Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Equipment financing

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted for a while, I have been busy working on my house. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on how to acquire financing for a used skid steer for personal and not for business use. It seems that all heavy equipment financing is geared towards businesses and I am having trouble finding anything. Should I be looking more towards a personal loan? Any ideas?

I think you need a personal loan or a equity loan on your house or something similar. I've never heard of anyone getting a loan for equipment itself other than through a dealer.

I believe RSC, Rental Services Corp, provides a pretty good in-house financing rate. The equipment I have used and seen for sale there has always been top notch. The pricing is usually pretty good too.

If you've got a good rate on a piece of plastic, ebay is a good source for used stuff and you can often use paypal for the purchase. You'll get the automatic purchase protection if it's junk too.

Our small town banks in my area (ones that deal with lots of farmers) do equipment loans all the time. Rates are typically pretty good too.

I'd start with your bank. If you aren't on a first name basis with the branch president, consider becoming so. It makes securing loans a LOT quicker and easier.... and cheaper.

I did that with most of the people I deal with at the Land Bank near my property, it works. Used to take them donuts when I was looking for my current property. Facebook made it easier to keep in touch with them over the distance once I got to know them. Same thing with my realtor. Looking to buy adjacent property if it becomes available and this reminds her to keep an ear/eye out too.

Thanks for the tips. I talked with a few of my local banks, but all of them require some sort of farming income or business in order to give an equipments loan. One of the banks said they would do it with a car title as collateral, but not with the skid steer as collateral, and she wouldn't tell me the interest rate. She only gave me the classic line, "We can get your payments to $xxx a month". Does this really get on anyone elses nerves when going in for a loan? Like they are trying to pull a fast one over you by not stating the interest rate. Anyways, I walked out of there when I quickly calculated the rate in my head at over %12. Heck, at that rate, I might as well put it on my card and at least earn some points. Any other suggestions?

As Bz said probably your only other options besides the credit card would be a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit. Both of these use your house as collateral. The good news is that the interest on these loans might be tax deductible. The bad news is that it puts your house up as collateral and these types of loans are harder to get now than they were a few years ago.

Oh and as an also and besides, I would never do business with a bank that wasn't up front about interest rates.

Not trying to be a bummer or preachy, but you could always save up the money first and not pay interest or put collateral at risk.