Live Oak Bank vs Plumas Bank (SBA lending)
Side by Side
| Attribute | Live Oak Bank | Plumas Bank |
|---|---|---|
| What It Is | The SBA's #1 7(a) lender by dollar volume, with a dedicated acquisition and search fund lending practice: 7(a) loans up to the $5M program cap and combination 7(a)+conventional structures to roughly $9M. | The best published acquisition terms this campaign has found: a Preferred Lender whose page states 15% down for business acquisitions, ten-year fixed rates on them, 48-to-72-hour prequalification, and the nine western states it lends in by name, over a team funding more than $800 million since 2007 and California's fourth-deepest book in our file. |
| Category | SBA & Acquisition Lenders | SBA & Acquisition Lenders |
| Pricing Model | Custom Pricing | Custom Pricing |
| What It Costs | Loan products (no fee to engage). SBA 7(a) up to $5M; combination structures up to ~$9M for $7–10M+ enterprise-value deals; free weekly M&A office hours for buyers targeting $500k–$12M businesses. | Loan products; no fee to engage. The page publishes what the category hides: business acquisitions at as little as 15% down on ten-year FIXED rates, real estate at 10% down over 25 years, 48-to-72-hour prequalification, 7(a) to $5 million fully amortized and assumable, the 504 to $12.5 million with its LTV structure, and the nine lending states enumerated, California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. Our FOIA computation places it fourth in California's change-of-ownership top-five with 157 loans and second in Nevada with 23 across the file's six years. |
| Best For | Buyers of $1M+ businesses who want the most experienced SBA acquisition lender in their corner from day one | Buyers across the nine western states it names who want acquisition terms stated before the first call, and a fixed rate where nearly everyone else quotes variable |
| Where It Fits | Set Up & Fund the Search, Diligence & Close the Deal | Set Up & Fund the Search, Diligence & Close the Deal |
| Our Verdict | Start your lender conversations here, then still get a second term sheet elsewhere. | The page every relationship desk should be embarrassed by: the two numbers a buyer actually needs, the injection and the rate structure, stated in writing with the lending map beside them. Across its nine states this is the published-terms quote the others get compared against. |
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Our take
Choose Live Oak for a nonstandard deal or a searcher structure anywhere in the country: the dedicated practice that has seen your shape before, combination financing to roughly $9M past the 7(a) cap, and a remote process built for acquisitions rather than adapted to them.
Choose Plumas for a straightforward deal in its nine named western states: 15% down for acquisitions on ten-year fixed rates, terms known before the first call, and prequalification inside 48 to 72 hours, the rate certainty nearly every rival leaves variable.
Put It to Work
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