Thanks John, I wholeheartedly agree with you there. That's where my heads at as well, but there's a bit of an emotional side to it as well. Little bit of fear of the unknown with ETA, but I definitely believe it's a great opportunity and aligns well with my future goals

One thing to keep in mind based on the deal sizes you are looking at is if you are planning to use SBA financing and you end up buying a business with a lot of goodwill value, that an SBA lender is likely going to require outside collateral. Since you have equity in the investment property that means they would likely put a second mortgage on that property. So you would in essence end up with the equity you have in that property tied up into the loan anyway. By having the cash available to you, you could then put that into the deal and have a lower loan, or if you have the cash to put down separately, still have access to the cash from that property for use in growing the business or for a rainy day.

I would be happy to talk options at any time. You can reach me here or directly at redacted