Pro Tips: Selling Your Note For Top Dollar After Selling Your Business

It definitely helps to sell your business if you carry a note for the buyer.  In articles below I’ve previously discussed how to secure your business note.

What about selling your note after the close of escrow? Do you want to effectively “cash out” of the sale? There are Companies and Investors who specialize in purchasing Business Notes (of course at a discount). You can sell all or part of your note. Most of the Companies/Investors will offer to buy year to year of the note. In other words buy the first two or three years of payments. After collecting for the agreed upon amount of time, the note and its payments would revert back to the seller of the business. Of course the seller can sell the entire note too (and most end up doing that).

The note buyers will purchase the note at a discounted amount of the face value. Discounts vary according to several factors. Interest rate, length of note amortization, buyer’s down payment, buyer’s strength both financially and experience wise, type of business, note position (1st, 2nd) and note seasoning. Below are a few of the most important guide lines.

Down Payment: The higher the down payment on the business sale the lower the discount of your note will be. Down payments should be at least 30% of the purchase price. Bringing the down payment up to 40-50% of the purchase price will greatly help reduce your note discount.

Note Positioning: The note should be in the 1st position as a lien on the business. 2nd’s are harder to sell and if you do find a buyer for a 2nd it will get heavily discounted.

Rate and Term: Interest rate should be 7% or higher and the term shouldn’t be beyond 60 months in order to maximize your buy out.

Seasoning: Note buyers like to see that the business buyer has made a few payments before they buy the note. I used to sell these straight out of escrow, but today note buyers like the note “seasoned” for a minimum of 2 months. The longer the seasoning, the less your note will get discounted.

Discounting:  Discounts usually range from 10% to 30% of the face value of the note. All of the factors discussed above will come into play in determining the discount rate.