Financing a business purchase in Texas: SBA offices, state checks and lender questions

Texas is big enough that the SBA splits it into six district offices. If you are buying a business here, that matters less for your loan (lenders make that call) than for finding free local help and the right state records to check before you close.

For a sense of scale: Texas had 12,329,500 private-sector jobs in September 2026 (seasonally adjusted, preliminary), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, series SMS48000000500000001 (opens in a new tab). Plenty of those jobs sit in owner-run service businesses, which is where most first-time acquisitions happen.

SBA district offices in Texas

The SBA serves Texas through six district offices, each covering its own group of counties, listed below. The SBA pages give office hours as Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed on federal holidays. District offices help with SBA funding programs, counseling, certifications and disaster recovery, and connect you to partner organizations and lenders. They do not make loans themselves; lenders do.

• Dallas / Fort Worth District Office

  Address

  150 Westpark Way, Suite 130, Euless, TX 76040

  Phone

  817-684-5500

  Serves

  72 counties in northeastern Texas

  Source: SBA office page (opens in a new tab)

• Houston District Office

  Address

  8701 S. Gessner Dr., Suite 1200, Houston, TX 77074 (by appointment only)

  Phone

  713-773-6500

  Serves

  32 counties in southeastern Texas

  Source: SBA office page (opens in a new tab)

• San Antonio District Office

  Address

  615 E. Houston St., Suite 298, San Antonio, TX 78205

  Phone

  210-403-5900

  Serves

  55 counties in south central Texas

  Source: SBA office page (opens in a new tab)

• El Paso District Office

  Address

  211 N. Florence St., Suite 201, El Paso, TX 79901

  Phone

  915-834-4600

  Serves

  nine counties in western Texas

  Source: SBA office page (opens in a new tab)

• Lower Rio Grande Valley District Office

  Address

  2422 E. Tyler Ave., Suite E, Harlingen, TX 78550

  Phone

  956-427-8533

  Serves

  14 counties in southern Texas

  Source: SBA office page (opens in a new tab)

• West Texas District Office

  Address

  1205 Texas Ave., Room 408, Lubbock, TX 79401

  Phone

  806-472-7462

  Serves

  71 counties in western Texas

  Source: SBA office page (opens in a new tab)

State records worth checking on a Texas seller

The SBA's own guide for its Dallas / Fort Worth district notes that a business name is registered with the county clerk where the business is located, and corporations also register with the Texas Secretary of State (opens in a new tab) (SBA, Doing business in the Dallas / Fort Worth District (opens in a new tab)). Before you sign, ask the seller for the entity's filings and confirm the business you are buying is the one on record.

Texas also has a franchise tax. The Comptroller describes it as a privilege tax imposed on each taxable entity formed or organized in Texas or doing business in Texas, and sets the no tax due threshold at $2,650,000 for 2026 and 2027; entities at or below it still file a Public Information Report or Ownership Report (Texas Comptroller, Franchise Tax (opens in a new tab)). Asking for the seller's recent franchise tax filings is a simple way to confirm the entity is in order.

For employer questions after you take over, the SBA's district guide points to the Texas Workforce Commission (opens in a new tab), and for state taxes to the Texas Comptroller (opens in a new tab).

Free help before you talk to a lender

Small Business Development Centers offer counseling and training and help small businesses access capital, among other things (SBA, Resource Partners (opens in a new tab)). Texas centers are listed in America's SBDC Find Your SBDC (opens in a new tab) directory. Each SBA district office can also connect you to partner organizations and lenders in its area, and its "Doing business" guide links to lending activity reports for the district.

The buyer's checklist, Texas edition

• Find your SBA district office from the county the business sits in, using the list above.
• Get the seller's entity filings and recent franchise tax reports, and match them to the LOI.
• Reconcile the seller's books with its tax returns before a lender does it for you.
• Line up the source of your equity injection and the documents that show it.
• Bring the questions in our post on SBA 7(a) versus conventional loans to every lender conversation.

Before you talk to lenders

Two short reads from our blog cover the questions every lender asks: what lenders look at when you buy a business, and how SBA 7(a) loans compare with conventional acquisition loans.

Where sbabae fits

We are a private company, not the SBA and not a lender, and we do not have local offices. We introduce businesses and buyers in Texas and elsewhere to independent lenders that do this kind of financing, one lender at a time, and we tell you the lender's name before we send anything. You can also use the SBA's free Lender Match (opens in a new tab) tool on your own.

General education, not advice and not a decision about your request. Lenders make every credit decision and set their own terms. We do not promise approval, rates, terms or timelines.