ForumsStarting a Business

Hello,

My personal experience with finding good SBA programs is to FIRST seek out a lender who is extremely knowledgeable in SBA financing for your particular deal (this is only the first major hurdle of course). I had great luck with one deal that I helped a client close about a week ago where the lender was based out of San Francisco (it was a CA deal). We obtained for my client, a loan for 90% of the purchase price (40% of it was actually funded using SBA funds), at extremely reasonable rates. 7.5% on the first loan (50% LTV) through a commercial lender, and 6.5% on the 2nd loan (40% LTV) - this was the SBA financed portion. SBA is extremely specialized lending that requires someone who does SBA's ALL the time and FULL TIME to help you navigate through all the different available programs. Although my San Francisco banking contact can't lend in other states, he may be able to give you some "standardized" SBA information about which specific SBA program may best fit your needs. There are literally hundreds of different programs that the SBA offers and almost nobody (including the SBA) knows everything about all the programs. You will need to be resourceful and probably spend alot of time on the web and on the phone, but, the rewards to you are huge if you can perservere through the process (perservere is probably an understatement). Just like when dealing with ANY government agency or program, you will get ALOT of mis-information before you get the answer you want or need. Be persistent, and be sure you don't believe everything you are told until you've verified it from several RELIABLE EXPERT sources.

Best of luck!