Which 7(a) and 504 terms are published, and which quotes are folklore?
Published on the SBA 7(a) terms page: standard maximum $5,000,000; guaranty 85% on loans of $150,000 or less and 75% above that; maximum standard SBA exposure $3.75 million; Express / Export Express maximum $500,000; International Trade / EWCP guaranty up to 90% / $4.5 million in stated cases (Source: SBA). Published on the lenders matrix: maturity generally up to 10 years unless real estate or equipment life supports longer; real estate up to 25 years (Source: SBA lenders matrix).
Published on 504: $5,000,000 standard CDC debenture; $5,500,000 per qualifying small-manufacturer or energy public-policy project; occupancy at least 51% of an existing building and 60% of new construction; from 2026-07-04, outstanding 7(a) does not reduce 504 capacity; combined SBA-backed financing can reach $10 million in the 2026-05-18 announcement (Source: SBA / NAGGL).
Folklore: a page that prints "manufacturing deals close at prime plus X." Folklore: a no-cash close. Folklore: treating $10 million as one 7(a). SBA 7(a) for manufacturing acquisitions and SBA 504 for plants and heavy equipment carry the product boxes. This page carries the term discipline.
What DSCR range is market-practice on manufacturers, not a promise?
Lender feasibility recaps often discuss 1.20–1.30x debt-service coverage on manufacturing cash-flow paper. That band is market practice. It is not a published SBA interest rate. It is not a covenant every bank will write. It is not a reason to ignore a replacement wage, maintenance capex, or a current-pay seller note.
Model coverage after a wage the committee believes, after a capex line that matches the machine list, and after any coupon that is not on full standby. Then ask the lender for their grid. How lenders underwrite manufacturers is the artifact list that feeds the model.
How do maturity and amortization follow real estate versus iron?
Real estate can support longer 7(a) and 504 schedules — published 7(a) real-estate maturity up to 25 years. Equipment follows remaining useful life. Goodwill and working-capital pieces live on shorter cash-flow schedules. Mixing those lives into one blended "ten-year everything" speech is how a term sheet surprises people.
A leased plant with a five-year remaining term does not get a 25-year real-estate story. A mid-life press does not get a 25-year equipment story. Buying a manufacturing business that includes dirt should split the stack on purpose, not by accident.
Why will this page not publish an interest-rate number?
Because a static coupon on a website becomes a stale promise. SBA publishes rate rules and maximums that move with an index and with program notices. Conventional and ABL coupons move with the institution, the collateral, and the month. Printing a number here would be inventing a quote. Read the current SBA terms page and the lender's sheet the week you model.
| Term item | Published or labeled source | What this page will not do |
|---|---|---|
| 7(a) size / guaranty | SBA terms page | Invent a coupon |
| 7(a) maturity | SBA lenders matrix | Promise 25 years on a leased shop |
| Injection / standby | SOP 50 10 8 / 8.1 | Call interest-only "standby" |
| 504 size / occupancy | SBA / 13 CFR / SOP | Treat $10 million as one loan |
| DSCR 1.20–1.30x | Market-practice label | Call it a regulation |
| ABL advances | Market-practice 70–85% AR, 40–60% inventory | Call them quotes |
| Seller-note rate | Bargained; tax counsel | Invent imputed interest |
| Fees | Deal-specific | Publish a fake fee table |
SOP 50 10 8 is in force for most 2026 applications. SOP 50 10 8.1 applies to loan numbers issued on or after 2026-10-01. Confirm which SOP governs the number, not the term-sheet date.
How should a buyer compare fees, guaranty, and cash-flow load?
Guaranty is not interest. An 75% guaranty on a loan above $150,000 does not mean the buyer pays 75% coupon. It means SBA's exposure share. Fees — guaranty, lender, CDC, appraisal, legal — sit in total project cost. Forgetting them shrinks the injection denominator and creates a last-minute cash call.
Compare cash at close, monthly load after a replacement wage, and balloon or balloon-like risks (PIK, demand notes, short IO periods). Do not compare a blog's "SBA is cheaper" sentence to a conventional sheet you have not read. How it works is the process. The term sheet is a document inside that process.
What term-sheet items are actually negotiable on a shop file?
Amortization inside published maxima. Prepayment language on conventional paper. Seasonal revolver structure. Whether a seller note is standby equity or current-pay junior. Reporting packages. Field-exam frequency on ABL. What is rarely negotiable: the $5 million 7(a) cap, the 10% injection, occupancy percentages, and the lender's need for a supported valuation.
