Background: The company I work for has been purchased by a competitor and I anticipate not having a job in 6mo to a year. When the deal closes I anticipate recieving a couple of hundred thousand dollars after taxes from my stock option cashout and severance. I am considering using this as a down payment for a small business acquisition loan.

My naive question is - is there any type of pre-approval process for these types of loans, particularly when I don't have the down payment in hand yet, or do I have to wait until I have actually received the money to begin the process?

Thanks

The quick answer is no and you have to identify the business before you can get pre-approval. However you may have some options. Generally commercial loans are tailor-made for each borrower and situation so a pre-approval isn't unavailabe. You could try getting a line of credit backed by real estate or other collateral. You mentioned stock options. I think banks take vested options as colateral. I know that if you own any stocks or bonds, you should be able to get a loan or line of credit based on the market value (subject to loan-to-value guidelines) of your holdings. Also, if you have any investments like CDs, you can get a loan using them as collaeral. Hope this helps.

Thank you. That helps me plan properly.

check out the SBA 504 loan. You probably have a good shot at that one.