Why do banks turn down real estate businesses for loans?

Commission arrives in lumps, months apart, with no relationship to the calendar a bank underwrites against. A quiet quarter is ordinary and reads as a business in trouble.

Most agents and small brokerages are structured lean, so there is little on the balance sheet to secure against — the value is in the pipeline, which a bank cannot lend on.

Marketing spend makes the timing worse. You pay for listings, photography and advertising well before the commission that justifies them, so you borrow at your weakest-looking moment.

Twelve months of deposits shows the pattern rather than the gap. A funder is looking for total collection and consistency across a year, which is the honest way to read commission income.

A line of credit fits this shape better than a lump sum: draw for a listing campaign, repay on closing, and pay only for what was drawn.

Repayment that flexes with deposits means a slow month costs less, which matters when the gap between closings is genuinely unpredictable.

A line of credit fits commission income best: draw when costs run ahead of closings and repay when they close, paying interest only on what is drawn, for the days it is drawn.

For a one-off expense with no recurring gap, short-term working capital is the simpler alternative. Either way, apply with twelve months of statements so the underwriter sees the year rather than the quiet weeks between closings.

Twelve months of bank statements rather than six — the longer window is what shows the pattern in commission income.

Your pipeline, roughly. It is not underwritten, but it explains a quiet recent month better than nothing does.

Whether commissions settle into the business account or a personal one. They need to be in the business account.