Guides
SBA loan guides
76 plain-language answers for small-business owners, grounded in the SBA's own rules and data, organized into topic clusters with a hub guide for each.
How SBA Loans Work: 7(a) vs 504
What an SBA loan actually is, and how the two main programs, 7(a) and 504, differ in purpose, size, and structure.
Read the guide →SBA Loan Programs
Read the hub guide →How 7(a), 504, Express, CAPLines, export financing, Community Advantage, and microloans differ, the guaranty mechanics behind all of them, and which program actually fits a given deal.
How SBA Loans Work: 7(a) vs 504
What an SBA loan actually is, and how the two main programs, 7(a) and 504, differ in purpose, size, and structure.
Updated 2026-06-28 →The SBA 504 Loan, Explained
What the SBA 504 program is, how its bank-plus-CDC structure works, what it can fund, and how it differs from a 7(a) loan.
Updated 2026-06-03 →Types of SBA Loans: 7(a), 504, Microloans, and More
A plain guide to the main SBA loan programs, what each one is for, and how to tell which type fits your business.
Updated 2026-06-28 →SBA Express Loans: Faster, Smaller SBA Financing
What an SBA Express loan is, how it trades size and guarantee for speed, and when it makes sense versus a standard 7(a) loan.
Updated 2026-06-06 →How the SBA Guarantee Actually Works
What the SBA guarantees on a 7(a) loan, what it does not, and the exact guaranty fee schedule and guarantee percentages behind it, measured against every 7(a) loan in our data since FY2010.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA CAPLines: Working-Capital Lines of Credit
CAPLines are the SBA's revolving working-capital lines, and one of the smallest corners of the 7(a) program in our funded-loan data. What the four current CAPLine types cover and how they work.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Export Loan Programs: EWCP, Export Express, International Trade
Export financing is the rarest corner of the SBA 7(a) program in our funded-loan data. What the Export Working Capital Program, Export Express, and International Trade loans each cover, and their current maximums and guarantees.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Community Advantage Loans: Current Status and Terms
Community Advantage loans fund underserved small businesses through mission-based lenders, and the program is now under an SBA moratorium on new lenders. What changed, and how the program still works for borrowers.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Microloans: How the $50,000 Program Works
SBA microloans are not in our 7(a)/504 lending data; they run through a separate nonprofit-intermediary system. What the program actually funds, its real terms, and the small end of 7(a) for honest comparison.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Disaster Loans: Physical Damage and EIDL, Explained
SBA disaster loans are not in our 7(a)/504 lending data; the SBA lends this money directly, with no bank in between. Current physical disaster loan and Economic Injury Disaster Loan terms, and where COVID-19 EIDL stands now.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loan Limits: The Maximum You Can Borrow (2026 Update)
The maximum SBA loan amounts by program, and the big change effective July 4, 2026, that lets borrowers combine 7(a) and 504 loans for up to $10 million.
Updated 2026-07-07 →SBA Loan Pros and Cons: The Honest Ledger
Is an SBA loan worth it? The real trade-offs measured against our FOIA data: the actual guarantee rate, the actual rate borrowers pay, the actual charge-off rate, and the costs and exposure competitors tend to soft-pedal.
Updated 2026-07-08 →Qualifying & Eligibility
Read the hub guide →The eligibility rules, credit and collateral expectations, and the situations, bankruptcy, bad credit, no track record, that complicate an application without ending it.
Who Qualifies for an SBA Loan?
The general eligibility rules for SBA 7(a) and 504 loans, and what lenders look at beyond the SBA's baseline.
Updated 2026-04-15 →SBA Loan Down Payment and Equity Requirements
How much you need to put down for an SBA 7(a) or 504 loan, why lenders require it, and where the down payment can come from.
Updated 2026-05-27 →SBA Loan Requirements: What You Need to Qualify
The full list of SBA loan requirements, from business eligibility and size standards to credit, cash flow, equity, and the documents lenders expect.
Updated 2026-06-10 →What Credit Score Do You Need for an SBA Loan?
There is no single SBA-wide minimum credit score. Here's how the SBA and lenders actually use credit, the scores lenders look for, and what can offset a lower one.
Updated 2026-06-26 →Can You Get an SBA Loan with Bad Credit?
Bad credit makes an SBA loan harder, not impossible. How lenders weigh weak credit, what can offset it, and the practical steps to improve your odds.
Updated 2026-06-26 →Do SBA Loans Require Collateral?
