I was pleasantly surprised when I received an e-mail regarding my last blog on new fueled commercial lending competition from a commercial banker from a national bank that I have worked with for over 15 years. The e-mail stated that he read my most recent blog with interest and was wondering why I did not allude to the SBA's 25-year amortizing loan structure (with the ability to pay down loan principal by 25% in any given year, and only a 5%, 3%, and 1$ prepayment penalty thereafter)? He also stated he personally closed on over $2MM worth of SBA loans in the past two weeks in commercial real estate mortgages for projects in southeastern Michigan, with more in the pipeline! Great news to here for us metro Detroiters and a testament to commonground's evolution to the "GO TO" website for commercial real estate. I wrote a similar blog about a commercial realtor reading my blog in August. It is not just Phase I ESAs and environmental professionals on commonground. As a member or the commondground advisory board we are looking at diversification of membership and Realtors and Bankers are clearly the next group of professionals we want to recruit. It is no wonder commonground was the 2009 Forrester Groundswell B2B winner.