Cash-Out Equipment Refinance: Get Your Cash Back Out of Equipment You Just Bought

You bought the equipment with cash. Maybe it was an auction lot you couldn’t pass up. Maybe the seller wanted cash to close fast and you had it. Either way, the piece is in your yard, the title is in your name, and your operating account is a lot thinner than it was a month ago.

That’s exactly the situation our cash-out equipment refinance is built for. We lend against the equipment you just bought, put the cash back in your business account, and you make a normal monthly payment over 3 to 5 years. The equipment keeps working the whole time.

This article covers who the program is for, the three tests a piece of equipment has to pass, what we’ve been seeing lately that doesn’t fit, and how the deal actually closes.

---

Who this program is for

The deals that go through this program cleanly all look the same: an operating business that recently paid cash for newer, higher-value equipment and needs the cash back.

Two real examples from the last few months:

• A vacuum truck operator bought two vac trucks at auction. Good units, bought well, titles went straight into the company name. Six months later they had a growing contract book and not enough cash to run it. We refinanced the trucks and replenished their working capital.
• A landscape contractor paid cash for a truck and realized two weeks later he’d rather have the money for the season. We lent against the truck and had the cash back in his account within two weeks of the first call.

In both cases the equipment was late-model, worth well over $50,000, and owned free and clear. That’s the profile.

If you bought something a year or two ago and have simply never had a loan on it, that can work too — as long as the piece passes the three tests below.

---

The three tests your equipment has to pass

We keep this simple. A piece of equipment qualifies for cash-out if it passes all three:

1. It’s a 2018 model year or newer. Cash-out is an equity-based loan, and equity-based lending has to be conservative on the collateral. Newer equipment holds its wholesale value through the term of the loan. Older equipment doesn’t, so it doesn’t fit — regardless of condition or how well you bought it.

2. It’s worth $50,000 or more. This is a program for real commercial iron: trucks, trailers, construction equipment, machine tools. A piece worth less than $50,000 doesn’t support enough of a loan to make the inspection, title work, and underwriting worth your time or ours.

3. You own it free and clear, with the title in your name. No lien, no payoff, no lender on the title. The title (or invoice plus proof of payment for untitled equipment) has to be in your business’s name or your personal name. If there’s still a loan on the piece, this isn’t the program — see below.

Pass all three and the conversation is short. Fail any one and we’ll tell you on the first call so you don’t waste a week.

---

What we’ve been seeing that doesn’t fit

We’re getting a lot of requests for this program, and most of them are for the wrong thing. To save you a call, here are the common ones we can’t do:

• Personal-use and light-duty vehicles. A 2015 F-350, a horse trailer, a pickup with a plow on it. Too old, too light, or too low in value — usually all three.
• Older equipment, even if it’s paid off. A 2012 dump truck you’ve owned since new is a great truck. It is not 2018 or newer, so it doesn’t fit cash-out.
• Low-value equipment. Zero-turn mowers, small trailers, single pieces of shop equipment. Below the $50,000 floor.
• Equipment with a loan on it. We are not paying off your existing lender and lending you the difference. Cash-out requires a clean title.
• Over-the-road sleeper tractors, medical and imaging equipment, printing presses, and forestry equipment — excluded from this specific program regardless of age or value.

If your piece lands in one of those buckets, you’re welcome to call — we may have a different program for what you actually need — but it won’t be the cash-out refinance.

---

Equipment that typically qualifies

Assuming it’s 2018 or newer, worth $50,000+, and free and clear:

• Heavy day cabs and tractors — Kenworth T800/T880, Peterbilt 389/567, Freightliner Cascadia day cab, Volvo VNL day cab, Mack Granite
• Dump trucks — tandem, tri-axle, and super dump
• Vocational trucks — vacuum trucks, septic trucks, refuse, concrete mixers, bucket trucks, boom trucks, roll-offs
• Trailers — reefers, step decks, lowboys, dry vans, and specialty trailers with real value
• Construction equipment — excavators, dozers, wheel loaders, motor graders, articulated haulers, larger skid steers and compact track loaders
• Agricultural tractors and combines
• CNC machine tools — mills, lathes, press brakes, fiber lasers
• Coach and shuttle buses

The value test does most of the work here. A late-model vac truck qualifies. A late-model zero-turn doesn’t.

