How the green card SBA change restructured my entire search approach

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April 01, 2026

by a searcher from Technische Universität München in Boca Raton, FL, USA

When the green card SBA news hit I assumed it was noise. It wasn't. Mid-way through my search (one failed LOI on a $3.2M deal — broker just came back last week at $2.95M, but I walked when the numbers in DD didn't hold up and the seller wouldn't budge on the price). I had to rethink the whole approach. I'd been targeting one acquisition large enough to replace my income outright — standard SBA-backed deal, standard timeline. Without SBA that approach was impossible. I shifted to smaller deals with heavy seller financing (up to 800k). My first question to every broker became: is the seller open to significant seller financing? Because if they are, we can close without a bank — and right now that's a real advantage. Besides finding a lot more openness about seller financing, many offering it outright. I also felt that the multiple where much more reasonable (even on BizBuySell), more like 2-3 instead of 3-4. I'm in South Florida, so landscaping and child care became my initial focus - maybe odd combination, but landscaping is kind of the prototype aquisition in South Florida it feels and my wife is in child care. I'm now under LOI for a 600k Child Care Service, 50 % seller finance, 150k investor friend and 150k cash and HELOC. Anyone else restructuring their search around this?
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Reply by a professional
from University of Colorado at Boulder in Fort Myers, FL, USA
^redacted‌.. this structure is clearly one way to fund a deal. Congrats! However, there are endless ways to do this. It looks like you've been working with the seller and/or broker to get to this spot. I would encourage you to keep asking questions to find out as much as possible about the sellers. Sometimes you can find other 'creative' ways to fund the deal so you can keep your $150K in your pocket...;o) Hope that helps.
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