Northwest Bank
At a Glance
If you want the bankers who defined searcher SBA lending, this is now where they are; still get a second term sheet.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Loan products (no fee to engage). SBA 7(a) to the $5M program cap; free weekly Wednesday searcher office hours. Rates and terms quoted per deal; confirm current terms directly.
- Best For
- Searchers and owner-operators pursuing SBA-backed acquisitions of $1M to $15M businesses who want the lending team that built Live Oak's search-fund practice
- Track Record
- Built in 2025-2026 by the bankers who ran Live Oak's search-fund practice.
- Type
- Bank (lends directly)
- Footprint
- Nationwide.
- Approval Authority
- Says it holds SBA Preferred Lender status, so it can approve the loan itself rather than sending the file to the agency for a second look.
- Deal Size
- $500k to $5M.
- Publishes no floor. Most of this shelf gives a ceiling that is really the agency's own cap, and no minimum at all.
- Searcher Practice
- A dedicated searcher and acquisition practice, handled remotely.
- Search fund lending named as a specialty on its own SBA page, in the sentence "We specialize in Search Fund Lending", beside business acquisitions and partner buyouts as a named use and a published figure for what it will fund a purchase up to.
- Published Terms
- Ten years on a business acquisition and twenty-five on real estate, financing goodwill and structuring seller participation.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Lisa Forrest (nine years at Live Oak) and Sarah Andrews (fourteen years) rebuilt their search-fund lending practice here in 2025-2026, so the pattern recognition that made Live Oak the default searcher lender moved with them
- Preferred SBA Lender status means delegated authority to approve loans without a separate SBA credit review, which speeds decisions
- Names search fund lending as a specialty on its own SBA page, in those words, beside business acquisitions and partner buyouts as named uses
- Free weekly Wednesday office hours, and the team will review a deal before the LOI is signed
- Publishes a business purchase figure of up to $8 million on its own SBA page, and names the structure beside it rather than leaving it to a call
Cons
- The dedicated ETA platform is new, stood up in 2025-2026, so its track record under this team at this bank is still short next to the practice they left
- As a nationwide program run by a small named team, capacity and personal attention ride on the same two bankers the whole community is now routing to
- The eight-million purchase figure on its page is a deal size and not a loan size: its own guaranteed money stops at the $5M program cap, and seller participation is the named way past it
- Rates and terms are quoted per deal and not published, so a comparison quote elsewhere is still worth getting
What Searchers Say
The 2025-2026 move of Lisa Forrest and Sarah Andrews from Live Oak to Northwest Bank was widely noted in searcher communities (Searchfunder, EBIT Community) as the search-fund lending team relocating. Practice details verified against the bank's SBA page and community coverage.
How to Approach
Northwest Bank is a bank, so this is how that kind of lender comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A prequalification on you and the target, often from the first email.
- A full application and the bank's own underwrite of the deal.
- A term sheet, then closing on the SBA's timeline, commonly two to four months.
What It Weighs
- Whether the business's cash flow covers the debt with room to spare.
- Your experience relative to the business you are buying.
- Your equity injection and how clean the financials are.
How to Prepare
- Model the payment and coverage before you call. SBA Acquisition Calculator
- Underwrite the specific deal end to end. Underwrite a Deal
- Show where every dollar comes from and goes. Sources & Uses Builder