Buying a Firehouse Subs franchise: SBA acquisition loan data

What this tells a buyer

• Price range to expect. Loan size tracks purchase price. Half of Firehouse Subs resale loans landed between $245,200 and $573,150.
• Lender experience exists. Live Oak Banking Company alone has financed 8 Firehouse Subs resales.
• Guaranty. The SBA guaranteed 77% of the dollars lent here.
• What the file leaves out. The SBA file does not record franchisor transfer terms or fees.

How Firehouse Subs compares

The median for Firehouse Subs resale loans is $336,000, in line with the $350,000 median for limited-service restaurants and well below the $645,250 median for all SBA-financed acquisitions nationally.

The middle half runs $245,200 to $573,150, 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 7.56%, below the 7.76% national average.

None of the seasoned loans were charged off, against 5.3% for limited-service restaurants and 3.5% for all acquisition loans.

Loan size distribution

Most Firehouse Subs resale loans (90%) were under $1M, and the largest single band is Under $350K at 54%, against 30% of all acquisition loans.

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

Lender concentration

Live Oak Banking Company made 14% of Firehouse Subs resale loans, and the top three lenders together made 29%. 6 of the 32 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, 9 Firehouse Subs resale loans were approved. That is 18% fewer than the 11 approved in FY2023 and FY2024. The median was $300,000, slightly below the $336,000 median across all years.

Financing a Firehouse Subs resale: what lenders financed

The median SBA 7(a) loan for a Firehouse Subs resale was $336,000 across 59 loans (FY2018 to FY2026). Live Oak Banking Company, Stearns Bank National Association and SouthWest Bank have financed the most Firehouse Subs resales. Of 34 seasoned loans (FY2018 to FY2021), none were charged off, against the 3.5% average for all SBA acquisition loans.

Firehouse Subs acquisition loans by year

How often do these acquisition loans fail?

Of the 34 Firehouse Subs 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. 14 have already been paid in full.

For comparison, Firehouse Subs 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 Firehouse Subs

Lenders code each loan to a NAICS industry. For Firehouse Subs the codes used were:

Related

• All Limited-Service Restaurants acquisitions
• Florida acquisitions
• Virginia acquisitions
• Texas acquisitions
• Live Oak Banking Company
• Stearns Bank National Association
• The Huntington National Bank
• All franchise brands

Brand name as recorded by lenders in the SBA file: "Firehouse Subs" (franchise code S0639). Figures are aggregates of public SBA data and are not provided or endorsed by the franchisor.