Chris Ray
Owner & Funeral Director
Oliver Funeral Home of Eupora
Eupora, MS
Average call volume: 120 calls/year

Do you hope to own your own funeral home someday? If so, you’ll likely need flexible lending and finance services to make your dreams a reality. You could explore funding through traditional lenders, but that’s not always the best option.

Chris Ray had dreamed of purchasing a funeral home. However, after realizing his local banks could offer little help, he wondered if his long-time wish would ever come true.

But before his hopes were completely dashed, Chris discovered FDL’s lending service team and quickly got back on track to becoming a funeral home owner.

“Without FDL, I don’t think I would’ve been able to close the deal on my funeral home,” Chris said. “FDL was there to offer me funding, assistance, expertise, and peace of mind.”

Learn more about how FDL quickly and efficiently helped Chris acquire Oliver Funeral Home.

How were you introduced to FDL?

I have a friend in the funeral profession who suggested I look into using FDL when I was trying to acquire Oliver Funeral Home earlier this year. My friend used FDL’s lending service, and he had a good experience. So, I decided to explore FDL, and I’m glad I did. Our casket rep was also connected with FDL, so he did a great job of putting us in contact with the right people at FDL and their lending team. It all just seemed to fall perfectly in place.

Was buying your funeral home the main reason you needed lending services?

It was, and buying Oliver Funeral Home had been in the plans for a while. I had worked for the funeral home for more than 10 years. When the previous owner decided he wanted to sell, he came to me and asked if I wanted to buy the business, and I told him I did. However, once I started looking into actually buying the business, I began wondering if it was ever going to happen. I had some funds ready to acquire the funeral home, but I wasn’t sure I’d get enough funding to make it happen.

So, even though things had been moving in this direction for quite some time, I had many questions left unanswered.

Before partnering with FDL, what other lending options did you explore?

I tried to work with some local banks in our area, but I couldn’t get the full loan amount needed to acquire the facility. All of the traditional lending options capped out at a very low amount, and they didn’t consider the business’s value as a whole. They could only consider tangible assets, such as real estate. They were candid and told me the funeral home was a great business, but they could only value the land. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go any further with them because they couldn’t offer nearly the amount of money I needed to purchase the funeral home.

How did that make you feel, knowing traditional lending wouldn’t be an option?

It was extremely frustrating and made me feel like I would never buy the business, which was very disappointing. Throughout the beginning of this process, I didn’t know what to think because I’d never purchased anything of this size before. I had never even looked into trying to borrow this amount of money before. Then, I had bankers telling me I was at a dead-end with my dream of owning a funeral home. It was all very disheartening.

Did FDL make you feel like your dream of owning a funeral home was still possible?

Oh, absolutely. Right off the bat, FDL let me know that they would look at the entire value of the funeral home, not just the real estate. That’s one of the biggest differences between FDL and traditional lenders. They didn’t just get me funding based on the land the business sat on. FDL went deeper because, unlike the local lenders I spoke with, they understand funeral homes and the funeral profession.

When we started with FDL, I was amazed at how smooth and quick the process was. Getting started with the FDL team and taking care of things on the front end took about a month. Once that was completed, it took another month or two to finalize everything, which is incredibly fast. From the beginning to the end, the FDL lending service team worked with me, and everything flowed right along. Everything just went as it was supposed to.

How would you describe your experience with FDL?

I have nothing negative to say about FDL or our partnership. Everything with FDL has worked well for our business, so it has been a fantastic experience.

I’ll say this: One thing did alarm me. Because everything went so quickly and smoothly, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and for a problem to occur. I remember thinking, “There’s just no way it can be this easy, can it?” I kept expecting something to happen to throw a wrench in everything and bring the process to a halt. But that never happened.

Best of all, FDL’s lending team handled so much of the paperwork and details of the acquisition that I could stay focused on running the funeral home’s day-to-day operations. That means I was free to help families, schedule preneed appointments, oversee services, and fulfill my other responsibilities.

Do you think partnering with FDL was the right choice for you?

I firmly believe that FDL was the right choice for me and my lending needs. It all goes back to the fact that FDL looked at our funeral home and all aspects of the business to get us fair funding. The other lenders I looked at couldn’t do that because they don’t understand the business side of funeral homes. But FDL knows the funeral profession, how our cash flow works, and what funeral professionals deal with daily.

The former owner had never sold a business before, and I had never purchased a business before. FDL took the bull by the horns and did everything for us, which made it all very easy and gave us a lot of relief.

Would you recommend FDL to another funeral professional?

I have already recommended FDL to a friend interested in purchasing a funeral home. I told him how easy and simple our experience was and that he should look into FDL and their lending team. The whole process was seamless, not just from the financial aspect but also from the business side with the families.

It feels like things have come full circle.

Discover why partnering with a lender who knows your business makes all the difference.

Request a consultation to learn more today!

Read more funeral home success stories here!