K.K. Patel was moved to tears as he explained that Jay Bhakta and ValueXpress “saved his life,” by negotiating a discounted pay-off (DPO) and arranging an SBA 7(a) loan to finance the DPO. “I have my life savings invested in this hotel,” explained K.K. “Without Jay I would have lost everything.”
“This was one of the hardest transactions I have worked on this year,” commented Jay Bhakta, a senior loan originator at the ValueXpress Jackson, MS office and 15-year ValueXpress veteran. “The Sleep Inn hotel, located near the Jackson, MS airport had seen business decline in the recession and the loan had been transferred to Trustmark Bank after the original bank, Heritage Bank, failed. Trustmark had no interest in working with the borrower who was late on loan payments,” said Bhakta.
Trustmark planned to quickly foreclose and dispose of the hotel. In desperation, K.K. contacted Jay based on a referral from another Asian-American in the community who knew that Jay was the only hope for K.K. to save his hotel.
“I went to Trustmark with the numbers and convinced the bank that it would take a substantial loss on the foreclosed property,” said Jay. “Trustmark agreed to a 30-day DPO on the $3.4-million note for a cash payoff of $1.8 million, but this was only half the battle. After preparing a turnaround plan and showing the plan to lenders, I got a nationwide SBA lender to make the loan; that added another satisfied ValueXpress client to our roster.”