If you want a test in patience, you’ve met your match. Gas stations and convenience stores with fuel have never been the darling of the lending industry. Construction financing is even worse. There are any number of reasons why this is the case.1) The overall environment is not conducive to lending in general2) The petroleum retail (C & G) business is not a favorite of the lending community3) Frequent cost overruns make construction financing more risky to a bank, especially if it is a high advance (LTV)4) Commercial construction lending is something where lenders tend to run hot and cold on and when they run hot, it’s usually for short periods of time.5) The length of time it takes to construct (usually longer than anticipated) makes doing construction loans prohibitive.6) Lenders in all cases will consider this a start up business which is very difficult to do.What are your options? First, if this is your first gas station / convenience store that you have managed or owned, you will have a VERY difficult time getting financing. If you have a partner, even with a minority ownership interest, it will be less difficult. Borrowers that currently own and operate gas stations and convenience stores have the least difficult time obtaining financing because from an underwriter’s point of view, should the new business take a while to get off the ground, the borrower has income from other sources and they are not totally dependent on the profitability of the new venture.If you do not already own the land or have not already purchased the land where you intend to build, it will be less desirable to a lender. The closer you are to being able to break ground, the closer you are to having legitimate financing options. If you are still waiting for quotes from construction companies and vendors, it will be less desirable to a lender. The closer you are to knowing exactly what your costs will be, the higher your probability goes up of obtaining financing.In most cases, you will be required to obtain a feasibility study. Spending a few thousand dollars is money well spent and will most likely make you aware of your demographics and competition you may or may not be aware of. If an oil company or jobber has done their own study, they will have their own motivation to bring you on as a client. A hands off third party report will in most cases be more reliable.You should make yourself prepared to accept private money financing for the project and then get permanent financing. If you accept private financing, typically you will pay higher rates (8-10% interest only) which you will be for 3-12 months, depending on the anticipated length of time for construction. Although the rate will be higher, it might be the quickest option for financing. Be prepared to come up with more out of pocket money for the private financing and obtain a higher advance on your permanent loan. It is possible that you can get conventional construction financing, but do not expect to get more than a 70% advance of construction costs. If you are pursuing SBA 7(a) or 504, it is possible that you can get a 80-85% advance, but do not hold your breath.Be prepared for any of your sources to sour on the deal. It isn’t necessarily that your deal is bad but that lenders are very mercurial on construction loans. Always work multiple sources on gas station construction financing. Even doing this, there are no guarantees on gas station construction loans.
Gas Station Financing – Constructing Financing For Gas Stations
The Fitness Lifestyle: Living It Or Losing It?
When it comes to being healthy and fit – living the fitness lifestyle – every single day you’re either living it or losing it. There is no status quo when it comes to a healthy lifestyle; every day your body is a little bit better or a little bit worse…There’s a simple reason for this: you and your body come from opposing viewpoints when it comes to measuring fitness. You want a body with enough muscle and limited fat, right? Your body, on the other hand, has learned through evolution to want just barely enough muscle and sufficient fat stores.Why does your body want what you would class as unhealthy and unfit? Its job is to ‘protect’ you and keep you going, and to do that you need sufficient energy no matter what the situation. Energy, in terms of your body, means calories. While your body needs enough muscle to function, muscle burns calories faster than fat does – so ‘extra’ muscle means a loss of potential energy saved for future needs. Fat, on the other hand, is stored energy – energy your body may need in times of reduced caloric intake. Such times range from the 8 – 12 hour fast between supper and breakfast to times of famine. That may change over several generations now that we live in a culture of overeating, but for now you’re stuck with the genetics formed over the past million or so years when food was much less plentiful and much harder to procure daily.So to overcome this genetic cycle, you have to remain vigilant in your pursuit of a fitness lifestyle. No, you don’t have to hit the gym and lift weights 7 days a week. That would be counter-productive, as you need about 48 hours