10 BIGGEST MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN SELLING YOUR LETTING BUSINESS

Mistake #1
Trying to sell your own business.

It is almost impossible to achieve the best price by selling your own business. There have been numerous stories in the trade press about businesses that were sold for far below their market value and we have several documented cases where a buyer made the business owner an offer of  10% and we later persuaded the same buyer to pay much more by making them compete with other parties.  Even if you manage to achieve a good initial offer it is highly likely that the buyer will use all sorts of tricks to reduce the price that has been agreed during the course of the sale. We will earn our fee several times over by achieving a better price for you.

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Mistake #2
Choosing the wrong broker  we compete with both general practise brokers and industry specific brokers.

General practise brokers even the very large and well known ones will not have the specialist expertise necessary to sell a letting agency. Our industry specific competitors do not have anywhere near the experience and track record that we do. Over the last 32 years we have completed the sale of over 700 letting agencies worth well over £1 billion. No one else has anything like this level of experience. Our knowledge and experience and the contacts that we made over the last 32 years will enable us to achieve the very best possible price for you and a smooth and trouble free sale.

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Mistake #3
No sale no fee.

Most brokers will ask you to pay thousands of pounds upfront to put your business onto the market. The more you pay in upfront fees the less incentive the broker has to sell your business. With us there is no listing fee and the only way that you will pay us a penny is from the proceeds of his successful sale. We can afford to do this because we sell the vast majority of the businesses that we take on to the market.

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Mistake #4
Asking too much money.

If you ask for too high a price for your business it will fail to sell. This will make it much more difficult to sell in the future. Our recommended guide price will be based on data from over 700 completed sales. It will be accurate and achievable and we sell the vast majority of our businesses for within ?10% of the guide price.

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Mistake #5
Failing to provide enough information.

We will spend many hours and use all our experience and expertise to make sure that your business is presented in the best possible light. This means that the information pack will be comprehensive and will tally exactly with the accounts. If the initial information is inaccurate then potential buyers will spot this and may decline to make an offer. Worse still they will make an offer then reduce it later at the due diligence stage by which time your negotiating position will be much weaker. Providing accurate information is an essential part of achieving the best price for any business.

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Mistake #6
Confidentiality.

If your competitors find out that you were selling your business they can use this knowledge to do you terrible harm. They could try to poach your staff and your landlords by telling them that you are setting up. If they succeed the value of your business will be greatly reduced. Some of our competitors send out large numbers of detailed teaser emails as a marketing tool for their own business. A flyer that gives the name of the town and a guide price could enable your competitors to identify your business in minutes. We will never do this. Your business will only be sent to a small number of qualified buyers whom you have approved in advance. We take confidentiality very seriously and this is why leaks are so rare for our clients.

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Mistake #7
Two few buyers.

Our list of buyers has been built up over the last 32 years and we know many of them extremely well. Because of this we achieve multiple offers for nearly all the businesses that we sell. This allows you to compare offers carefully so that you can be absolutely certain that you have achieved the very best price for your business that the market will bear.

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Mistake #8
Choosing the wrong offer. 

Choosing an offer on the price alone can turn out to be a terrible mistake. We will help you to consider all the other relevant factors before you decide which offer to accept. These include crucial factors such as how much of the money will be deferred and whether you will have to deduct any costs for staff redundancies or disposing of premises leases. Most importantly of all we will help you to choose a reliable buyer with a proven track record for completing sales quickly and smoothly on the terms that were originally agreed.

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Mistake #9
Accepting a price reduction.

The oldest trick in the book is for a buy to offer you a generous price then spend the next few months using every trick in the book to reduce it. They can do this in many different ways. They can claim falsely that the business has compliance problems. They can claim that the turnover is less than they thought. They can use sophisticated accounting tricks to take money that should have been yours from the completion accounts. They can even try to check the price on the very day of completion. Our extensive compliance, accounting, and legal knowledge will help to ensure that this doesn't happen to you and that you'll sail completes quickly and smoothly on the original terms agreed.

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Mistake #10
Not getting the deferred consideration.

The deferred consideration could be anywhere between 10% and 50% of the sale price so you need to ensure that this money will be paid to you when it is due. Unfortunately there have been many cases over the years where the money has not been paid. This rarely happens when we are involved. Firstly, we will choose a buyer who has a good reputation for playing fair. Secondly, we will ensure that the qualifying terms for the deferred payment are correctly drafted. We also confident that you will be paid the deferred consideration in full that we will give you a pro rata fee refund if you do not receive it.

The best way to avoid all 10 of these mistakes is to let Adam J Walker & Associates, the UK’s leading seller of letting agencies, handle your sale.