Church financing for the church building

We have had numerous churches come to us recently seeking church financing for the purchase of buildings that they intend to re-purpose. They are sometimes vacant stand-alone office spaces, warehouses, or retail stores. Other times, it is a building the church has been leasing and already considers home. We have found that many of these churches have the same mindset: The structure does not look or function the way they want it to, but they can see it’s potential. The dilemma that the churches face is that they need money to purchase the building and funds to renovate. Sometimes the renovation can be as simple as adding some classrooms or as complicated as building a fellowship hall. Whatever the renovations, we can help by providing a church loan to purchase the building as well as renovate the property all within one closing. We make the process quick and simple, so you can get on with the business of finding members to fill the extra space.

It is often possible for a church to borrow 100% of the cost of the renovations they want to have completed. If the church has equity in the property or even in another property, then they can often use this equity as the collateral for the loan they need to renovate the property. If the church is buying a property, and they do not own any other property then they will usually have to come up with a down payment plus a portion of the funds needed for the renovations or construction they want to complete. The amount the church needs to come up with varies on a number of factors but is usually around 20% of the total cost.

When a church is determining what work they should complete it is important that the church understand the amount that they can borrow using a church loan. The process of determining how much a church can borrow is quick and free. We will send you a simple one page application which you can complete in two minutes and send back to us with the last three years financial statements for the church. We will analyze the financial statements and tell you how much the church can afford to borrow and what the likely church loan terms will be. Once you know the amount the church can afford to borrow, you can work with an architect or builder to determine what can be accomplished with the money you have available. It is best to determine how much the church can afford to borrow before you have full plans drawn up by an architect. If the church is looking to do a capital campaign along with borrowing some of the funds for the renovation or construction project, then it can be helpful to have an architectural rendering created of the finalized project so that potential givers can have a visual understanding of the project. The visual understanding of the project will often energize the church’s donor base to give more and help to push the project along more quickly.