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Topic starter
Hello all!
This is my first actual posting here...I'm planning on moving to St. Thomas and am wanting to purchase a business there that's for sale...The problem I'm running into right now is getting a business loan!
I have half of the purchase price in cash, and am looking to take out a loan for the remaining half...but feel as though I'm running into a wall trying to find information (which I was warned about 🙂 ). My business partner is on the island right now, so we could make personal contact if needed.
I was just wondering - Has anyone here dealt with either taking out a business loan on the mainland and using it for a business in St. Thomas? Or has anyone taken out a business loan to purchase a business on the island?
Or, does anyone have any alternative advice for getting start up money or buying a business there in general? I've been trying to get in touch with people from the banks on St. Thomas, but seem to be getting nowhere!
Love the forums, have taken much advice from the postings here!!!!
Kim
Posted : August 10, 2010 3:48 am
I would be very surprised if you can acomplish this from off island. You probably will need to be on-island, standing in front of the banker/loan officer.
Posted : August 10, 2010 4:26 am
Try the commercial loan department at FirstBank on St. Thomas. Sorry, no phone number handy, but here ya go... http://www.viphonebook.com
Posted : August 10, 2010 12:53 pm
Topic starter
Thanks to everyone for the helpful information and for additional info in PMs! 🙂
Posted : August 10, 2010 3:11 pm
Frankly in this economy, if you have half in cash, and enough additional cash to cover operating expenses initial outlays etc. I would ask the seller to finance the balance. Borrowing money is much more difficult than it used to be and allot of the businesses for sale here have been listed for a long time.
jay
Posted : August 12, 2010 11:11 pm
My experience with the local banks is they only do asset based lending. Your credit or the track record of the business won’t matter. Unless the business has hard assets which you can pledge – which is generally not the case – banks don’t want to make the loan. The best suggestion the banks could come up with was to get a mortgage on a house.
I agree with Captain Jay. Most sellers of small business have to take a note. There are just no buyers of small business. Large businesses with deep pockets are just not going to find a small business interesting. Ma and pa are buyers of small businesses and they generally have to scrape to come up with the money.
Posted : August 13, 2010 12:15 am
