Joe DownsCEO & Co-Founder, Belrose Storage Group. Founder, Storage Moguls.

Use tools & AI to find lenders who already get it

15 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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0:49

The speaker outlines a practical, step‑by‑step method for locating commercial lenders who have experience financing outdoor vehicle storage facilities. First, they recommend using the free FDIC BankFind database to identify every federally insured community bank in the target county and then calling the bank’s commercial lending department, asking directly whether the institution has previously funded an outdoor vehicle storage loan. Next, they suggest consulting a local commercial‑real‑estate attorney, who likely knows which lenders have closed similar deals. The speaker then points out that many community‑bank lenders list niche experience on their LinkedIn profiles, and a quick 20‑minute LinkedIn search can surface warm leads. Finally, they propose automating the LinkedIn search with an AI assistant (e.g., Claude Cowork or Manus) to continuously find lenders whose profiles explicitly mention outdoor storage experience.

Chapters

FDIC BankFind is a free tool that lists every federally insured bank by county. Search by— search for community banks active in your target market and call their commercial lending departments directly. Ask the first question straight: has your institution made a commercial loan on an outdoor vehicle storage facility? Your commercial real estate attorney knows who's done these deals locally as well because they probably closed them. Ask them. LinkedIn is underused for this as well. A community bank commercial lender who has outdoor storage experience usually lists it in their profile. Takes 20 minutes to search and can surface a warm lead. Or I'm going to do a little AI plug here. Set up a Claude Cowork or Manus agent to go find you a lender on LinkedIn that has exactly that listed in their profile.