Fast movers make grade.

There have been many significant changes in the lending industry during the past decade or more. Private lenders have become the best source for securing fast funding for land development projects for those who do not have the time to wait for conventional bank financing.

Why? Because the conventional sources simply cannot compete with the timeframes of progressive private lenders such as Kennedy Funding.

The latest change to the industry is the advent of what we call 'situational lending,' a concept pioneered by Kennedy.

Situational lending comprises several different components. First, there's the speed element. When someone needs a loan put together quickly, the situational lender responds with a closing measured in days instead of weeks or months.

Second, there's the flexibility issue. If a loan does not conform to the rigid standards employed by banks and other, traditional institutions, the situational lender applies its flexibility to make the loan work, using the skills and expertise of professionals with long experience in creative loan financing. A good example of such a loan is in the raw land sector, where the undeveloped land itself is used as collateral for the loan. Typically, the conservative lenders won't even consider such a loan, whereas Kennedy Funding thrives on them and is, in fact, the current leader in the raw land arena.

That is the essence of situational lending. Even though the term wasn't around when Kennedy started in 1986, its fundamental elements were what we were always striving for.

Offering unrivaled speed and creativity, plus a willingness to look far beyond the traditional 'barriers' gave us our start as an entity that was cut from a different fabric. When we took these concepts nationwide, and began building a reputation for private lenders as reliable and valued resources for commercial mortgage capital, the situational lending movement really began to spread.

Authentic situational lending has to do with being flexible and malleable enough to change with the times, to revamp and re-engineer processes and thinking so as to be in alignment with customer expectations. Lenders who have worked to make the loan process simpler, faster and more efficient are the real leaders in the industry today, and the true hallmarks of ascendancy--not to mention, the genuine champions of situational lending.

By KEVIN WOLFER, Co-CEO, KENNEDY FUNDING