Selling your real estate business in 2022
Are you a real estate agent who is looking to sell your business?
If so, you are in luck! In this blog post, we will discuss five tips that will help you sell your real estate business. Selling a business can be difficult, especially as a real estate agent, but with the right tips and advice, it can be done! Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
1. Determine the value of your business: Know Your Worth
Before you can sell your real estate business, you need to know what it is worth. This means doing some research and figuring out exactly how much your business is worth to the dollar.
You can do this by looking at similar businesses that have been sold in the past or by getting a valuation from a professional. Knowing your business’s worth will help you set the right price when selling and make the process smoother overall.
As a real estate agent, it is difficult for you to value your business because your performance is crucial to the success of the business. That is why only brokers or team leaders are the only 2 types of real estate agents that can actually sell their business.
Team leaders and brokers have agents who are working under them which means that they are not necessarily needed in order for the business to perform. Because of this, they can sell their business to a different owner who can take over the business and continue to run it.
If you are not a team leader or broker, don’t worry! There are still things you can do to increase the value of your business before selling.
Make sure that your marketing materials are up-to-date and professional, your website is well-designed, and your branding is consistent. Having a strong online presence will make potential buyers more likely to want to purchase your business.
Also, if you are currently a solo agent or running a small operation, you will need to change your branding to something that is not related to you or your name. This way, when another comes along, they can take over the business and its systems without having to rebrand, and will actually be able to leverage the brand moving forward.
Remember, although your name may be worth a lot of your clients over the years, it isn’t worth much to another agent who can’t use it to market themselves.
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2. Prepare your business for sale
Once you have determined the value of your business, it is time to start preparing it for sale. This means getting rid of any clutter or items that are not necessary and organizing what is left.
When potential buyers come to view your business, they want to see a well-run operation with as little drama as possible.
It is also important to have all of your paperwork in order. Make sure that you have updated financial statements, lists of clients and leads, and contracts or agreements with other agents or businesses. Having everything neatly filed away will make the sale process go much more smoothly.
Finally, make sure that you are open and honest about your business’s performance with potential buyers. Tell them how many leads you have had in the past year, what percentage of those turned into clients, etc. This will help them understand where they should be investing their time when taking over this new operation!
You may even want to create a spreadsheet outlining these things so it can be used as reference material during negotiations or other discussions related to price points on the sale/purchase agreement.
If there are any issues within your business that need addressing before handing off ownership duties (such as employees who aren’t performing well), now is also the time for those conversations and changes – not at closing! Make sure everything is running smoothly so there aren’t any surprises when it’s sold.
3. Market your business to potential buyers
Now that your business is ready for sale, it is time to start marketing it to potential buyers.
For one last time in your career, you will need to put your marketing skills to good use.
The best way to do this is by creating a listing sheet that outlines all of the important details about your business. This should include information such as: what type of real estate the business specializes in, how many agents are working under you, contact information for current and past clients, as well as any awards or accolades received.
You can then send this listing sheet out to brokers who work with businesses similar to yours or post it on online marketplaces like BizBuySell. You can also reach out to agents who want to plug into a system that has already been established to generate clients.
It is important to note that you should get several offers before accepting one of them. This way, there will be no regrets later on down the road if something doesn’t work out as planned with an offer from another buyer.
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4. Negotiate a fair sale price
When it comes time for negotiations between yourself and potential buyers, make sure they are aware that this business has been built up over many years by someone who knows what they’re doing.
As a real estate agent, you used your sweat equity more than anything else to build your business up to this point. Make sure they understand that there is a lot of time and energy invested in your business, not just money.
It’s also important to have some numbers prepared ahead of time so you can provide your buyer with the information they need to make an informed decision about whether or not it would be worth investing their hard-earned dollars into your business.
If possible, try having a price range in mind instead of getting stuck on one exact amount as this will allow for more flexibility during negotiations.
The most important thing is being transparent with potential bidders throughout each step along the way so there are no surprises when the sale finally goes through.
A great tip for negotiating a price that you want for your business is to ask for a number that only includes one zero. This means that instead of asking for $170,000, you should ask for $172,450. Although a nice rounded number is easy to manage, a very specific number makes it seem like you came up with that number through careful planning and calculation, which makes it easier for you to get the price you want.
5. Close the sale and transfer ownership
Once you have agreed on a price for your business, then it’s time to sign the paperwork to close the deal and transfer ownership.
The first thing you need to do when closing the sale is deciding how much money will be paid out immediately and what the terms of payment are going to look like over time (i.e., monthly installments versus one lump sum).
If there are any outstanding debts owed by either party such as taxes or loan payments, now would also be an appropriate time in which they should discuss these items before signing anything legally binding them all together permanently!
Another important step in the closing process is to make sure that both parties have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what moving forward. For example, if you are still working with clients under your old business name after the sale has gone through, make sure the new owner knows this and is okay with it.
The final step in this process is signing all of the appropriate legal documentation. This will ensure that everything goes according to plan and there are no surprises down the road!
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6. Follow up with the buyer after the sale is complete
Finally, it’s important to follow up with the buyer after the sale is complete to see how they are doing.
This will help you gauge if everything went according to plan and whether or not they have any questions or concerns that need addressing.
It also allows you to provide them with some guidance if needed as they take over ownership of your former business. Although you might not receive any benefits or compensation for following up with the buyer of your business, it is just a nice and courteous thing to do for someone who has just taken over a business.
If everything goes smoothly, then congratulations! You have successfully sold your real estate business! Now it’s time to start thinking about what’s next for you…
Why Selling Your Real Estate Business is So Difficult
Now that you have gone through the article and seen how you can sell your real estate business, it is important for you to understand that it is extremely difficult for you to sell your business as a real estate agent.
As an agent, the value of your business comes from you and your clients. Real estate is a personal and relationship-driven business. Who is actually running the business has a massive impact on its success, which can make a lot of potential buyers wary of taking over someone else’s real estate business.
A former client who refers business to you because loved working with you and your team may not refer their friends and family to the agent that took over your business. Again, the only reason that client referred their network to you is that they had a good relationship with you and enjoyed their time working with you, not the entity of the business.
Also, since realtors have to work under a brokerage, they technically don’t own any part of their business and have no real equity value in their business. Most businesses are valued based on the assets that they own including buildings, employees, supplies, technology, etc. But since real estate agents are independent contractors for their brokers, unless your brokerage gives you equity in their company, you do not have a lot of assets that can be valued.
If you are currently looking for an exit strategy for your real estate business and don’t want to go through the difficult process of selling your business, consider an alternative option.
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