90% Of Buyers Want A Seller Note. 29% Of Sellers Will Offer One.

Nine out of ten buyers are counting on something fewer than three out of ten sellers plan to give them.

That's the gap sitting inside BizBuySell's Q2 2026 Insight Report. Ninety percent of buyers said they expect seller financing to be part of their acquisition strategy. Only 29% of business owners said they plan to offer it. Almost half said they won't, and 23% haven't decided.

Now put that next to what happened at the SBA. In fiscal 2026, which ended September 30, the agency approved 56,130 7(a) loans totaling $32.4 billion, according to American Banker. Both numbers fell by double digits from the year before. 504 volume dropped 9% to $7.1 billion. Even Live Oak, the biggest 7(a) lender in the country, saw its volume fall 9% to about $2.6 billion.

One SBA lending adviser summed it up plainly: it got harder to get deals done. The credit box shrank, and the new fiscal year started with tighter rules, not looser ones.

Why This Gap Matters More Than It Did a Year Ago

Here's what most people miss. When banks are loose, a missing seller note is an inconvenience. When banks are tight, it can be the difference between a deal that closes and a deal that dies in underwriting.

The seller note does two jobs at once. It fills part of the capital stack so the bank isn't carrying the whole deal. And it keeps the seller financially tied to how the business performs after you take over. Lenders like both of those things. In a tighter market, they like them more.

Look at it from the seller's side for a second. Most owners hear "seller financing" and picture waiting years to get paid by someone they barely know. Half of them say no before they've seen a single number. The 23% who haven't decided are the ones you can actually move, and the 29% who said yes will get every buyer's call.

Watch What the Note Is Actually Worth to You

Let me show you on a composite deal. A $1.2M business earning $440,000 in SDE. That's about 2.73x.

With a clean 80/10/10, the bank lends $960,000, the seller carries $120,000, and you put in $120,000. At 10.5% over ten years, your SBA payment is $12,954 a month. The seller note at 5% interest-only costs you $6,000 a year. Your total debt service is $161,445, and your stressed coverage is 2.18x. After paying a $75,000 general manager, your owner cash flow is $203,555.

Now take the seller note away. You've got two choices.

Option one: you still put in $120,000 and the bank lends 90%. Your SBA payment jumps to $14,573 a month, your debt service rises to $174,876, and your stressed coverage drops to 2.01x. That's barely hanging on, and in a tight credit market a lender may not love it.

Option two: you write a bigger check. You put in $240,000, twice the cash, to keep the bank at 80%. Your coverage is fine at 2.26x, but you just doubled your own skin in the game and drained the working capital cushion you were supposed to keep.

That $120,000 note is either half your down payment or the cushion that keeps your coverage above the line.

Last quarter I watched a buyer walk into this trap. He'd built his whole plan around a 10% seller note and never asked for it until after the LOI was signed. The seller said no. He spent six weeks scrambling for an extra $120,000 he didn't have, and the deal fell apart in underwriting. The note was never negotiated. It was assumed.

How to Get a Seller to Say Yes

The first deal I worked taught me this: sellers don't say no to seller financing. They say no to seller financing they don't understand.

Ask for it in the first conversation, not the LOI. If the note shows up for the first time on paper, it feels like a retrade. If it's part of how you talk about the deal from day one, it's just the structure. Find out where the seller stands before you spend money on diligence.

Put it in the LOI in plain numbers. Ten percent of price, the rate, the term, and when payments start. Vague language invites a vague answer. A specific number gets a specific answer.

Show the seller what they get. On the deal above, the seller collects $1,080,000 at closing and $6,000 a year in interest on the rest, then the balance. That's still the full asking price. Many sellers have never been shown it laid out that simply. Their CPA can also tell them how receiving part of the price over time may affect their taxes; that's a conversation worth encouraging, not one you should try to have for them.

Trade price for terms when it makes sense. A seller who wants the full asking price is often more open to carrying a note to get it. A seller who wants all cash may take less to get it. Know which one you're talking to and offer accordingly.

Know your no-note number before you need it. Run the deal both ways before you make an offer. I run every structure through DealScore Pro so I already know what the deal looks like with and without the note. If the deal only works with the note and the seller won't carry one, you have your answer. Walk.

The SBA's own program rules on seller notes and equity are on SBA.gov, and your lender will have its own requirements on top of that. Ask early so the note is structured the way the bank needs it.

Here's the thing. A seller who won't carry a dime after hearing all of that is telling you something about how they see the next two years of the business. Listen to it.

The buyers who close in a tight market aren't the ones with the most cash. They're the ones who ask the right questions early and know their numbers cold. That can be you.

What This Means For You

If you're planning to acquire in the next six months, ask every seller about a 10% note in your first real conversation and put the exact terms in your LOI. Then run the deal without the note too, so you know before you sign whether you can still close if the answer is no.

Want to see how I stress-test every deal against cost shocks, revenue dips, and hidden liabilities before I'd put a dollar at risk? I walk through the entire Bulletproof method in a free 28-minute masterclass.

Forward this email. Tell them to grab Mike's free book - Real Estate Is for Suckers: Buy a Business Instead. Same framework Mike uses to stress-test every deal.