For friends in the US:
My partner and I built our business from (quite literally) the ground up. We started by renting a shoe box suite for $300 monthly, then expanded within our building to cover 4000 sq ft. Five years later we are booming, but we now have the opportunity to purchase a pretty choice piece of real estate. The property is listed for $300K, but we think we can get it for $250K. The major issue here is we do not have $60K cash in hand for a 15% down payment today. We are fairly confident we could have it by the end of the year, but there is no guarantee the property will still be available. Honestly, this could be a real game changer for our business - probably bumping sales into the $1M yearly range.
For those of you who have experience with small business loans: are there any tips or loopholes for acquiring funding without a traditional cash down payment? Our bank seemed enthusiastic about our current business based on its profitability, which is why they reduced the down payment requirement from 20% to 15%. I haven't pushed for anything else yet. I wanted to do some research on what might be a common alternative before broaching the subject.
We did receive a microloan of $15K through an SBA lender when we first opened to cover the cost of expansion. I reached out to them this morning to see about a second loan to cover the down payment, though I'm not sure if that is an approved use of loan funds.
TIA for any help!
[link] [comments]
