Cash Out Loan
I approached Eastern Bank seeking a straightforward 20-year fixed cash-out loan against a commercial building my LLC owns free and clear. The property has been occupied by the same operating business for over 20 years, and I requested only about 50% loan-to-value.
Instead, after nearly three weeks of underwriting, repeated document requests, and constant back-and-forth, the bank presented a loan structure that was completely different from what I requested.
The offer was not a true 20-year fixed loan. It included a 5-year rate reset, a 10-year balloon, and a 25-year amortization that would still leave a massive balance due at maturity. After ten years of payments, I would still owe nearly half a million dollars and be forced to refinance again or pay a balloon. That was never what I asked for.
What made the experience especially frustrating was the underwriting process itself. The bank raised concerns over an old lien matter that had already been fully paid, resolved, and released. I offered certificates of good standing and supporting documentation from the relevant agencies, yet I still found myself having to walk the underwriter through how to interpret the LexisNexis reporting and organize the information into a spreadsheet so it could be understood properly.
Despite bringing a debt-free commercial property, modest leverage request, long operating history, and documentation showing the issues had been resolved, the final terms still came back with a high rate structure, a balloon payment, and multiple protections heavily favoring the bank.
Had Eastern Bank simply stated upfront that they were unwilling to offer a true long-term fixed structure, I could have moved on immediately instead of losing valuable time.
Overall, the process felt unnecessarily disorganized, drawn out, and far less transparent than I expected from a major regional bank.