How the green card SBA change restructured my entire search approach
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?
from University of Colorado at Boulder in Fort Myers, FL, USA