The Bubble: When is it Going to Burst & How Will it Affect Me?

by Doug Perry
Owner, Capitol Commercial Real Estate

Some of the road signs of the economy and local market place are starting to turn yellow. The tell tale signs realtors follow in the residential market is how many new housing permits are being requested by builders and the growing inventory of resale homes and flattening out of prices.

At Capitol Commercial Real Estate we not only follow the residential market trends, we zero in on the health of the business market. We study the affects of the higher interest rates on SBA loans, the tightening of underwriting rules and how best we can help our buyers with other lending methods. As for the actual market place of businesses coming up for sale and buyers finding what they are looking for, I can simply say we are as busy as ever.

The most common reason sellers decide to sell their business is to hopefully sell before prices go down. There is some truth in that theory, but not like you might think. It begs the question; do businesses suffer in a market that is beginning a down turn? Some do but if the business has a good reputation, good customer service, the owner is onsite, and most of all provides a necessary product the community needs then it will probably do just fine. You say, "what about all the rest that come up for sale, are they any good?" This is a two-fold answer: 1) You have to ask right up front, is it making money; better yet, enough money for you to live on while you build the business up? 2) Are you one of the many from the corporate world or work force that have been let go, or going to be downsized because of the market place? You need a job, but at your age and stage of life, who is going to pay you what you're worth? The one thing you don't want is to worry about someone pulling the plug on you again. So now you're onto a new venture to secure your future.

This is where our expertise really comes into play. For the seller -- by analyzing their business and how best to get it to market -- and the flip side for our buyers is to help them find a healthy, viable business to build their future on. Of all of the businesses we sell we represent both buyer and seller over 95% of the time. Who better to help the seller establish a "fair market value?" And for our buyer not to pay more than what something is really worth.

With the rapid growth of our company, it is indicative of the movement in the market place. We are receiving calls from sellers almost on a daily basis with buyers waiting on our hot list for a call to perform. Many times before we can get all the documents together on a business buyers want to make offers. So if it doesn't hit our website before you see a sale pending or a sold sign it is just a matter of days. I would recommend you give me a call or any of our agents a call for a convenient appointment at our office to discuss your future business needs.

Regards,