Trouble seeking SBA Loans
This morning I received a phone call from an RV dealer who has been in the RV business for 40 years. This dealer was calling to ask questions about the SBA floor plan loan guarantee which began its pilot program July 1.
The dealer mentioned to me that he has been contacting lenders to inquire about the program but none, thus far, are participating in the program.
According to RVDA’s Web site, the associations are actively seeking to gain incentives for the lenders to participate in the program.
RVDA is also seeing this lack of lender participation: “Several dealers tell RVDA that lenders are not jumping on board to participate in the floor plan program. RVDA will submit federal comments requesting further revisions and bank incentives.”
RV Trade Digest is currently conducting an opinion poll about the SBA program and as of this morning, 67 percent of voters don’t think the SBA loan guarantee will help dealers.
I want to hear from other dealers about their attempts at gaining SBA loans through local lenders. Has the pilot program worked? Is it too early to tell? How many dealers have successfully begun the floor plan loan process? All comments are welcome, but please refrain from “bad-mouthing” specific lenders or businesses.
March 12th, 2010 at 5:21 am
good
good
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:29 am
this post and posts like this showing that people are taking less interest in rv camping because of economy downfall and thus the rv resort parks business will effect too.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Been working with our local bank since April when it was 1st announced they are an SBA lender, they had there first info meeting about the new program last week and it will take a while to let this done.
However it may be all in vain as iI was told by them that the 70% backing is not going to be the problem since they do some of our flooring now and take 100% risk ,
The problem is SBAs program is only 80% advance so that one big up front curtailment odds are as the program stands it wont help the people that need it
July 9th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Thank you both for commenting on what is happening in your regions. Have either of you contact the RV associations for assistance or guidance?
July 8th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
My story is 100% in agreement with Teresa.
We are now into our 5th decade of the RV sales and service business and unfortunately had all of our eggs with Textron when they pulled the plug.
To add to that pain, our local credit union and banks have also dropped all their RV and marine flooring, so we are sitting dead in the water!!
With business as poor as it has been, our balance sheet has suffered tremendously and therefore we’ve been turned down at two regional banks that were “interested” in setting up a line with us.
When I spoke with a rep at the SBA (in May), they said the government tries to look like they are helping us by floating the program out there, but they have no idea of policies and implementation.
This gentleman said we needed to go through a local college course to prepare a proper SBA application and IF they accept it, we won’t see any funding until September at the earliest!!
I won’t need it in September…I need it NOW!!
He also said they will probably guarantee around 70% of the loan (NOT 100% as rumored), which will also make the lenders nervous.
We’ve been at this game a long, long time and I’ve never had a situation like this where people are wanting to buy product and we can’t get it in to sell!!
It’s just ugly and I’m getting worried!!
July 8th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
When the SBA sets up a new program they have smeinars for their current SBA lenders outlining the guidelines and how to process paper work. The problem is that the date they state the program is available is when they start working on the program … it has been taking about six months to get everything set up with SBA lenders to proceed with business.
We spoke to our local banker who is already an SBA lender this week. We have been discussing this program since it was announced. He told us about a program that was implimented four months ago by SBA that they still have not received the guidelines for processing.
The problem is SBA … I don’t know if they have the staffing for all the programs that are offering. It sounds great politically and it makes it sound like the administration is doing a great job helping out … the reality is it takes to long to get where it’s needed. Just like the bank bailouts.