For Liberty SBF, the proposed changes were welcome news. With a client base made up of investors and businesses eager to refinance out of SBA 7a loans into low-cost, fixed-rate SBA 504 loans, this change has opened more doors for potential borrowers as well as generated a great deal of interest and direct referrals from brokers in the mortgage community.

“This is a really big deal. Any borrower in that high leverage (SBA 7a) loan should be thinking of refinancing, because theoretically there should be very little out-of-pocket expense. Most of the fees can be capitalized into the new loan,” Alex Cohen (pictured), chief executive officer of Liberty SBF, explained.

“Brokers and mortgage professionals who work as intermediaries should be thinking about their 7a clients who can now refinance into high-leverage, fixed-rate SBA 504 loans. We believe that this is a total of around $100 billion to $200 billion in outstanding volume,” Cohen continued.

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Liberty SBF hit the ground running in anticipation of the SBA announcement. To capitalize on the significant change for high-leverage small business loans, Liberty SBF set up a team dedicated to pursuing this opportunity and have been growing this team over the month since the proposed change took effect.