Seller notes and standby decide whether paper helps the injection or hurts coverage. The working-capital peg decides whether month-one liquidity matches the price. Neither is a rate. Both move whether the published structure can be used at all.
Main Street 2.75x median SDE files (Source: BizBuySell via Iconic) often live inside the published 7(a) box. Stanford $16 million / 6.2x / ~25% margin files (Source: Stanford GSB) usually do not — and that median is never a job-shop number. IBBA's 83% three-offer statistic on deals over $5 million (Source: IBBA) describes competition, not a coupon.
What does a uses-of-funds table look like when people stop inventing a rate?
Project EV $3.4 million. Fees and working-capital need $280,000. Total project $3.68 million. Ten percent injection $368,000, of which at most half can be full-standby seller paper if 7(a) is the senior. Remaining senior must fit $5 million and a supported valuation. Model DSCR at 1.20–1.30x market practice after a replacement wage. Leave the coupon cell blank until the lender fills it. That blank is honesty. A filled-in folklore rate is how a buyer under-injects.
Jason Taken is a business broker. He does not set rates, guaranty fees, or covenants. Educational information only. Confirm live SBA rate rules, SOP text, and term sheets with the lender and counsel. Data current as of September 2026.
How should a seller read a term sheet that still has a "market" rate placeholder?
A placeholder means the coupon is not set. It does not mean the size, injection, occupancy, or standby rules are optional. Read the non-rate boxes first. If those boxes already fail SOP 50 10 8 or 504 occupancy, the later coupon will not save the file. Ask the buyer for a date by which the index and spread will be named. Keep another bidder warm until they are.
Do not let anyone tell you this website "quoted 7(a) at X percent." It did not. It quoted published structure and a labeled DSCR habit. The lender quotes the rate.
How should a buyer build a sensitivity without filling the coupon cell with folklore?
Leave the coupon blank or use a placeholder the lender provided this week. Stress volume down 10%, a 5-point mix shift, a wage hire, and a maintenance capex miss. If coverage breaks before you ever fill the coupon, the file is a price or equity problem. Filling a folklore rate will not fix it.
Stress a delayed peg true-up. Stress a 30-day AR stretch on the whale customer. Stress a 504 close that slips and extends a bridge. Those sensitivities are more honest than a website coupon. How lenders underwrite manufacturers supplies the inputs. This page refuses the fake output.
If the lender later names a rate, rerun the same stresses. Do not rebuild a happier model to make the rate fit.
What prepayment, call, and refinance facts should a seller care about even if they are not the borrower?
If a seller note is subordinated, a senior prepay or refinance can change when the note pays. If an earn-out is outstanding, a sale of the company can accelerate or kill it. If the buyer promised a 504 take-out of a bridge, a failed take-out leaves a short facility on the plant the seller may still lease.
Read the senior term sheet for prepayment and for whether a 504 or conventional take-out is a condition. Read the note for refinance cases. You do not need a coupon number to read those boxes. You need the boxes to exist.
This website still will not invent the coupon. It will invent a process: published SBA structure first, labeled DSCR habit second, lender sheet third. Anything else is folklore.
How should Express, EWCP, and International Trade acronyms stay off a domestic job-shop term sheet?
Express and Export Express max at $500,000. They are not an acquisition product for a mid-seven-figure enterprise value. EWCP and International Trade stories have stated guaranty differences. They are not a reason to tell a domestic fabricator that "SBA has a 90% product for you." Put the acronym down unless the file actually exports or trades in the way the program requires.
A term sheet that leads with an acronym the shop does not fit is a marketing sheet. Ask for the standard 7(a) or 504 structure that matches the uses table. Then ask for the live rate rule. Then stop asking this website for a number it will not print.
How should a broker intro call treat rates so nobody leaves with a folklore number?
Jason Taken will discuss published structure, injection, occupancy, and labeled DSCR habit. He will not quote a coupon. If a caller wants a number, the answer is the lender's sheet this week. That refusal is the product. A website that invents a rate becomes a liability.
Bring uses of funds, injection source, and whether the building is in the project. Those facts pick 7(a), 504, ABL, or a walk. The coupon comes last, from someone who can lend.
Fed G.17 utilization at 76.0% in July 2026 (Source: Fed G.17) and ISM Prices at 71.1 (Source: ISM) belong in a credit narrative as climate. They do not belong in a website as a reason to invent a rate. Climate is context. The term sheet is the quote.