Most brokers hear commission advance and picture paperwork, a credit check, and a week of back and forth. It is closer to the opposite. Because you are selling a commission you have already earned rather than borrowing money, the process skips most of what makes a loan slow. Here is exactly what happens, in order, and what is actually being checked along the way.
You send the funder your executed commission agreement. They confirm with the paying party that the commission is real and owed. They send you an offer with the advance amount and the fee spelled out. You sign an assignment that directs the future payment to them. They wire you the funds. A clean file typically moves from submission to money in your account within a day or two.
Now the longer version, step by step.
You start by sending the basics. The core document is the executed commission agreement, the listing agreement, or whatever instrument establishes that you are owed a specific commission on a specific deal. Alongside it, you provide who pays the commission and the expected timing of payment.
There is no application fee to get a quote, and getting a quote does not commit you to taking the advance. The point of this step is simply to give the funder enough to verify the commission and price it. The more complete your submission, the faster everything after it goes.
This is the step that determines your speed, so it is worth understanding. The funder confirms with the paying party, the landlord, the brokerage, or whoever is on the hook, that the commission is owed, that the amount is what you say it is, and that there is no dispute attached to it.
Verification is not a collections call and it is not an audit of you. It is a short confirmation that the receivable is clean. A specialist who works only with commercial brokers tends to move through this quickly, because they already know what a leasing commission agreement looks like and what to ask. The things that slow it down are an unresponsive payor, vague trigger language, or a commission that turns out to be contingent on something that has not happened yet.
Once the commission checks out, you get an offer. A good offer is short and unambiguous. It states the amount being advanced to you now, the portion held back and reconciled later, and the exact fee, with no separate origination charge or underwriting line waiting to surprise you.
Read the fee the way you would read a deal term. You want the total dollar cost, not just a percentage, and you want to know how it behaves if the payout takes longer than expected. The mechanics of advance pricing, with a worked example, are covered in the guide on commission advance fees.
If you take the offer, you sign an assignment. This is the legal heart of the transaction. It transfers your right to the future commission payment to the funder, which is what lets them pay you now and collect later. It is also what keeps this a sale rather than a loan.
Practically, the assignment directs the eventual payment to the funder instead of to you. The paying party is notified where to send the money when the deal pays out. Nothing about your underlying deal changes. The lease is the lease, the tenant is the tenant, the only difference is the destination of one future check.
After signing, the funds are sent, usually by wire. On a clean, fully verified file this often happens within a day or two of approval. From there you are done. You do not make monthly payments. You do not watch a balance accrue interest. When the deal pays out down the line, the payment goes to the funder, the holdback is reconciled, and the transaction closes itself out.
You can move faster if these are in hand before you start.
It helps to see the division of labor. You handle the front end, the funder handles verification and funding.
For a clean file, submission to funding is commonly a day or two, with verification being the main variable. A responsive payor and a clearly written commission agreement are the two biggest accelerators. A slow payor or murky trigger language is the most common reason a file takes longer. The detailed, stage-by-stage timing is in the guide on how long a commission advance takes.
Credit is generally not the gating factor, because you are selling an earned commission rather than borrowing. What matters most is that the commission is real, documented, and verifiable. Full detail is in the guide on who qualifies.
The paying party is notified of the assignment so they know where to send the eventual payment, and verification confirms the commission with them. It is a routine confirmation, not a negotiation.
No. The deal needs to be executed. An advance is built on a commission you have already earned, not one you expect to earn.
The payment goes to the funder per the assignment, the held-back portion is reconciled against the final amount, and the transaction closes. You do nothing further.
This guide is general information for commercial real estate brokers and is not financial, tax, or legal advice. Terms vary by deal. Confirm specifics with Cash For Commish.
