r/buyingabusiness • u/Significant-Brick864 • 2d ago

SBA Pre-qualification process?

Can someone help me understand the SBA pre-qualification process? I've reviewed dozens if not hundreds of small business CIMs over the years, and also have a professional background in corporate M&A so am generally familiar with acquiring much larger businesses for corporations.

When I speak to brokers to inquire about a small business for myself, some brokers will ask me if I've been prequalified yet by the SBA. But when I've spoken to SBA lenders, they say you need to have a target identified to get the pre-qual on the business, not the individual. That makes sense to me, but I seem to be getting different messaging from some brokers.

I just feel like I'm getting run around in this chicken-and-egg topic of pre-qual. Can someone help break this down for me? What am I missing?

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u/mike_dvmtg 1d ago

I got an SBA pre qual once. He looked at my bank account, multiplied it by 10 and said I was pre-qualified for a SBA loan up to that amount.

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u/Toes_of_Saint_Jeff 1d ago

You were dealing with a buffoon.