Getting Bank Loans on Straw Bale Houses

Written By Andrew Morrison
July 21, 2013

money houseWe heard from one of our readers, Mary, this week who had been struggling to get bank loans on straw bale houses. She wrote to share the great news that she had received the bank loan and we felt her idea was so creative and easy to replicate that we wanted to share her letter with you.

“Hi, Andrew. Just wanted to give you the low-down on what happened to us with our construction loan. We approached our local banker, told him it was a modified post and beam, but when we gave him the plans, they clearly said that it was a straw bale home. When the bank manager questioned me about that, I directed him to your website to educate him about this style of building, but the loan committee almost turned us down. One last ditch effort — we asked the bank manager and one of the loan officers to tour 2 existing straw bale homes of friends we have in town. They were so impressed and the loan was approved! What a testimony as to just how beautiful they are!”

Unfortunately the bank is quite small and not able to offer many loans so they asked that we not share the name of their institution; however, the strategy mentioned above is one that others can implement with their own local banks. The key is to find one where the people making lending decisions are local. A large corporate bank typically doesn’t have local representatives available to come out to do a site visit. Congrats on obtaining the loan Mary!

Want to learn more about straw bale houses and how to build one? Want to do so for FREE? Sign up for our totally free 16 Day Straw Bale eCourse! Find out more HERE.

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