Hello,
I had introductory calls with 4 lenders about a month ago as I started to look into SBA loans. Two were referred to me by a close friend who owns multiple businesses and two were referred by a business mentor. All 4 have given me meaningful feedback on my situation and advice for next steps.
Now I’m ready to actually get the ball rolling and upload financial docs. At the end of the day, I think getting the best interest rate regardless of who does the loan is the most important thing for me. How do I respectfully shop rates between them? Should I let them know I’m speaking to multiple lenders and it comes down to rates for me?
I just went through getting a line of credit from my biz. I spoke with Chase, a local credit union I’ve banked with for years, and local midsized business focused bank.
I got terms including fees and rates from Chase, then talked to the 2 local options. I explained I wanted to work with them, what I liked about Chase’s offer, and where I wanted it to be better.
If you’re clear and fair, lenders will be happy to talk terms to try to earn the business. In the end I got a rate 4.5% lower than Chase’s lowest offer, and fees waived for 1 year.
WOW! Great work. Definitely good to be upfront as much as you can. Best NOT to send/contact 20 lenders as that’ll get noticed in the ‘lendershere’ & many will not be interested or even quote higher as they figure their chances of closing the loan is a long shot. (I learned along the way.) GL!