Believe it or not, I got shingles when I purchased my first SaaS. The seller ran the promotion to get customers, used churn recovery process to rerun failed cards to jack up the valuation, I was getting disputes every month costing $15 + refund and the churn was 9%-12%. I did take a loan as well but I had cash to back it up.

Luckly, the business had a good word of mouth referrals. I focused on good customer service with almost instant response time and constantly building new features based on customer's feedback. I was able to sustain it. I did rewrite the code but not until it passed $10K MRR and hired a developer overseas. Later I sold a portion of the equity to a friend and recovered my initial investment. I still own majority of the business.

Lately, I've seen some marketplace valuing businesses based on revenue.... I always, always calculate based on NET and see how long it will take to recoup your initial investment. I purchased my first SaaS at 3.25x on net. For me after factoring growth and churn, if I get my initial investment back in 3-5 years, I'll consider buying it. The world of technology is changing rapidly. Anything more than 5 years ROI is too long.