Small business loans.
Most business owners stop paying rent for the same reason they stopped leasing equipment. At some point, owning the thing you depend on costs less than renting it forever.
Most of this site speaks to investors. This page does not. It is for the person who runs a company, signs the lease every few years, and has started to wonder whether the landlord is the one building equity in a building their business made valuable.
That is a real question, and the financing that answers it works differently from investment property lending. When a business buys the property it operates from, lenders stop reading the deal purely as real estate. They read the business too, because the business is the tenant, and the tenant is the source of repayment.
Owner-occupied is the key concept
Almost everything on this page turns on one distinction. Owner-occupied means your business occupies a meaningful share of the property rather than leasing it out to third parties. Investment property is the opposite. Different programs, different underwriting, different rules.
The reason the distinction matters so much is that owner-occupied financing has access to structures investors cannot use, including SBA. If you occupy the building, doors open. If you plan to lease the whole thing out, they close, and the deal becomes a conventional investment property purchase instead. Our commercial real estate loans overview covers how that path works.
Partial occupancy is common and usually workable. Businesses buy a building, use what they need, and lease the remainder. Where the occupancy line sits depends on the program, so it is worth checking early rather than assuming.
What business owners actually finance
The most common transaction is buying the space you already occupy or a replacement for it. The arithmetic that pushes owners into it is simple. Rent is permanent and rises. A mortgage payment on a building you own builds equity, and when you eventually sell the business or retire, the real estate is a separate asset you control.
Expansion is the second reason. Growth outruns the building, and the next facility is larger. Buying that facility rather than leasing it lets you invest in buildout you would otherwise be improving on someone else’s behalf.
The third is acquisition. When you buy a business that owns its real estate, the property and the operating company can often be financed together. These are more involved files, because a lender is underwriting a business transfer and a real estate transaction at once, but they are routine work for the right lender.
The fourth is partner buyouts and ownership changes, where the company holds property and the transaction has to account for both.
Where SBA fits
SBA programs are government-backed financing for owner-occupied real estate and business needs, and for many owners they are the strongest structure available. They are also frequently misunderstood.
SBA is not for investment property. The occupancy requirement is not a formality. And the two main programs, 7(a) and 504, are built for different purposes, so which one fits depends on what you are buying and how the transaction is structured. Our SBA loans page explains the difference in plain terms, and our SBA loan program page covers how we place an SBA file.
SBA is one option, not the only one. Plenty of owner-occupied purchases are better served by a conventional bank or credit union loan, and part of our job is telling you which is which rather than steering you toward whichever is easiest to place.
What we do
We are a commercial mortgage advisory and brokerage. We are not a lender and we do not fund loans. We place real-estate-secured, business-purpose financing by taking your file to the lenders most likely to write it, across more than 1,000 relationships nationwide.
Tell us about the business, the building, and what you are trying to do. No credit pull, no cost to start, no obligation.
What this covers.
Buying the building you occupy
Purchasing the property your business already operates from, or a new location you will move into. Owner-occupied real estate is its own financing category.
Expansion and second locations
Financing a second site, a larger facility, or the buildout that comes with growing out of your current space.
Business acquisition with real estate
Buying a company that owns its building, where the real estate and the business are financed as one transaction.
Partner buyouts and recapitalization
Taking full ownership of a business you already run in part, where property is part of the balance sheet.
Who this fits.
Owners tired of paying rent
You have been in the space long enough that the lease renewals add up. Owning turns an expense into an asset you control.
Growing companies outgrowing their space
Production, storage, or headcount has outrun the building. The next move is larger, and it may be worth buying rather than leasing.
Buyers acquiring a business
The company you are buying comes with a building. That combination has programs built specifically for it.
Capital sources we shop.
We are a brokerage, not a bank. Your file goes to the sources most likely to fund it, not one lender's shelf.
Banks
Local, regional, and national.
Credit unions
Local and national, member-owned.
Life insurance companies
Long-term capital from life companies.
CMBS
Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities.
Private money
Private capital sources.
Agency
Agency lending programs.
Family funds
Private family funds.
SBA
Government-backed, for owner-occupied real estate.
Common questions.
Still have a question? Start a request and our team will get you an answer.
The business you own occupies a meaningful share of the property rather than leasing it all out to third parties. That distinction is what separates owner-occupied programs from investment property financing, and it is the gate on SBA eligibility.
Often yes. Many owner-occupied structures allow you to occupy part of the building and lease the rest, provided your business holds the required share. Where the line sits depends on the program and the lender, so tell us the layout and we will tell you how it reads.
Not quite. We focus on real-estate-secured financing and business-purpose lending tied to property, including SBA structures that cover acquisition and expansion. If your need is purely working capital with no property involved, we will tell you honestly if we are not the right fit.
It helps, and some programs require it. Others weight the strength of the business and the property more heavily than years in operation. Tell us where the business actually stands and we will shop it to lenders whose criteria you meet.
Generally $500,000 and up, nationwide. No credit pull, no cost to start, and we reply within one business day.
Tell us about your deal.
Sixty seconds to start. We respond fast, with real lender options and a clear next step. No credit pull, no commitment, no cost.