choose. LenderMatrix is a marketplace, not a lender; the search finds the right conversations, and the lenders decide.