between sessions for muscles to heal and grow. But you DO need to keep your body in that cycle, so that each day it’s either working out or recovering. And proper nutrition should be a daily habit 7 days a week – remember that food is simply fuel, and any day your body doesn’t get the right fuel is another non-optimal day for someone looking to lead a healthy fitness lifestyle.In short, the playing field has changed but your genetics haven’t adapted to those changes. You can’t just sit back and think your system is going to keep ticking along just fine without your input – it’s just not going to happen. So while everything may seem just fine on the surface, if you’re not ACTIVELY staying fit and eating right, internally you’re backsliding.Make fitness and healthy eating your daily habit and before long it’s no longer a major effort but instead it simply becomes your lifestyle – your healthy lifestyle. If you’re young, don’t put it off for somewhere down the road – you can be doing irreversible damage to your system in the meantime. Think you have a fast metabolism and can eat anything you want? Talk to a few people with Type 2 Diabetes and you’ll find many of them felt the same at your age. No, they didn’t put on extra fat from eating anything and everything – but they DID dull their insulin receptors and eventually developed diabetes because of it.If you’re older, don’t accept aches and pains on waking or a lack of energy by early evening as normal – both are signs of not being in shape, of not having been living a fitness lifestyle. Get back on track with your exercise and healthy nutrition, get enough sleep and watch how quickly those symptoms disappear!Your body may not be optimized for your goals, but it WILL respond to the input you give it. If you teach it you need a lot of energy every day, it’ll respond accordingly. If you teach it you’re going to lift heavier and heavier weights it will respond by building bigger, stronger muscles. If you teach it you’re going to run further and further or faster and faster, it will develop the cardiovascular resources to cope with that. It needs your help, of course, in the form of proper fuel – healthy food choices in the right amounts – and it will do what’s needed from there.So did you live the fitness lifestyle today, or did you backslide? The choice is yours and yours alone, so take action on the exercise and healthy nutrition front EVERY day and enjoy your healthy & happy fitness lifestyle and all the benefits that come with it!
How to Enhance Your Home With Good Home Repairs – Do It Yourself Information
Home repair do it yourself information can save you money every year, and it can also provide you with a very deep sense of satisfaction as you improve your abilities. You can extend the life of the fixtures and fittings in your home, and save both time and money on expensive replacements. Having do it yourself home repair skills also lets you alter the appearance of items, allowing you to create a properly color coordinated and matching set of items in your home.These skills can also pay off handsomely if you ever decide to sell your home. There is no doubt that one of the greatest influences on the sale price of a home is the standard of the fixtures and fittings, especially those in the kitchen and bathroom. It is not that the new owners could not make the necessary changes, it is just that the richest section of the home buying market just wants to move in with everything already in place. They are often prepared to pay a premium for this.In theory, every item in your home can be maintained using DIY home repair. The only exception to this is gas appliances, which need to be serviced by someone with the right qualifications. Although there is nothing to stop you from completing the training courses and obtaining these qualifications, it is rather an extreme step to take just to be able to service your own gas furnace. Unless you have an ambition to take up a career in gas servicing, it will be best to leave this to a qualified professional.Electrical appliances are a different matter, and anyone determined enough can find out how to carry out repairs. The problems come with the fact that so many modern appliances are made very cheaply, and made to be discarded when they stop working. Often, the replacement parts are not even available. In this situation, there really is nothing you can do but replace the item as the manufacturer intended. If you buy a better quality product, there is a better chance that you will be able to repair it.Maintaining your furniture, and kitchen and bathroom fittings, can be the most rewarding aspect of DIY home repair, and also the most profitable. If you can prevent wear and tear to kitchen units with good maintenance, you can avoid having to replace the units when you come to sell the property. This can save you a lot of time and money. Extending the life of well made kitchen cabinets is easily possible, and it all starts with proper cleaning. If you can prevent grease from building up, you can keep the cabinets in good condition. They can also be easily resurfaced if you are adept at home repair do it yourself.