In depth: One of our agents represented successful owners of a niche supplier of special event productions. The owners had enjoyed a long run in the business but were tired and ready to step back from the deadlines and travel that also came with success.

To further complicate (but also to make things interesting!) they also owned a very large warehouse facility that housed the business but probably would not be needed by a new owner of the business, if one could be found.

So we listed both the business and the real estate, we do it all the time, and began searching for the right buyer for each entity. As often happens, the owners provided us a short list of people already in the industry whom they knew and respected and whom they suggested might be the right buyers if presented a comprehensive package of what was available.

We began to canvass those prospects and more, and in remarkably short order, we identified what we believed to be the perfect buyer. Local to the market, very successful in his own right. And perhaps most important, both he and the owners had mutual respect for each other right from the start.

Negotiations were friendly from Day One and a deal was soon struck. As we anticipated, the buyer was not interested in the underlying real estate. So what do we do about that?

Fortunately, we had recently sold two businesses to another solid buyer. Someone we knew who was needing a larger facility in the same general area of the city. Again, after a brief round of introductions and a tour of the facility, it was quickly agreed that we had a great match.

Favorable financing was obtained and within 60 days we had a closing on the real estate as well. Terms were arranged for an orderly withdrawal of the seller’s furniture, fixtures and equipment, most of which was purchased by the first buyer, and the real estate buyers now had a super facility to continue the strong growth of their business.



A key factor in closing both these deals was our knowledge base of who in the marketplace is looking to expand, and where. You can always say there is some luck involved and that was true here as well. But we would like to think that the expertise and extensive database we maintain had a lot to do with putting these two deals together in short order.