The SBA does not require a loan to be fully collateralized, but lenders take available collateral and owners must personally guarantee. How collateral really works on 7(a) and 504 loans.
Updated 2026-06-26 →Can You Get an SBA Loan After Bankruptcy?
A past bankruptcy doesn't permanently disqualify you from an SBA loan. What lenders look at, why a prior federal-debt default is the bigger problem, and how to improve your odds.
Updated 2026-06-26 →The SBA Personal Guarantee, Explained Precisely
Exactly who has to personally guarantee an SBA loan, why it's unlimited for owners of 20% or more, how the spousal rule works, and what is and isn't negotiable, verified against 13 CFR 120.160 and current SBA policy.
Updated 2026-07-08 →Can a Non-U.S. Citizen Get an SBA Loan?
The SBA's citizenship rule changed twice in twelve months. As of March 1, 2026, ownership must be 100% U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals; lawful permanent residents, eligible under the 2025 rule, no longer qualify. The current rule, dated and primary-sourced.
Updated 2026-07-08 →Can You Get an SBA Loan With a Criminal Record?
Since May 30, 2024, SBA no longer bars an applicant for being on probation or parole. What actually disqualifies you today, quoted from the current Form 1919 question and the federal rule behind it, and what a lender can still weigh on its own.
Updated 2026-07-08 →Can a Nonprofit Get an SBA Loan?
No, not a 7(a) or 504 loan. SBA regulation lists nonprofit businesses first among ineligible types, with one narrow exception for a genuinely separate for-profit subsidiary. Where nonprofits already sit in the SBA system, and the one SBA program that does lend to them directly.
Updated 2026-07-08 →Application & Lifecycle
Read the hub guide →The document checklist, how to apply, and what happens after funding: holding multiple loans, denials, and default.
How to Apply for an SBA Loan, Step by Step
A plain walkthrough of the SBA loan process: confirming eligibility, picking a program, gathering documents, choosing a lender, and getting through underwriting.
Updated 2026-05-06 →Why SBA Loans Get Denied (and How to Improve Your Odds)
The most common reasons SBA loan applications are declined, from cash flow and credit to eligibility, and practical ways to strengthen your application.
Updated 2026-05-20 →Can You Have More Than One SBA Loan?
Yes, a business can have multiple SBA loans at once, and even combine a 7(a) and a 504, as long as total SBA exposure stays within the program caps. How it works.
Updated 2026-06-26 →SBA Loan Underwriting: What Actually Happens to Your File
The stage between applying and closing, opened up: the cash-flow test that decides most files (the SOP's 1.15 coverage floor), the IRS transcript check, the equity and credit-elsewhere screens, who actually says yes on a PLP versus non-delegated loan, and what borrowers can and cannot speed up.
Updated 2026-07-11 →SBA Loan Documents: The Complete Checklist for a 7(a) Application
The actual documents an SBA 7(a) application needs, grouped by what each one proves to a lender, verified against the current SBA borrower form and SOP, plus one form most checklists still list that no longer exists.
Updated 2026-07-08 →What Happens If You Default on an SBA Loan
The complete stage-by-stage default timeline: missed payment, acceleration, liquidation, guaranty purchase, the SBA 60-day demand letter, and Treasury collection, with the doors that stay open and close at each stage, grounded in our 7(a) charge-off data.
Updated 2026-07-11 →The SBA 60-Day Demand Letter: What It Is and What to Do Now
You have 60 calendar days from SBA's demand letter before the debt is referred to the U.S. Treasury. What the letter means, the three ways to respond, and exactly what to assemble this week. Not legal advice.
Updated 2026-07-11 →When an SBA Loan Goes to Treasury: Cross-Servicing, Offsets, and Garnishment
What Treasury cross-servicing actually does with a defaulted SBA loan: tax refund and Social Security offsets, 15% wage garnishment without a court order, collection fees added by law, private collectors, and the options that honestly remain. Not legal advice.
Updated 2026-07-11 →SBA Loan Deferment: The First and Cheapest Ask When You Can't Pay
What your 7(a) lender can do for you without asking SBA: deferments of up to six months, the caps and interest mechanics under SOP 50 57 4, when a deferment buys real runway versus delaying the inevitable, and how to make the ask well.
Updated 2026-07-11 →The Tax Bill After an SBA Settlement: 1099-C, Form 982, and Insolvency
Settling an SBA loan for less than you owe can create taxable cancellation-of-debt income. How Form 1099-C works, the insolvency exclusion on IRS Form 982, and why you must run the insolvency worksheet before celebrating. Not tax advice.
