When a home or other residential property is for sale, the more people who know about it, the better. The agent will gladly put up a "For Sale" sign and advertise the property via every possible media, in order to find a Buyer.

Not so with the sale of a business, or even many commercial properties. In the vast majority of cases, the business owner will not want anyone to know the business is for sale - either employees, customers/clients, or even suppliers. Public knowledge of a business up for sale may have severe damaging effects on the continuing health of the business, during the for sale period. In addition, business owners do not want anyone (other than a very serious and qualified Buyer), to have detailed financial or general information about their business, so the job of the Business Broker is to protect that, by making sure any prospects are well qualified and also bound to confidentiality.

On your initial contact with us, we will need to know what type of business you are looking for and what price range. If you are financing a business, lenders almost always want to know that you have experience in the type of business you are buying.

It is very important that you can prove up front how much you have available for the down payment and that you are indeed qualified to make such a purchase. *****If you are a foreign national, planning on moving to the US, we will need to know that you are working with an immigration attorney, or we can put you in touch with one, with whom we must work closely during the entire process. It is important that you speak to an immigration attorney about your personal situation, PRIOR to having us conduct a detailed search for a specific business*****

At this stage, you must be willing to complete the following forms:

1) a confidential Buyer's Personal Profile

2) a confidential personal Financial Statement

These forms are to allow us to determine your needs and goals and also to verify that you are qualified to pursue this venture. If you are truly a serious Buyer, then you will have no problem with this. In addition, depending on the type of business and amount of work we will have to do to find you one, we may ask you to sign an Exclusive Buyer Brokerage Agreement, since there is usually a tremendous amount of work involved and we only get paid when a transaction closes.

If you are seriously looking to buy a business in Central Florida, we will be very happy to e-mail you an up to date list, or you can do your own search of the BBF business MLS database, using the search engine above.

After we have narrowed down the most suitable type of business for you personally, we will then do a search. We will then inform you of possible businesses for sale, showing the type of business, general location, asking price, sales and adjusted net income (owner benefits).

If you like the look of the very brief summary, we will let you have a little more detailed information. Please note that in the majority of cases, Sellers will not release detailed financial information, nor tax returns, until during the "Due Diligence" period, at the contract stage. In some cases, Sellers will release these, but it is the policy of most Business Brokers that these not be released until the prospect has viewed the business and got a feeling for the business and location itself. *****Before any detailed information is released, we will be asking for you to sign a standard Confidentiality Agreement*****.

At all times, a Business Broker is strictly bound not to compromise the confidentiality of the sale of any business or commercial property and there could be severe repercussions, on both Listing Broker, Selling Broker and even the prospective Buyer, for doing so.

Once a Buyer has found the right business and makes an offer, which is acceptable to the Seller, it is incumbant upon the Buyer to conduct Due Diligence, which could be 7 days to 30 days, depending on various things, such as the business, the location of the Buyer etc. It is highly recommended that the Buyer retain the services of competent tax and legal counsel. The closing can easily be done by a Transaction Closing Attorney and here in Florida is often done so. This is often much cheaper for all parties and much more conducive to a smooth transaction. Dolby Properties will gladly recommend one.

Once this process is complete and any contingencies placed in the contract have been met and cleared, the process should be straight forward and the closing should occur on the previously specified date.

Of course, this is a simplified summary of what happens. Whether you are a Buyer of Seller, Dolby Properties will be very happy to work with you. Please contact us to start the process.