Buying a Budget Blinds franchise: SBA acquisition loan data

What this tells a buyer

• Price range to expect. Loan size tracks purchase price. Half of Budget Blinds resale loans landed between $250,000 and $976,750.
• Lender experience exists. Mission Valley Bank alone has financed 15 Budget Blinds resales.
• Guaranty. The SBA guaranteed 75% of the dollars lent here.
• What the file leaves out. The SBA file does not record franchisor transfer terms or fees.

How Budget Blinds compares

The median for Budget Blinds resale loans is $407,500, below the $488,500 median for window treatment retailers and below the $645,250 median for all SBA-financed acquisitions nationally.

The middle half runs $250,000 to $976,750, against $283,000 to $1,465,000 nationally; the median term is 10 years, the same as the national median; the average initial rate is 8.43%, above the 7.76% national average.

None of the seasoned loans were charged off, against 3.5% for all acquisition loans.

Loan size distribution

Most Budget Blinds resale loans (76%) were under $1M, and the largest single band is Under $350K at 38%, against 30% of all acquisition loans.

Bands are fixed dollar ranges chosen for comparison. They are not SBA program limits.

Lender concentration

Mission Valley Bank made 22% of Budget Blinds resale loans, and the top three lenders together made 41%. 7 of the 28 lenders involved made three or more. Repeat experience is spread across many banks. That is a rough guide to how many banks have seen this kind of deal before.

Recent activity

In FY2025 and FY2026 combined, 18 Budget Blinds resale loans were approved. That is 22% fewer than the 23 approved in FY2023 and FY2024. The median was $434,150, slightly above the $407,500 median across all years.

Financing a Budget Blinds resale: what lenders financed

The median SBA 7(a) loan for a Budget Blinds resale was $407,500 across 68 loans (FY2018 to FY2026). Mission Valley Bank, First Bank of the Lake and Customers Bank have financed the most Budget Blinds resales. Of 22 seasoned loans (FY2018 to FY2021), none were charged off, against the 3.5% average for all SBA acquisition loans.

Budget Blinds acquisition loans by year

How often do these acquisition loans fail?

Of the 22 Budget Blinds acquisition loans approved from FY2018 to FY2021 (the seasoned cohort, every loan at least about five years old), none have been charged off by the SBA. 12 have already been paid in full.

For comparison, Budget Blinds has none charged off, against the 3.5% average across all SBA 7(a) acquisition loans in the same cohort. Non-acquisition 7(a) loans (every other stated purpose) approved FY2018 to FY2021 charged off at 6.2%.

"Charged off" is the SBA's final loss action on a defaulted loan after collection efforts. It lags default by a year or more, which is why only older cohorts are measured. It is not the same as a delinquency rate, and loans still outstanding can still fail. See charge-off in the glossary.

How lenders classify Budget Blinds

Lenders code each loan to a NAICS industry. For Budget Blinds the codes used were:

Related

• All Window Treatment Retailers acquisitions
• Florida acquisitions
• Texas acquisitions
• Wisconsin acquisitions
• Mission Valley Bank
• First Bank of the Lake
• Customers Bank
• All franchise brands

Brand name as recorded by lenders in the SBA file: "Budget Blinds" (franchise code S0266). Figures are aggregates of public SBA data and are not provided or endorsed by the franchisor.