Financing an acquisition is won before you apply. Lenders decide on the strength of the target's documented cash flow, your relevant experience, and the completeness of your package — and most declined deals fail on the third item.
These are the practices that get an acquisition loan approved and closed on schedule.
Prepare Before You Apply
Assemble a lender-ready file before you speak to anyone: three years of business tax returns and financial statements, interim statements, a debt schedule, the lease or deed, your personal financial statement, and two years of personal returns. Add a short business plan explaining what you will do differently.
Underwriters read a clean package as a signal about how you will run the business. A file that arrives in pieces over six weeks stretches a 60-day close into a 120-day one and often into a decline.
Know What Lenders Underwrite
The core test is debt service coverage: normalized cash flow divided by annual debt payments, typically required above 1.20x to 1.35x. Lenders also weigh your injection (commonly 10–25%), collateral, industry experience, credit history, and post-close liquidity reserves.
Add-backs must be documented. Cash flow you cannot evidence with returns and statements does not count toward coverage, no matter how real it is.
Shop More Than One Lender
Run the deal past an SBA-preferred lender active in your industry, a local bank or credit union with real estate appetite, and a specialty lender if the asset is unusual. Compare structure — term, amortization, rate type, prepayment penalty, guarantees, covenants — not just the rate.
Ask each lender directly how many deals in your industry they closed last year. Sector familiarity shortens underwriting more than any other factor.
Protect the Close
Write financing contingencies with realistic timelines, order appraisals and environmental work immediately, keep your credit and balance sheet unchanged during underwriting, and respond to every lender request within a day.
Buying in Florida? The Gas Station Group works alongside lenders on fuel-retail acquisitions; call (305) 518-1545. All transactions are brokered through Fausto Commercial.
Frequently Asked Questions
Speak With a Florida Gas Station Specialist
Request a confidential consultation or off-market opportunities and pricing through our contact page, or call +1-305-518-1545. The Gas Station Group is headquartered at 8603 S Dixie Hwy, Miami, FL 33143. Principal: Bobby Berrido.