---

How much cash you can actually get

We can lend up to 130% of the equipment’s wholesale value. Wholesale is what a dealer would pay to take the piece off your hands — not the retail price you’d list it for. As a rule of thumb, wholesale runs about 70% of retail, so a truck that would sell for $100,000 typically supports a loan somewhere in the $70,000 to $90,000 range.

If you bought at auction, you probably bought at or below wholesale — which is exactly why this works so well on auction purchases. You can often get most or all of your purchase price back out.

The real number comes from the inspection and valuation. Call us with the year, make, model, and hours or miles and we’ll give you a working figure on the first call.

---

Credit requirements

We’re a specialty commercial finance company, not a bank, so the rules are more flexible than a bank’s — but there are real numbers.

FICO score: 550 minimum with 2+ years in business; 640 minimum under 2 years. 700+ gets the best rates.

Credit card utilization: under 40% helps materially. Under 40% signals healthy cash management and drops your rate.

Industry experience: at least 3 years in the industry the equipment serves. If you’re brand new to trucking, construction, or whatever the equipment does, cash-out is a hard stop — talk to us about a purchase program instead.

Residency: U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

Comparable credit: you have to show you’ve handled a large loan before. Any one of these works — a home owned free and clear; a mortgage or HELOC with a balance at least as large as the loan and 24 months of on-time payments; an installment loan (auto, equipment, RV, personal) at least 70% of the loan amount, aged 24+ months, paid on time; or two seasoned installment loans aged 24+ months with clean history. Credit cards alone, authorized-user accounts, student loans, and loans under 24 months old don’t count.

The most common decline on this program is a great FICO with nothing but credit cards and a mortgage — no installment history. If that’s you, we’ll flag it on the first call and tell you what your options are before anyone pulls credit.

Deal killers: bankruptcy or foreclosure within 12 months, repossession within 3 years, late child support within 12 months, felony within 10 years, large open tax liens, or no scoreable FICO. Be straight with us on the first call and we’ll tell you what’s possible.

---

Why this beats a merchant cash advance

If you paid cash for equipment and are now looking at a merchant cash advance to cover the gap — stop. An MCA typically costs 40% to 350% all-in, pulls payments daily or weekly, and is paid back in 6 to 18 months. If revenue dips for a week, the draws don’t.

A cash-out refinance on equipment you own outright is a real loan: a real interest rate, one monthly payment, terms up to 60 months, and a fixed payoff you know on day one. If you’re already carrying an MCA and you have qualifying equipment, this is frequently the way out.

---

What the deal looks like start to finish

1. Five-minute call. Year, make, model, hours or miles, what you paid and when, and whether the title is clean and in your name. We tell you on the spot whether it fits and roughly what it supports.
2. Application. About 15 minutes, online or by phone. Hard credit pull only when you say go.
3. Proof of ownership. Title in your name, or bill of sale plus proof of payment for untitled equipment. Auction invoice and wire confirmation are fine.
4. Equipment inspection. Photos and video walk-through — we guide you through it. There’s a $200 third-party inspection fee, paid by you, non-refundable.
5. Proof of insurance on the equipment.
6. A paragraph on how you’ll use the money. Not a business plan. Two or three sentences.
7. Funding. Most deals fund in 5 to 10 business days from complete paperwork. The landscape contractor above went from first call to cash in the account in under two weeks.

---

Ready to get your cash back out?

If the equipment is 2018 or newer, worth $50,000 or more, and titled free and clear in your name, call (801) 332-9756. A real person picks up, and in about five minutes we’ll tell you whether it fits and what it supports.

Or pre-qualify online in 60 seconds and we’ll call you back the same business day.

We’ve been financing commercial equipment for 22 years. Family-owned, Kaysville, Utah, BBB A+ accredited. Real people, real phones, real answers.