All Forum Posts by: Charlie MacPherson

We're looking for another broker in our Augusta Maine office, though the location isn't critical.  You could be in Portland, Portsmouth, Brattleboro, VT - we're flexible.

This is straight commission and an opportunity for the right person to make a very strong 6-figure income!

Our mission is simple.  We help business owners to sell their companies.  That will be your only focus.

Our internal telemarketer hammers out a ton of calls to set up qualified appointments in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.  He is paid a bonus when our office closes a sale, so he's not motivated to set up garbage appointments.

Our external mailing house sends out solicitation postcards by the thousands every week.

ALL of these marketing costs are company-paid.  You are responsible only for your car and gas.  THERE IS NO DESK OR ANY OTHER FEE.

As I write this, I personally have $42M in active listings ($13M+ under contract) and I just cannot handle them all.  You would come into the office with a pile of those listings handed to you.  In fact, you can see my active listings HERE.

Just like in real estate sales, you need to be able to get through startup as it could be months before your first commission.  If you can get over that hurdle (a working spouse?  Savings?) and can talk with business owners, you can do very well at this!

We will provide training and ongoing support.  You don't need a business degree to do this, but it's helpful if you can read a P&L and balance sheet.

Interested?  Call me.  207-223-3000 or email [email protected]

Something I've observed for many years is that the price of housing in the Boston area has skyrocketed.  A triple-decker where I grew up in Jamaica Plain would have sold for $20,000 when I was a kid in the 60s.  Now it's well over $2M.

As a result, buyers of moderate means were forced out in concentric circles.  To the east is only ocean, so no help there.  But to the north, west and south, there has (almost) always been a stock of housing that was more affordable than in Boston.

But then all of that housing stock kept rising in price, and earning power didn't keep up.  That meant that those same buyers could no longer afford a home in Norwood, Reading or Braintree.  They were forced further away.  That trend has continued unabated.

Now I see people commuting to Boston from Portland, Maine (!!!) - and that same price trend has come to Maine as well.  Housing in Portland and surrounds has also skyrocketed - and those pricing waves are also moving out in concentric circles.  

Boston and the immediate surrounds are still the employment capital of the region and people are enduring longer and longer commutes for the opportunity to work in the colleges, hospitals, pharma companies and financial district of Boston / Cambridge.

I wonder if there's a practical limit.  Is there a commute that's so long and arduous that people turn away from Boston and decide to work on central Maine and New Hampshire, trading off some income for quality of life?

I was born and raised in Boston.  I'm approaching retirement, so I no longer have to worry about it - but I promise you that if a recruiter called me with an opportunity in Boston, it would take a gun to my head for me to sign up for another 2 hours of bumper-to-bumper commute each morning.

Not a good strategy. 

FHA loans are for owner-occupied properties only. They have a whole department that investigated "occupancy fraud", which is a felony.

The rules state that you must live there for at least 1 year.  Exceptions can be made for real changes in life circumstances like getting transferred far away for work, but expect that to be investigated.

If you have not run your own business beyond real estate before, I strongly recommend that you get in touch with SCORE (Service Corp of Retired Executives) at www.score.org.

They are a free resource (part of SBA) that will help you to evaluate the financials of the company you're looking at buying, build a business plan and to understand what you're getting into.  Some counselors are better than others, so try to find someone who has experience in logistics and especially managing employees.

FedEx Ground is a different company than FedEx Express.  Ground route owners are all 1099s, where Express are all W-2 employees.  The Ground drivers went to court several years ago, trying to be declared as employees.  Inexplicably, they lost.  

Those drivers are told where to be, when to be there, how to do their job, what to wear, etc.  As I recall, just meeting three of those conditions (and there are several more) moves you from 1099 to W-2.

It's been 9 years since I sold my pack & ship store, so maybe that has changed.

The USPS is ramping up their competition, so it's wise to keep an eye on them.  Of course, UPS is still the 1200 pound gorilla in the business.

Good luck!

Quote from @Minna Reid:

It's not just the agents, it's the investors too. As a Realtor I get multiple calls/texts weekly with the same investor scripts and have been for at least a year now. They're not even creative, as I feel there are maybe 3 versions of the same script they are all using. The inventory is just not there for anyone. 

Lot of agents and investors will be flushed out...which IMO is a good thing.

I see the same garbage in business brokering.  Private equity firms contact me daily about a company I have listed, and most of them are just time wasters.  They read a script, express an interest, ask me to jump through hoops, sending NDAs, financials and answering dozens of questions.

And then...crickets.  I have several blacklisted in my CRM for exactly that reason.

I had one especially egregious case recently.  I have a business on the market at $5.3M.  It's super strong, with $1.3M in net cash flow to the owner.  This is cream of the crop stuff.

A PE "investor" called and says "I want to send you a letter of intent".  (REALLY?  For a business you have not even seen?  Reviewed the financials?? Or talked with the owner??)  The best part was he wanted a 90 day due diligence.  My BS detector went off the scale.

He's a "search fund".  That means that he knows people with money.  He wants me to take this top-performing business off the market for 3 months (!!!) while he goes to find money.

