Local community banks have a greater capacity to be flexible in their lending criteria, but only exercise that flexibility to the extent the know & trust the borrower. As such, it's generally best to approach those sorts of lenders in advance, perhaps even putting some money on deposit with the bank in the form of opening checking accounts and otherwise building a relationship with them now on the promise of future business. Just because they might reject you as a new account holder doesn't mean they wouldn't be more open to taking on greater levels of risk after years of doing business with you.
Here is a tool to help you find local community banks around town if you'd like. Several great options; I went with National Bank of Arizona for my business banking, largely because I already had contacts with their SBA & Commercial loan originators from prior networking events.
Good luck! I haven't had much luck during this COVID-19 a lot the lending programs have stopped at the moment and the ones that are still available the terms & rates have changed. I'm currently calling around all the credit unions and banks trying to get a HELOC on one of my rental properties; to fund a flip and they keep trying to talk me into cashout refi.
Local community banks have a greater capacity to be flexible in their lending criteria, but only exercise that flexibility to the extent the know & trust the borrower. As such, it's generally best to approach those sorts of lenders in advance, perhaps even putting some money on deposit with the bank in the form of opening checking accounts and otherwise building a relationship with them now on the promise of future business. Just because they might reject you as a new account holder doesn't mean they wouldn't be more open to taking on greater levels of risk after years of doing business with you.
Here is a tool to help you find local community banks around town if you'd like. Several great options; I went with National Bank of Arizona for my business banking, largely because I already had contacts with their SBA & Commercial loan originators from prior networking events.
Wow, @Patrick Allen, thank you for such a valuable resource. I have been looking for a tool like this. Thank you also for the information about the banks and the relationships. This gives me an excellent place to start. Really appreciate it!