I Closed My First Deal In Escrow Today

The funny thing is that if I listened to other people, this deal would have never happened. My buyer paid for some of the business through a line of equity from the bank on his house. Then I got the seller to carry some on a note. The big problem was getting the SBA. Why? Let's see the business is 2 years old not the required three. The only complete year of tax returns is terrible. They took crazy deprecation on the capital equipment and they looked like they were in the hole 200k. The seller took some bad business and he had to write it off on this years numbers so the last quarter came out 65K in the hole. I have to admit this was one ugly looking deal.

I had a couple of good things going for me. First, the buyer had experience in the industry and he also put together a nice resume and business plan for the bank. The thing with SBA Loans... you never really know what they'll take because it depends on the type of business and also where they're at, in terms of their quota. This bank understood this kind of business and it had really good equipment, which of course they have first lien on. Also, some banks believe in what could be done rather than what has been done. They will take those projections seriously.

Anyway, I feel very proud of myself, I feel that I had a hand in making someone's dream come true because I didn't give up when the first two or three lenders said no. I wish him every success, he truly deserves it.