[Kwak]

Found a mentor.

[mat]

For a start-up... you are stuck with the little guy that manages the bank nearest your business. Your FICO will be your only bargaining tool and most likely as soon as you leave his presence - he'll be talking about whatever it is you want to do. BUT - the good news is that he talks to people everyday and is obviously still working at the bank, so the odds that your idea will be the one he steals are very low. If you have a FICO of 675 or higher and have a reasonable debt/income ratio, you will most likely receive the funds you request (anything over 50K might be pressing them unless you give them some real collateral). I'm going through the same thing as you are right now and it is extremely frustrating. If you're taking a loan out, there is no way to avoid partnership. Banks are not trusting entities - they are going to want to know every single thing that you do/going to do and depending on the type of loan they may even be able to dictate to you what to do. A Real Estate venture may be easier due to the fact that you may be able to offer them some immediate source of collateral (a piece of property) whereas in my business, I cannot. Good Luck and if you don't mind, let me know how it goes.

[akula]

you're out of your league, you need a mentor and work experience to answer these questions. I can't answer them because there is too many variables involved.

answers on this forum will not be useful to you, because these are difficult and heterogeneous financial transactions.

if you don't know know these things, you're either not ready, or supposed to know them

trust me - I'm writting this with best intetions - you wanna jump into the real estate game? go and learn this business on someone elses dime. you're not gonna learn anything of value on this forum.