This was an interesting deal because it involved a listing we originally did not secure because the seller also owned the building. We said that we would partner with someone who specialized in commercial real estate and suggested that listing the business and the property separately would be best.
Most business buyers aren’t prepared to purchase the property and vice versa. The sellers chose another broker that bundled the business and the property together.
Eventually, the property sold, and the business did not. The sellers were in a bind since the purchasers of the building had other plans for it, so the sellers needed to liquidate or move. Liquidating was appearing to be best since they did not have any interested buyers, and they wanted to retire.
Enter Union Bay Group: A potential buyer contacted us from our Brokers Network Group shared listing exposure. They were coming to the Northwest to look at Lumber Supply Businesses and wanted to know if we had any listings that would be of interest. We did not. But we did remember the Lumber Company listing we did not get. We contacted the seller and found out that the business did not sell and that they were in a bind and wanted to retire. We set up a buyer-seller meeting for that weekend. We closed in 30 days.
The seller mentioned at closing that they should have taken our advice in the beginning. In this case, our long-standing Brokers Network Group affiliation combined with our website SEO gave us the national exposure to secure a buyer for this local listing. Since 2006, our experience of brokering in the Seattle area gave us knowledge and memory of this business that was not currently listed.