Here’s a link to great blog written by an individual who has worked in the church financing market for 10 years. He has some insight about things that churches can do to help themselves get the financing they need. I think it’s great to get the perspective of an experienced person who is involved in the process first hand.
Click here to read the blog.
A recent trend in the church financing market is the growing availability of financing options for a variety of projects; a trend commonly found in the residential mortgage market. While churches may find this as good news since they will not have trouble obtaining funding for any upcoming projects, it can often be a slippery slope in which the church will find itself borrowing more than it is able to repay.
Just because lenders are offering special features with their church loans (such as no money down, etc.), doesn’t mean it is always in the best interest of the church to accept such features. While it is certainly beneficial in the beginning, allowing the church to obtain needed capital, if the loan is accepted for too great an amount on too easy of terms, then much like a residential home buyer, the church can find itself unable to make the loan payments later on.
The lesson here is, that while it is great that the church financing market is expanding and offering initial money saving benefits to churches, it is imperative for the church to borrow only what they know they can repay, regardless of what the lender is offering.
