A development finance broker earns their keep for one reason: lender relationships that are current, not nostalgic. Anyone can quote three lenders from a list. The value is in knowing which credit officer at which lender is taking new deals this month, which lender just changed their LVR appetite, and whose valuer panel just lost three names.
That intelligence is what gets your deal past the first conversation. It's also why a small, well-worked set of lender relationships beats a long list of names you've never actually placed a deal with.
Matching the deal to the lender
The right lender for a $2M owner-builder duplex is not the right lender for a $12M private-credit stretch facility. The right lender for residual stock is not the right lender for site bridging. A major bank won't fund a related-party head contract; a non-bank does it all day. Knowing the difference — and calling it on the first conversation — is most of the job.
Shaping the brief
The other half is presentation. A lender-ready brief answers the credit team's questions before they're asked: the feasibility reconciled, the builder evidenced, the equity timed, the presale strategy explained. The same deal, presented two ways, gets two different answers. Shaping the brief for the answer is the work that doesn't show up on the rate sheet but decides whether the deal funds.
Staying in the deal
And then staying in it. Credit delays, valuation pushback, legals that stall — these are normal, and they're where a second line who knows the file earns its place. The broker who'll still answer the phone three weeks into the deal is worth more than the one who quoted ten basis points sharper and disappeared at settlement.