The SBA Does Not Loan Money

 Q. Should I get a loan from the SBA?

A. You can’t get a loan from the SBA, but you can get a SBA loan guarantee.

Come again?

Well, first off, the SBA does not loan money, so you can’t get a loan from the SBA.  Only banks loan money.  The SBA writes guarantees to limit the losses a bank will experience if your loan goes bad.  This is important to know, because it means you will have to qualify under the bank’s rules.

These can be very different from the SBA’s.  For example, it is not a requirement for you to collateralize the full loan amount to get an SBA guarantee.  Under SBA rules if you run out of assets, but have pledged what you have available, you can be approved.  Right now, we know of no bank that will make a loan without collateral equal to our greater than the amount you’re borrowing.

Each bank’s rules are slightly different, with the large banks having the most restrictive and the local and regional banks being the most liberal.

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