Joe DownsCEO & Co-Founder, Belrose Storage Group. Founder, Storage Moguls.

Building a Portfolio with SBA

20 Feb 2026 · 0 min

Watch on YouTube

0:27

In this instructional segment, the speaker outlines a real‑estate investment financing strategy that starts with using Small Business Administration (SBA) loans as the initial “engine” to acquire properties. Once the SBA‑backed financing capacity is exhausted, the investor shifts to conventional cash‑out refinances, which makes them attractive to banks and allows them to pull out built‑up equity. The extracted equity can then be redeployed, often by returning to a lender like Live Oak, to repeat the cycle of acquisition and refinancing, thereby growing a property portfolio repeatedly.

They use the SBA as their little engine. They do as much as they can. When this elusive runway runs out, they start doing conventional refinances because guess what? Now I'm really attractive to all the banks. I can do a cash-out refi. You build up equity. Yep, I pull my equity out. I can pull my equity out and more. And then I can come back to Live Oak and I can do it again and again and again and again.