In December, Michael Carabash discussed with the Oral Health Group the current market for dental practices and what factors make a practice attractive to potential buyers. Here are some highlights from the article, and please check out this and other published articles on our Publications page.
If you have a solid practice that hits all the marks below, you’re on the right path to a great sale. It’s still a seller’s market, and there are lots of motivated buyers; COVID-19 has merely delayed sales.
- Location
- Purchasers want a location with easy-access for walk-in traffic, free parking and great signage.
- Lease
- If they can’t buy the building as part of the transaction, buyers are looking for a lease that will allow for an easy transfer to the incoming dentist tenant, with low fixed rent, many renewal periods, and no limiting clauses, such as demolition or relocation clauses.
- Physical Space
- The space within a dental practice is important because buyers want to figure out if there’s room to grow.
- Financials
- Financials play perhaps the biggest role in practice sales. The numbers tell a purchaser how good the dentist/practice is at scaling up production while managing expenses.
- Patients
- Patients are the lifeblood of any dental practice, and how many new patients are coming to the practice is just as important as how many are leaving.
- Treatments
- What kind of practice is it? Can the buyer add value with their skills by keeping more referrals in house?
- Team
- Buyers tend not to know a selling dentist’s team members and will want the selling dentist to limit their liability if they need to terminate the employment of one of the employees. This is done by putting the team members on proper contracts.
Remember, the majority of the buyers looking to purchase a dental practice have never done this before. And likely, you have never been on the seller’s side either. So it is important to consult experienced professionals so that, when you do sell, you can keep more of what you’ve spent years working for and not waste it on commissions and unnecessary expenses. At DMC, we are happy to answer any questions you have about selling your practice. And when you’re ready, we have fixed legal and marketing pricing based on your specific requirements. There’s no hourly billing and no commissions. Send us an email any time or call one of our lawyers at 1-844-443-9280 today.