Just like in real estate, one of the most frustrating parts of my work is shooing away tire-kickers and time wasters.

The cons are that wholesaling is in almost every circumstance, unlicensed selling of real estate and illegal in most cases. 

It's also almost always unethical.  It almost always involves lying to a property owner, telling them that you intend to buy the property when you really don't.  (That's fraud)

It also involves stripping equity from property owners who are either ignorant of the true value or in such a desperate situation that they'll take a bad deal just to get out of it.  That's pure slime.

Save your time and do something legal and ethical to save for a down payment.

Talk with an SBA lender about a 7(a) loan.  It should require 10% down payment with roughly Prime + 2% and a 10-year term.

When I work with business buyers, I recommend a handful of lenders who are part of the SBA Preferred Lending Program (PLP), as the SBA accepts their underwriting without doing it again when they receive the loan package.  That shaves 4-6 weeks off the process. 

I also want lenders who are going to sell the loan on the secondary market.  Those who are keeping the loan in-house often impose more restrictions and tighter terms (called "overlays") than those who don't.

Do you have a model in place to figure out a purchase price?  My database suggests roughly 2 X SDE (Seller's Discretionary Earnings).  That's income + add-backs.

One other note.  You'll need a broker of record if the existing broker is exiting the business.  So either you'll have to sit for the broker's exam or find someone else to fill that spot.  You probably already have that figured out.

Good luck!

I have THREE training programs for Realtors. I used them all when I was first licensed.

1. Weichert Fast Track. (I forget exactly what I paid) Workbook format.I think it was $150.00?

2. Corcoran Training & Consulting. I paid $180.00. Workbook format.

3. The Complete Real Estate Mastery Program by Darryl Davis. On CDs. I paid $500.00.

I will box and ship via USPS Priority Mail with tracking.

Interested?  Message me through BP.

I'm a business broker and I'm selling a thriving company along with its assets, which include 6 rental properties.  The seller has identified her dream retirement property in Central America and is VERY motivated to sell quickly so nobody buys her dream home out from under her. 

Your due diligence is fully expected, but time is of the essence.

Here's the listing description of the business and real estate: https://inbargroup.com/listing/general-market-package-servic...

There are photos of the furnished apartments here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/lxnm0nspog3aean3rpmib/h?rlkey...

The seller tells me that the tenants are mostly (maybe all?) local professionals.

There's also a vacant lot behind the business that appears suitable for development. 

Income is steady and there is no pending CAPEX.

The components of the business are:
- Farmer's market (more a labor of love than a big profit center - but it brings in a lot of foot traffic)
- Grain & Feed sales (Blue Seal, which is a big brand name)
- Package receiving for Canadians.  They save a LOT of money on having packages shipped to this store and crossing the border to pick them up, vs having them shipped to their home in Canada.

The new development in the business is that the seller was historically charging $3.00 per package.  I talked her into a $1.00 price increase, which she implemented January 1, 2024.  The only feedback she got from customers was "what took you so long?" It was well accepted.

As a result, in March alone, she brought in an additional $10,000 in cash vs 1 year prior.  $120,000+/- in new revenue with ZERO increase in cost of goods or labor!

BOTTOM LINE:  This is a thriving cash cow of a retail business.  The assets include 6 furnished rental units that are producing $79,200/year in income.

If the seller's dream home is sold out from under her, the asking price will go up by $200K+.

The price is $915,000, all-in.  The price is non-negotiable as this is the amount the seller needs to acquire their retirement property.  Seller financing is not an option.

SBA financing should be feasible.  I can refer you to a few good SBA lenders if you wish.

It may be possible to run this entity semi-absentee, but I don't think 100% absentee ownership would work well, as face-to-face customer contact is important in a small, local business like this.

Financials

Purchase Price: $132,500 (value of the business - but this will increase with the new $120,000 +/- in new revenue)
Cash Flow: $160,000
Gross Revenue: $326,414
Inventory $ 30,000 (additional to the sale price)
Assets: $20,000 (additional to the sale price)
Real Estate: $752,500 (additional to the sale price, might be available, incidental to the sale of the business, subject to commercial appraisal)
Employees: 3 FT, 1 PT
Founded: 1982
Reason for Sale: Retirement
Training: The seller will assist with the transition.

Total of above: $934,500.  DISCOUNTED FOR FAST SALE TO $915,000, FIRM.

Note: Financials are seller-provided and not audited by Inbar Group ,Inc.

Interested?  Contact me ASAP.  207-223-3000 or message through BP.

Check to see if your old LLC is even still active on the state's roster.

I know where I used to have mine (MA), it would be "administratively closed", i.e. dissolved, if you didn't file your annual reports and other paperwork timely.  I think it was 3 years before the Secretary of State would close it, but that's a distant memory.  That probably also varies by state.

If it was administratively closed, you might had some significant expense to resurrect it - like paying 10 years of back fees and filing 10 years of back reports.  Again, check with your state.

I suspect that it would be cleaner and easier to just start a new one.  Especially if there's any chance of latent liability.