Refinancing notes that are discounted by a regulated lender is generally challenging specially if government guaranteed programs are used. Aside from meeting standard credit requirements, there are two major hurdles to overcome, first to find a lender who is in principal willing to finance a discounted note regardless of the regulations and second, to assure that the regulations allow for the refinance of that note under the specific circumstances that have led to the discount.

Many lenders, regardless of the regulations and merely based on their lending policy, consider a discount as charge off which generally is associated with a default. These lenders do not even entertain refinancing discounted notes.

The regulations, at least when it comes to SBA financing, specifically disqualifies small businesses who have caused prior losses to the government and have delinquent federal debt including losses incurred as a result of foreclosure or settlement of a loan balance. Additionally, in order to refinance a discount, the small business needs to have been current with the loan at least for the past year. Many lenders require two or more years of current payment history.

In this case however, the lender had sold the note to a private equity firm. These firms are looking for short-term gains and once acquiring the note, are generally offering a discount as an incentive to the hotel owner to refinance. Our challenge in this project was to refinance a newer hotel who had stabilized only in 2012 yet taking advantage of the negotiated discount.