Borrowers get pro-active in pursuit of the perfect senior loan.

Given all that's at stake, senior housing/healthcare borrowers correctly assume that lenders should be held to a high standard. But a successful loan application may hinge upon more than the fact that the lender knows his or her stuff, funding expert Jeffrey A. Davis believes.

"To assure a successful outcome, borrowers may need to be more responsive as their loan winds its way through the application process," he noted.

Davis is chairman of Chicago-based Cambridge Realty Capital Companies, one of the nation's leading senior housing/healthcare lenders, with more than 275 closed transactions totaling more than $1.75 billion since the mid-1990s. The company is a HUD 232 FHA/MAP-approved lender and funded more nursing home transactions than any other HUD lender in the country last year.

According to Davis, timing is critical. And at least half of the responsibility for sustaining momentum in a lending transaction rests with the borrower.

"Without momentum the underwriting process can unravel quickly, with rejection the most likely outcome," he stressed, adding: "When a lender requests updated numbers or additional data, the expectation is that the needed information will be forthcoming in a timely fashion.

Borrowers should have at least three years of historical data copied and ready to present, and five years of data may be even better."

The type of information needed to meet the lender's due diligence requirements will vary depending upon the type of transaction it is. But there is nothing mysterious about the kinds of information lenders need to process a loan.