Exit Planning Advice By Market
Selling an Assisted Living Facility
Over the past few years, the assisted living facility industry has seen more than its share of fluctuations in business values. Many sellers have exited their companies under less-than-ideal circumstances. Yet it's still possible to achieve personal and professional goals when selling an assisted living facility in the current economic environment.
Waiting for better economic times to sell your company? That's a common anthem in the small business community.
Eventually, it will the time will come to exit your business. When that happens, your future plans will be dependent on your ability to receive the highest possible sale price for your assisted living facility.
Dealing with Tire Kickers
Many prospective buyers will have a strong desire to acquire your assisted living facility. The bad news is that they will lack the financial capacity to close the deal. As a seller, it's important to separate the tire kickers from the serious buyers as soon as possible. Each tire kicker is an investment of time and energy that could be poured into finding a more qualified prospect. If you aren't sure what to look for in a serious buyer, ask your broker for advice. As a rule, they limit the amount of information that is provided in the initial stages of an engagement, waiting to reveal the juiciest details of the business until the prospect has been thoroughly vetted. Smart sellers may require prospects to provide background and financial information fairly early in the process as a way of verifying the financial capacity to close the deal.
Pre-Sale Checklist
There is a lot of work that needs to be done before you're ready to sell your assisted living facility. Perhaps the most important pre-sale consideration is to right-size your expectations to the realities of the market. Once your expectations are in the ballpark, you can move on to making your business presentable to prospective buyers.
Brokerage Benefits
There are many reasons why hiring a broker makes sense in assisted living facility sales. Right out of the gate, brokers know how to help their clients properly prepare their businesses for a sale. More importantly, brokers have the ability to identify serious buyers and maintain confidentiality throughout the sale process. Brokerage isn't cheap. But even though you can spend as much as 10% of the sale price on a good broker, you'll likely achieve decent ROI through an improved final sale price.
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