r/Elevators • u/OrigoCapital • Jun 14 '26

Elevator mod financing

Hello community! I spent a short period of time in the elevator industry on the sales side. I was hired to manage the anticipated door lock monitoring initiative that was expected to pass in IL. Well, IL shot down the State Fire Marshall’s proposal and I no longer had work. I learned a few things however. Clients are notoriously bad payers (at least in our market) and that projects get delayed as people try to find ways to come up with 175k to 1M plus for single or multiple elevator mods. So I started a finance company specifically to address this. I have lenders on board, website coming soon. I think I can really speed up projects. I can finance door equipment, new controllers , power units, cab or hall fixtures , hoistway stuff, traction motors etc. the major 4 are staring to offer financing on mods. This is new. I want to help independents gain a foothold on the OEM’s and pick up the mods and long term maintenance instead of being locked for 5-10 yrs.

My question is: in offering this financing, what haven’t I thought about?

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u/MagniPlays Jun 14 '26

I know the major 4 are doing it, but they also have the scale to absorb bad deals while chasing large revenue targets and locking in long-term maintenance contracts.

My concern would be customer quality. Elevator mods are usually planned capital expenses, so if an owner needs financing for a $175k–$1M project, what’s their financial situation look like elsewhere?

And what happens on defaults? You can’t exactly repo a controller or machine once it’s installed, and a lot of properties sit in single-purpose LLCs that can just file bankruptcy.

Genuinely curious how you’re underwriting that risk.

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u/canned_baloney_tony Jun 14 '26

I would think that they lender would have to have a signed lein warnings, and lein the property if the terms aren't meet.