Updated 2026-07-11 →Hiring Help for an SBA Loan Workout: Who Does What, Fees, and Scam Tells
The honest hiring guide for a distressed SBA loan: what a workout attorney, an OIC consultant, and a CPA each actually do, how fees are structured, when doing it yourself is reasonable, and the specific marks of a settlement scam. Not legal advice, and not a sales page.
Updated 2026-07-11 →Can't Pay Your EIDL Loan? How COVID EIDL Default Actually Works
COVID EIDL is SBA-serviced with no bank in the middle, so default runs on different rails than 7(a): delinquency, Treasury Offset at 120 days, cross-servicing, charge-off. The verified scale of the problem, the payment help that exists right now, and what charge-off does not mean.
Updated 2026-07-11 →The EIDL Hardship Accommodation Plan: What Replaced It in 2026
SBA ended the Hardship Accommodation Plan on March 19, 2025. What exists now is narrower: a 50% payment reduction for six months, once every five years, with strict eligibility. Current terms verified against SBA's live servicing page, what the relief does fix, and the interest math it does not.
Updated 2026-07-11 →The $200,000 Line: COVID EIDL Personal Guarantees, Explained
Congress waived personal guarantees on COVID EIDL loans of $200,000 or less in the CARES Act. What that actually changes for a closed business, what it does not change (offsets, the business-asset lien, charge-off, fraud liability), and why sole proprietors were never behind the line at all.
Updated 2026-07-11 →PPP Loan Default in 2026: Unforgiven Balances and the Fraud Line
What actually happens when an unforgiven PPP balance goes unpaid: no collateral or personal guarantee on the standard loan, the lender-then-SBA-then-Treasury sequence, the reversed policy on small balances, and the 10-year fraud statute of limitations that makes misrepresentation a different universe from honest debt.
Updated 2026-07-11 →SBA Default and Your House: What the Personal Guarantee Actually Exposes
The honest answer to "can they take my house": what an unlimited 7(a) guarantee exposes, the difference between a home pledged at closing and one reachable only through a judgment, and what guarantors can do at each stage. Not legal advice.
Updated 2026-07-11 →Bankruptcy and SBA Loans: The Debt Is Generally Dischargeable
The misconception page: SBA debt is not like student loan debt, it is generally dischargeable in bankruptcy. Chapter 7 vs Subchapter V vs Chapter 13 for guarantors, current debt limits, and how bankruptcy interacts with the offer in compromise. Not legal advice.
Updated 2026-07-11 →Closing a Business With an SBA Loan Outstanding: The Wind-Down Sequence
Why you cannot just sell the assets and walk away: how the lender's UCC lien works, orderly liquidation vs abandonment, selling the whole business via payoff or assumption, and the sequence that keeps a settlement possible. Not legal advice.
Updated 2026-07-11 →Is There a Statute of Limitations on SBA Loans?
Two clocks, and only one runs out: the 6-year federal limit on lawsuits (28 USC 2415) versus Treasury offset, which has no time limit by statute. Judgment liens, credit-report aging vs debt existence, and why waiting it out usually fails. Not legal advice.
Updated 2026-07-11 →Paying Off an SBA Loan: Payoff Letters, Lien Releases, and the Paper to Keep
The close-out done right: how to request a payoff letter with per-diem interest and a good-through date, the prepayment window on 15-plus-year loans, exactly what must be released after payoff (UCC-3 terminations, mortgage satisfactions, the note, the guarantee), and the UCC remedies when a paid-off lien still shows.
Updated 2026-07-11 →Selling a Business With an SBA Loan: Payoff at Closing or Assumption
The seller's two clean exits: retiring the loan through escrow at closing, or a buyer assumption under SBA's servicing rules, with the assumptor requirements, the due-on-sale-or-death clause, why the seller is not automatically released, and what each path does to your personal guarantee.
Updated 2026-07-11 →Changing Ownership With an SBA Loan Outstanding: Who Has to Approve What
Every ownership change in the first 12 months after final disbursement needs SBA's prior written approval, and every one after that still needs your lender's. The current consent map under SOP 50 57 4 and the version 18 Lender Matrix, how partner buyouts get funded under SOP 50 10 8, and why departing owners stay on the hook.
