I've been reading conflicting things and I'm not sure if it's due to a change in SOP or something else, so rather than confusing myself more, I was hoping to ask for some guidance.
I had a confusing call with a broker where he said if your escrow as a % of your purchase price goes from 15% to 5% (let's say the original IOI was 15% and the buyer wants to drop this to 5%), the buyer would need to put up considerable more of their own money. I was thinking back on our conversation and I then started questioning what he meant.
Let's say the purchase price is $8M, the seller will rollover $1M, the buyer will contribute $1.5M, and that leaves $5.5M to be financed. Of the $7M (price - rollover), let's say in scenario A $1,050 is held in escrow and scenario B $350k is held in escrow. I thought escrow holdbacks are eligible for SBA financing as long as it's not based on an earnout, maybe I'm wrong here?
In Scenario A vs B, is the only difference the seller will receive less money up front in A or are there other nuances involved?
Apologies, this is probably a simple question but I wanted to be a little more clear on escrow mechanics and when the seller actually receives funds. Thank you.
Escrow mechanics
by a searcher from Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business
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If you mean to use vendor financing or holdback as an escrow, then your financing will be lower proportionally but you will need to fund them at the end of the escrow period (or vendor financing period).
I suggest you prepare a source & use table for your deal and another source and use table for the buyer, from buyer's point of view.