Resorts & Lodges For Sale in the Ozark Mountains
Bull Shoals Lake ~ Norfork Lake ~ White River ~ Missouri Ozarks
Gary Cooley, Realtor Resort/Tourism Specialist

The biggest obstacle I see resort buyers having is coming up with the down payment needed for the resort they want to buy.  In almost all cases you will need to make a down payment equal to a least 25 percent of the selling price. In many cases a resort makes financial sense only if you put as much as 50 percent down. Otherwise the loan payments will be so high you can't make a decent profit and have money left to live on. If you need to support a family you will very definitely need to make a larger down payment.

All banks consider small resorts and small tourism businesses to be high risk ventures. You will need to demonstrate to banks that you have assets which can be sold within 90 days to recover a portion of the amount they lend you should you default on the loan.

What about owner financing or nothing down purchases? I have never seen a nothing down resort sale. I have seen a lot of people try it without success. However, I have seen quite a few owner finance deals. However, most owners do not want to offer financing and usually do so only if they want to sell quickly.

Many owners will not offer financing because they fear that if the new owner is not successful, they'll get the property back, and most likely in worse shape than when they sold it. The key point to remember about owner financing is that if an owner has enough equity in their operation to be able to offer you financing, they have been successful operators for several years.

You can bet that in their years of experience they have seen at least one resort sale with owner financing where the owner had to take the place back when the people they sold to defaulted on  the loan. When this happens almost always the property comes back to the former owners in bad shape. So if owners seem closed minded about owner financing, don't be surprised.

If you really need owner financing, be prepared to give the owner the right to keep an eye on you. Bear in mind that if you run a resort well for two or three years, the banks will look at you in a much more favorable light, and more than likely will offer you a good loan package. At that point you can pay off the former owner completety.

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