Updated 2026-07-11 →SBA Loan Collateral Releases and Subordination: Living Under the Lien
Your lender can release, substitute, or subordinate SBA loan collateral on its own authority, no SBA sign-off required, and cannot charge you a fee for the release itself. What the current servicing rules require to sell equipment under a blanket lien, get a partial real estate release, or win a subordination for a mortgage refinance.
Updated 2026-07-11 →What Happens to an SBA Loan When the Owner Dies or Becomes Disabled
The loan does not die with the borrower: how the note and the unconditional guarantee treat death, what the estate and co-guarantors owe, when heirs can assume the loan, SBA's actual life insurance requirements, and the planning moves worth making now. Not legal advice.
Updated 2026-07-11 →SBA Loans and Taxes: What Is Income, What Is Deductible, What Is Neither
The healthy borrower's tax map: loan proceeds are not income, interest is generally deductible, the guaranty fee and closing costs spread over the loan term, principal is never deductible, and EIDL has its own verified rules. Not tax advice.
Updated 2026-07-11 →The SBA Loan Closing Process: From Approval to Funded
Approval is not funding. What has to happen between an SBA loan's Authorization and disbursement, the conditions that most often hold up a closing, and how long the last leg actually takes, measured from our data.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loan Servicing: Who Handles Your Loan After It Closes
Closing is day one of a loan that runs a median of 10 years on 7(a), 20 on 504. Who actually collects your payments, what happens if your lender sells the loan, and how deferments and modifications work under the current servicing rules.
Updated 2026-07-08 →The SBA Offer in Compromise: How to Settle a Defaulted SBA Loan
The full mechanics of settling a defaulted SBA debt for less than the balance: eligibility under SOP 50 57 4, Forms 1150 and 770, what SBA measures your offer against, lump-sum vs installment structures, and what acceptance or rejection actually triggers. Not legal advice.
Updated 2026-07-11 →Rates, Fees & Costs
See the hub →What an SBA loan actually costs: interest rates, the upfront guaranty fee, prepayment penalties, and refinancing existing debt.
SBA Loan Refinancing: Using an SBA Loan to Refinance Debt
How to refinance business debt with an SBA 7(a) or 504 loan, what qualifies, and how a longer term can lower your monthly payment.
Updated 2026-06-13 →Do SBA Loans Have a Prepayment Penalty?
Most SBA 7(a) loans have no prepayment penalty. The exception, the exact 5/3/1% schedule on long-term loans, and how 504 prepayment works.
Updated 2026-06-26 →SBA Loan Packaging Fees: Rules, Disclosure, and Borrower Protections
What an SBA loan packaging fee is, the federal rules it must follow, the Form 159 disclosure every fee requires, and what to do if you were overcharged.
Updated 2026-07-21 →Choosing a Lender
See the hub →How to pick a lender by track record instead of marketing, and how an SBA loan stacks up against conventional financing or a 401(k) rollover.
How to Choose an SBA Lender
SBA lenders are not interchangeable. How to shortlist the right one using volume, loan size, and track-record data.
Updated 2026-04-29 →SBA Loan vs Conventional Business Loan
How an SBA loan compares to a conventional business loan on down payment, terms, rates, speed, and paperwork, and when each one is the better fit.
Updated 2026-05-13 →SBA Loan vs. ROBS: Using Retirement Funds to Fund a Business
ROBS (Rollovers as Business Start-ups) is not an SBA loan and not in our funded-loan data; it is an IRS-governed structure for funding a business with retirement savings. What it is, its real risks per IRS's own compliance findings, and how it is sometimes combined with an SBA loan as the equity injection.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loan vs. Term Loan
An SBA 7(a) loan is already a term loan; the real question is what the SBA guarantee costs versus a bank or online term loan without one. What our funded-loan data and current market rates show.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loan vs. Business Line of Credit
The SBA's revolving line of credit, the CAPLine, covers about 0.6% of 7(a) loans in our funded-loan data. What that rarity means, what a CAPLine costs against SBA's rate tiers, and how that compares to a bank or online line of credit.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loan vs. Merchant Cash Advance
A merchant cash advance is not a loan and is not subject to a usury cap the way one is. What that structure costs when annualized, against the real SBA guaranty fee and rate our funded-loan data shows, and when an MCA is honestly the right call anyway.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loan vs. Online Lenders
Online lender applications rose from 17% to 29% of small-business financing applicants over five years, per the Federal Reserve's own survey, even as satisfaction with them fell and small banks kept the highest full-approval rate. What that means measured against our SBA rate data.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loan vs. Equipment Financing
The SBA 504 program is built for exactly this: long-life equipment and real estate, at a fixed rate around 6.1% to 6.2% in the current debenture data, on terms up to 20 years. What it can't finance, and what a standalone equipment loan or lease costs instead.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loan Alternatives: What Actually Exists If You Don't Qualify
For businesses that can't get, or shouldn't take, an SBA loan: microloans and CDFIs, business lines of credit, online term lenders, equipment financing, and the honest truth about business grants.
