SBA EIDL Loan Has Strings Attached - Is it really worth it?

[James Allen]

I've been seeing a lot of people confused over these EIDL Loans including myself so I figured I'd start a discussion to help all of us make better informed decisions. Apologies if this is already been addressed somewhere else on the forums.

I've been offered an EIDL Loan and looking over the fine print, it seems like there's a lot of strings attached. If you've had a chance to look at the contract already, I wanted to get your opinions on how you interpret these terms and how you feel about them. Particularly, I'm wondering about the following.

1. My main concern is If I take on the loan, Do I have to seek permission from the SBA to sell or refinance one of our properties. I'm in the middle of flipping a house right now and I'm wondering if this would affect that or if I decided to sell one of my rental properties. I hate the idea of the government having a say in any of this. 

2. What can we use the money for? Can we use it to pay our mortgage payments, capital expenses? If I already have money in the account to do that, am I okay to use my old reserves as active investing capital or for improvements and then keep the EIDL money as extra reserves and to pay the bills for the mortgages, utilities, etc? 

3. If you've been approved for the EIDL Loan, did you decide to take it given the terms? Why or why not?