Your sponsor is 60 days from maturity with no refinance lined up. The T-180 window closed a while ago, and there is no getting it back. This is not a planning conversation anymore. It is a triage conversation, and the first thing you have to accept is that the normal process does not fit inside the time you have left.
That does not mean there is nothing to do. It means the options have narrowed to a small set of levers that actually work on a compressed timeline, and your job is to figure out which one fits this specific deal, fast, instead of trying to force a conventional refinance into a window it was never built for.
Why the Normal Playbook Does Not Fit Anymore
A conventional refinance runs 30 to 60 days from application to close under normal conditions, and that assumes the appraisal and financials were already in motion. At 60 days out with nothing started, you are not late for the conventional process. You are functionally out of it.
The part that is hard to accept in the moment: the goal at this stage is not to find the best possible refinance. It is to find the fastest viable one, because a good deal that closes 45 days late is worth less than an average deal that closes on time. Once you internalize that, the actual options become much clearer.
Lever One: Extension from the Existing Lender
This is usually the fastest option available, because it does not require new underwriting, a new appraisal, or a new credit decision from scratch. It requires convincing a lender who already has capital in the deal that a short extension is a better outcome for them than pushing toward default or workout.
Lenders who are performing on a relationship basis generally prefer this, because a maturity default creates work and risk for them too. This lever works best when you can show a specific, credible plan for what happens during the extension, not just a request for more time. Show up with a timeline, a plan, and evidence that the permanent financing is in motion. Show up without those and the extension conversation goes much harder.
Will the existing lender always grant an extension this close to maturity?
Not always, and the answer depends on facts specific to the relationship and the lender’s current portfolio position. A lender managing a performing loan who sees a clear path to permanent financing is usually motivated to extend rather than trigger a workout process. A lender already managing stress in their book may move differently. The most important thing is to have the conversation immediately and with a real plan, not to wait until the maturity date is two weeks out.
Lever Two: Bridge Loan Refinance
Bridge lenders close in roughly 7 to 21 business days, with the fastest deals closing in as little as 7 to 14 days when title is clean and the collateral and exit strategy are straightforward. That speed exists because bridge underwriting focuses on collateral value, leverage, and a clear exit path, not the full committee cycle a conventional lender runs.
The tradeoff is real: bridge pricing reflects the compressed diligence and the risk the lender is taking on, so it costs more than the loan you are replacing. That cost is the price of time. Inside the 60-day window, time is the only thing you are actually buying. The bridge buys the runway to execute the permanent financing without the pressure of an imminent default.
Lever Three: Partial Paydown
If your sponsor can bring additional capital to reduce the loan balance, the leverage on the deal drops, and a lender who would not move quickly on the original balance may move quickly on the reduced one. This does not require a full recapitalization. Even a partial paydown that gets the loan back under a threshold a lender is comfortable with can be the difference between a fast yes and another month of no answer.
This lever also works in combination with the first two. A paydown that improves coverage can make an extension easier to obtain from the existing lender, or it can make a bridge package stronger by lowering the LTV to a point where the bridge lender has more confidence in the collateral position.
Choosing the Right Lever for This Deal
None of these options are universally better than the others. Which one works depends on facts about the specific deal.
Does the existing lender have a track record of granting extensions, or are they known for pushing maturities into default quickly? Is the title on the property clean enough for a bridge lender to close in under 14 days? Does the sponsor have the liquidity to execute a meaningful paydown right now?
Those questions can usually be answered in the first two or three conversations of the day you decide to start. The originator who starts those conversations immediately, instead of spending a week trying to force the conventional process back into play, is the one who finds a path before the window closes entirely.
LoanBase surfaces maturing loans 6 to 12 months before their maturity date, which means these conversations are designed to happen at T-180, not T-60. But when the compressed timeline is the reality, the platform also identifies which bridge lenders are actively closing in the relevant asset type and geography, so the first call goes to someone who can actually execute in the available window.
Sixty days is enough time. It just requires different math and a different set of calls than the conventional process would.
