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We just went into business last April doing performance upgrades to peoples vehicles, mostly diesel trucks. Business has been going well and getting more and more busy in the past 11 months. Most of our growth can be contributed to word of mouth by our customers recommending us to everyone they see with diesel trucks. We got started with our own money from scratch, no start-up loans or lines of credit. We have been working out of our personal garages and shops, garages and barns of friends and family. We have been saving nearly all of the money the business brings in except for using some for advertising and buying minimum initial orders from companies to become dealers for aftermarket parts. We originally planned on building a pole barn shop as we got the money for it - basically start with the poles, then pour the concrete, then put a roof over it, put walls on, then add electricity, plumbing, ect. Mostly we wanting to do this to keep from having much overhead or debt in the business in these hard times. Our problem was that the land we already have is far off the beaten path and wouldn't bring in any walk in customers and would even be hard for customers to find with directions (even GPS can't find it). We started looking for more suitable land with and without pre-existing structures and have mostly run into $75K+ for raw commercial land and $200K+ for small pieces of land with small to medium sized buildings up to 2400 sq ft. already on them. Then the other day I ran into a 3.8 acre lot with a 10 year old 5000 sq ft building in very good shape already on it - it is for sale by the owner for $80K and is on a state route that is the major through way between two cities, my partner and I went and looked at it with the owner and really like the location and building.

I noticed on the Bank of America website that they require a business be established for 2 or more years to get a real estate loan. How do they expect a business to get established without a place to do business from? Our payment on this property would be half that of any lease we have found for much smaller buildings, so leasing for the next year seems stupid. Where else can we get financed for this property which I'm sure will appraise for well over the asking price. Also could there be any city, county, state, or federal programs or grants that might be able to help us. Would there be anything negative about going with owner financing as long as the terms are reasonable and we have an attorney review the purchase contract before signing?

Thanks in advance,
Dustin