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Selling a Condominium and Townhouse Rental and Lease Business

No one said selling your business in a depressed economy would be easy. Although it's going to take some work, there is a good chance you can still sell your company at or even above fair market value.

Personal and professional concerns surround the sale of a condominium and townhouse rental and lease business. In our experience, a common owner concern is how the sale will affect customers and employees.

There is no simple way to sell a business. But the most prepared condominium and townhouse rental and lease business sellers are achieving fair market value and more for their companies through persistence and the application of sound selling techniques.

When to End Negotiations

Negotiations have a way of dragging on forever. But sooner or later, someone needs to bring negotiations to a close. Unfortunately, that responsibility often falls on the seller. A lull in negotiations may be part of the buyer's strategy. Then again, it may be a sign that the search for common ground is a lost cause. At this point in the process, an awareness of negotiation parameters really pays off. If the buyer is unwilling to accept your minimum demands, it's time to end negotiations and move on to the next prospect.

Leveraging Industry Connections

Today's condominium and townhouse rental and lease business buyers can be found in a variety of locations. Online business-for-sale databases like BizBuySell.com offer convenient resources for sellers interested in promoting their business to a broad prospect base. For more targeted lead generation, consider tapping into your network of industry contacts. When leveraging industry relationships for sales prospects, you'll need to be cognizant of the potential for competitors to use knowledge of your sale against you in the marketplace. Even though you can expand your prospect base by shouting it from the rooftops, it's probably wise to limit the release of information to the people you trust in the industry.

Sale Preparation Timeframes

There are no effective shortcuts for selling a condominium and townhouse rental and lease business. Since buyers prefer to see evidence of future cash flow, you'll want to to strategically lock in cash flows and increase profits before you list the business. Next, the business will need to be documented in professional financial statements and manuals that facilitate the ownership transition. Since all of this takes time and effort, a condominium and townhouse rental and lease business can rarely be ready for the marketplace in less than six months. A more likely scenario is that it will take more than a year to create the conditions necessary to receive the maximum sale price.

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