Business Brokerage

Did you know that a business broker does not need a special license to act in this profession?

In fact, many real estate agents double as business brokers.

Today, I had the pleasure of meeting with 2 of my favorite agents from ReMax Signature, Natalia D'Arrigo and Meredith Kurz and a potential seller. This was a unique experience for us all as we were able to collaborate between broker, attorney, and client before anyone was retained. This way, the client is not hiring individuals, but instead a team (while we have nothing in our contracts that bind us to each other and we all have a duty of loyalty only to the client and would work independently of each other).

With respect to real estate agents selling businesses, its important to mention that such agents should not use the same sales techniques with a business as a piece of real estate. Specifically, if you promote the availability of a business in open, the business may be put out of business. Be sure to use trade publications where consumers won't find the business for sale.

Also, an interesting topic that we discussed at our meeting was that if you sell a book of business, you will likely have to sign a non-compete. While that seems to be a "duh" moment for an attorney, it appears that clients don't often think about that and intend to sell their book and then just compete in the next town.

Do you all think real estate agents should work as business brokers as well, or should a separate license and industry emerge?