Most people involved in a commercial real estate transaction have a role they can point to. The buyer wants the asset. The seller wants to move on. The lender wants to deploy capital safely. But ask someone outside the industry who ties all of that together, and you will likely get a blank stare.

That is the capital markets broker. And after closing nearly $520 million in loans across more than 7 years in the business, Culby Culbertson, founder of Culbertson Holdings, has a clear way of explaining the role: the broker is the nucleus of the transaction.

“If you don’t have a good mortgage broker, you are leaving a lot of money on the table,” Culbertson says. “You’re going to have to go through a lot of that process independently, when really you should be working with someone that has a keen understanding of it and can eliminate a lot of the occupied time for busy professionals.”

The job starts long before a term sheet is issued. When a borrower brings a deal to Culbertson Holdings, the team immediately digs into the financials: profit and loss statements, rent rolls, pro formas, and a realistic picture of what it will take to move from current operations to the owner’s projected performance. The broker has to understand both where the property is today and the gap between as-is and where it needs to be for a lender to feel comfortable.

That kind of context matters more than most borrowers realize. Banks and institutional lenders are not in the business of creative problem-solving. They assess risk and issue approvals or denials based on what is in front of them. A capital markets broker, on the other hand, works across dozens of lenders and thousands of deal types, giving them a perspective that no single bank can offer.

“You’re not going to call Bank of America and they’re going to say, here’s how you should do it,” Culbertson says. “There’s no chance in hell that will ever happen. But you come to a group like us, and we’re built for this.”

That also means understanding the full toolkit available in the market. When a conventional bank can only get to 70% loan-to-value, a capital markets broker knows which preferred equity products, mezzanine structures, or seller carry arrangements can bridge the gap and get a deal to the finish line. These are not exotic workarounds. They are standard tools for anyone who works at the intersection of borrower need and lender appetite every single day.

Culbertson himself is an investor, not just an advisor. He owns two multifamily properties in Central Texas and a self-storage facility in East Texas, both of which required the same creative capital structuring he arranges for clients. When a mom-and-pop operated apartment complex needed renovation capital that a conventional bank would not touch, he used a specialized private capital source to fund the rehab, stabilize operations, and ultimately refinance into long-term agency debt.

“I’ve been there and done that,” he says. “And every time you see a new deal, it’s another rep. The more reps you get, the better you become.”

For investors wondering whether a capital markets broker is a cost center or a value creator, Culbertson’s position is straightforward. The broker does not just find financing. They help a borrower understand what the deal actually needs to look like, how to present it, and which capital products give them the best path to their return. That is a different service than what a bank provides, and in a market where lenders have tightened standards and de-risked their credit profiles, the difference between a good broker and no broker can be the difference between a deal that closes and one that does not.

About Culbertson Holdings Culbertson Holdings is a Dallas-based capital markets advisory firm specializing in debt and equity placement for commercial and residential investment assets. With over $550 million in closed loans across more than 12 states, the team works across all core asset classes including multifamily, industrial, hospitality, retail, and land. Culbertson Holdings provides transaction advisory, creative deal structuring, and access to institutional and private capital sources for acquisitions, refinances, ground-up construction, land development, and value-add projects. To learn more or connect with the team, visit culbertsonholdings.com

Disclosure: Individuals or companies mentioned may have a commercial relationship with KeyCrew.

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