Dental Office Feasibility Study in Idaho

Dentistry weighs heavily in Idaho's SBA book

Dental practices matter more to Idaho's SBA lending than to the program as a whole. With 119 approvals in FY2017 to FY2026, worth $113.0 million, dentistry is the state's 5 of 39 class by loan count, and its location quotient of 1.39x puts the trade well above its national share of Idaho approvals. Nationally Idaho sits 22 of 54 for dental lending. The loans themselves look like dental loans anywhere: the $545,000 median is 1.07x the class figure for the country, and our screen finds no metric standing apart from both Idaho's all-class record and dentistry nationally. Weight in the state's lending, and a high cancellation floor that the screen still does not flag, are what this page has to explain.

Practice lenders and a strong 504 share

SBA 504 carried 41 of the approvals and 7(a) 78, a large building component for a professional practice. Capital Matrix, Inc. leads the certified development companies with 22 loans worth $17.6 million, and East-Central Idaho Development Company follows with 9. Live Oak Banking Company, a national practice lender, accounts for 23 of Idaho's 7(a) dental loans, worth $42.2 million, ahead of U.S. Bank, National Association at 6 and several banks at 5. Half the approvals fall between $292,500 and $1.5 million. Franchise share is 0.00%. Ada County holds 45 approvals, Kootenai 16 and Canyon 13. FY2017 was the peak year with 29 loans, and FY2021's 17 loans carried the most dollars, $19.2 million.

Cancelled deals, few losses

Idaho's dental approvals from FY2017 to FY2024 lost at least 17.5% to cancellation, and the ceiling is the same 17.5%, a floor above the class nationally. Funded loans have held up: 3.1% of the 64 dental loans disbursed in the FY2017 to FY2021 window are charged off so far, and 3.1% within five years, a floor that is higher than dentistry's national figure but still low in absolute terms.

For an Idaho dentist, the cancellation floor is the warning. Practice purchases and new builds can fall through when the seller's numbers, the build cost or the appraisal do not hold, and a feasibility study is how a borrower finds that out before approval rather than after. Demand has to be measured as patients per dentist in the service area, the mix of insured and self-pay patients, and rival offices within a realistic drive. Cost covers operatories, imaging and the building or build-out, at today's quotes. Coverage has to be earned by what the treating dentist can realistically collect, with any associate or hygienist hire priced in. Where 504 finances the building, the appraisal of a medical office suite depends on its reuse by other providers, and the study should show the income that supports that value.

Idaho's rates are cohort floors, and each named lender is the bank or development company holding the loan today, which may not be the one that made it.