Should you sell your small business with a real estate agent? How to Sell a Business?

I recently had an exchange with a fellow on the West Coast who had some questions about selling his small business.

The conversation ended with, ‘well my friend is a commercial Realtor so if I have any more questions I’ll speak to him.’ Huh?!?

What on earth does selling real estate have to do with selling businesses?

It’s not the first time I’ve run into this in my career as a business broker and as a private sale transaction advisor.  There seems to be some idea out there that links businesses to real estate.

Let’s examine the characteristics of each and see where the overlap is:

Real Estate: doors, windows, roofs, foundations, walls, insulation…

Businesses: receivables, payables, employees, inventory…

I’m stumped.  Well, not totally.  There is a big reason why I think that many small business owners somehow end up trying to sell their business using a real estate agent and it has to do with silly outdated laws.  I made this video to explain: https://youtu.be/s9HkiHiiEB0

What’s really amazing though, is that while I was a business broker, I noticed that many real estate agents who normally sold houses were willing to take on businesses to sell.

AT THE VERY SAME TIME, my biggest source of referrals were COMMERCIAL REALTORS. Funny right? Watch the video and I’ll explain to you why.

If you’re thinking of selling your small business and want a whole bunch of FREE information and advice, visit www.HowToSellMyOwnBusiness.com there are free videos, reports and access to my modestly priced books and online course on the process of selling a business.

For help on buying a business, visit www.BusinessBuyerAdvantage.com

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