Quick SBA 504 Loans?

[Clark Childers]

I am looking to open a second location, expanding my very successful boutique hotel business. I've looked into all sorts of loans, and it would seem an SBA 504 loan would be a great fit for our financial needs, but given that we are still trying to acquire the property, it's long processing time (months and months I'm told) makes things very difficult. I just spoke with a preferred SBA lender that says, by following the same guidelines as the SBA, they can approve an SBA 504 in a week or less. I guess, they put the money up front, with the assumption that the SBA will eventually approve the loan anyway because the follow the same terms and requirements. Has anyone heard of this? Has anyone worked with a company that does fast SBA 504 turnarounds? It's exactly what I've been looking for, but what I've been looking for has also seemed too good to be true. Opinions? Advice? Stories?