Village Bank
At a Glance
A small Minnesota bank that says the two words a buyer looks for, acquisitions and buyouts, and will start without a relationship; the program figures on its page are the program's.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Loan products; terms by term sheet. Its SBA pages print the program's $5 million 7(a) ceiling, an Express ceiling of $500,000, a guaranteed revolving line up to $350,000 and 504 project costs up to $12 million; no rate or fee (per villagebankonline.bank, September 2026).
- Best For
- A buyer of a Minnesota business who wants a community bank with delegated SBA authority and no existing relationship required to start
- Track Record
- A Minnesota community bank with four offices, a Preferred Lender with delegated authority, and a regional development company's 504 partner award for 2025 by its own post.
- Type
- Bank (lends directly)
- Footprint
- Four offices in Minnesota north of the Twin Cities by its footer, with no lending area published. It lends beyond the states it names, so one it does not name is worth asking about rather than ruling out.
- 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.
- Its SBA financing page prints up to $5 million for the 7(a) and no floor; its loan options page prints the same for guaranteed term loans.
- Searcher Practice
- A general SBA lending desk, branch-driven.
- Each SBA page opens with a get-started form and ends in finding a business banker, and its SBA financing page says the best first step is a conversation with a lender; no online application.
- No page names a search fund or a searcher; its SBA page lists business acquisitions and partner buyouts among its uses with a footnote that acquisitions may need additional review.
- Published Terms
- 7(a) to the program's $5 million, Express to $500,000, a guaranteed revolving line to $350,000, 504 project costs to $12 million; no rate or fee published.
- Roadmap Stages
- 5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Lists business acquisitions and partner buyouts among its SBA uses and says a buyer needs no existing banking relationship to start the conversation
- Delegated authority to make certain lending decisions locally, in its own words
- A regional development company's 504 lending partner of the year for 2025, a multiple-year honor by its own post
- Names its commercial and SBA bankers with titles
Cons
- Publishes no rate and no fee, and its two SBA pages describe their products under different headings
- Four offices in one state, a get-started form that hands off to a banker, and no online application
- Names no search fund, searcher or acquisition entrepreneur, and says acquisitions may require additional documentation and review
What Searchers Say
Read on its SBA financing page, its SBA loan options page, its business loans page, its team page, its FAQ and its award post. The federal loan file lists the bank under an address that no longer serves it. No searcher-forum discussion of the desk was found.
How to Approach
Village 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