Greetings. I'm interested to know the minimum down payment that can be arranged when buying a minifleet (corporate) medallion. If one has very good credit, is it possible to finance 90% of the purchase price?

Think more like 20%. And your personal credit while important is less so, the corporation that is purchasing it needs to have good credit. So if you just recently formed up a corporation to buy a minifleet, understandabley the banks will only want to lend you at most 80%. Then there is the car, and all the other nickel and dime items. I figure you will need at least 150k to go to closing on a corporate.

But yes, 90% is possible, if you currently have other medallions, and have a good corporate credit record, then you probably could finance it up to 90%. But again, your corporate credit record needs to be already established, not necessarily your personal one. That is how the big boys get bigger, since although the price is high, they can come to the party with less money down.

Second question. Is there any means to buy only ONE corporate medallion instead of two?

Sure. Find someone else willing to go in with you on the other one, then buy a minifleet with each of you getting exactly one half the shares of the corporation that owns it. Or, find an owner that owns 1/2 of a minifleet, and buy their shares out. Or, find a minifleet owner with 2 medallions, and buy 1/2 his shares. The only problem with this strategy is that while you own only 1/2 of the minifleets shares, the corporation is responsible for all the debts, so if your partner stops paying his share, you still have to. Or, if he wants to refinance and pull money out, and you don't, what will you do? Or, if he has already refinanced and pulled money out, yet the person you bought out never did, theoretically you could be on the hook for his loan if he walks away. So I would advise against buying just one, especially if you don't know the other owner beforehand.

However, this is what I would advise, if you eventually want to own corporates but can't right now: buy an individual medallion but do it through a corporation, pay it down to about 100k over time, then effect a 'like kind transfer' where you sell the individual, and buy two corporates. You incur no capital gains taxes, you eventually get the corporate, and you learn about the business managing one medallion so that you are ready to manage two. Plus the down payment costs are MUCH lower on an individual, so that way the leverage is higher. It takes longer, but it is much less risky than buying in with an unknown partner or with someone who doesn't share your money management views.

Thank you in advance for your response.