Sales Associates Eligible for SBA Loans

The flagship loans of the U.S. Small Business Administration–as well as a new loan created as part of the federal government’s big economic recovery initiative–are available to individual practitioners, SBA has clarified.

The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® sought clarification from SBA after hearing that lenders in some jurisdictions were making the loans to practitioners while others were not.

Having these loans available to individual real estate licensees without ambiguity potentially gives a shot in the arm to practitioners who are struggling with high business-related debt. The new loan program, called ARC (For America’s Recovery Capital), is an interest-free, deferred payment loan of up to $35,000. One of its intended uses is to help businesses get out from under ruinous debt.

Thus, if practitioners have maxed-out business credit cards (it has to be business-related debt; personal debt won’t qualify), they can pay that debt off with the far-more attractive SBA loan.

SBA’s two flagship loans, known as the Section 7(a) and Section 504 loans, are also open to individuals. The terms of these loan programs have been made more attractive recently, so practitioners have additional loan options that they might want to consider.

On the 7(a) loans, the SBA says, “To assist small businesses during the economic downturn, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act authorizes SBA to temporarily reduce or eliminate loan fees for borrowers . . . and raises the loan guarantee from the current level to 90 percent.”

More information on the loan programs is included in a REALTOR Magazine video interview with NAR Government Affairs.

–By Robert Freedman for REALTOR® Magazine Online