Updated 2026-07-08 →What to Do If Your SBA Loan Is Denied
The next-step guide from a denial: your legal right to know why, why one no isn't a verdict everywhere, how to fix what's fixable before you reapply, and the honest alternatives if the answer is genuinely not yet.
Updated 2026-07-08 →By Situation
See the hub →Guidance for specific borrowers and uses: veterans, women- and minority-owned businesses, franchises, first-time owners, startups, and acquisitions.
SBA Loans to Buy a Business: The Acquisition Data and the Rules
50,580 SBA loans have funded the purchase of an existing business since FY2010, averaging $1.08 million with a 1.38% charge-off rate, less than half the 7(a) average. The lenders who actually fund acquisitions, the current 10% equity injection rule, and how a seller note fits.
Updated 2026-07-08 →Can You Get an SBA Loan to Start a Business? What 265,843 Startup Loans Show
More than 1 in 4 SBA loans since FY2010, 265,843 of them, went to a business two years old or younger, averaging $452,000. Startups can and do get funded; here is what actually makes one fundable and where the no-money-down idea breaks down.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loans for First-Time Business Owners
Our data cannot flag which SBA borrower is a first-time owner, but it can compare the three paths first-timers actually take: acquisitions charge off at 1.38%, franchises at 4.31%, startups at 4.36%. What that gap means, and the compensating factors lenders look for when you have no ownership track record.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loan for a Franchise
How to finance a franchise with an SBA loan, why the SBA Franchise Directory matters, and what lenders look for in a franchise deal.
Updated 2026-06-20 →SBA Loans for Veterans: Programs and Help
There's no separate veteran-only SBA loan. Veteran-owned businesses use the standard 7(a) and 504 loans. The real veteran-specific help: MREIDL, VBOCs, and Boots to Business.
Updated 2026-06-26 →Can a Self-Employed Person Get an SBA Loan?
Yes, sole proprietors, self-employed people, and independent contractors are SBA-eligible. What's different about applying when you are the business, and what lenders want to see.
Updated 2026-06-26 →SBA Loans for Women-Owned Businesses
There's no separate SBA loan just for women. Women-owned businesses use the standard 7(a) and 504 loans. The real women-specific help: Women's Business Centers, and why WOSB is about contracts, not loans.
Updated 2026-07-07 →SBA Loans for Minority-Owned Businesses
There's no separate SBA loan for minorities, and no federal grant to start a business. What's real: the standard 7(a)/504 loans, the 8(a) contracting program, and free counseling.
Updated 2026-07-07 →SBA Loans for Commercial Real Estate: The 504 Data and the Occupancy Rule
In our data, 116,345 SBA 504 loans have run since FY2010, totaling $96.7 billion at an average of $831,070; 504 is the SBA program built for owner-occupied commercial real estate. The 51%/60% occupancy rule, the 50/40/10 structure, and when a 7(a) loan fits instead.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loans for Working Capital: Term Loan or Line of Credit?
Only 5,732 of 919,729 SBA 7(a) loans in our data, about 0.6%, are structured as a revolving line of credit. The rest, including most working-capital financing, disburses as a term loan. What that means for how you repay, current CAPLine terms, and when a revolving line actually fits.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loans for Equipment: 504, 7(a), or Straight Equipment Financing
In trucking, an equipment-heavy industry, 96% of the 37,060 SBA loans in our data ran through 7(a), not 504, averaging $229,192, a fraction of the 504 real-estate average. Why 7(a) carries most equipment financing, when 504 fits, and the honest tradeoff against non-SBA equipment lenders.
Updated 2026-07-08 →SBA Loans for Construction: Ground-Up Financing and the Builders CAPLine
The Builders CAPLine, the SBA's line built specifically to finance ground-up construction for resale, funded just 281 of 919,729 7(a) loans in our data, about 0.03%. What actually finances new construction (mostly 504's 60%-occupancy path), and how the picture changes if your business is a construction company, not a construction project.
Updated 2026-07-08 →Data & Research
Original analysis of the full SBA FOIA record, and the open datasets behind every figure on this site.