TRADING TO OWN A BUSINESS SOONER

03/10/2017 by Rod Askew – RCA Business Brokers

Many, many times each year we have buyers enquire on businesses, either motels or management rights and after requesting volumes of information on particular properties, they announce: “Oh! We can’t do anything just yet, we have a house to sell”.

Depending on the state of the property market in their particular suburb, city or state, selling their house could take 2 weeks or it could take 2 years.

The issue for us as agents is, here are these genuine buyers who have decided on a change of life, job and location and we have our hands tied because they can’t sell their house or haven’t really done anything to begin that process as yet.

One thing very few vendors and very few agents consider is the possibility of a trade for their business. Depending on the circumstances of the seller, a trade with a cash balance might just make things happen a lot quicker for all concerned. Quite often in these circumstances the trade is used as the deposit.

Now we appreciate that everyone’s circumstances are different and if you, the seller already have another business purchase in the pipeline then a trade may not get you your funds quickly enough to settle the new business.

If however, you are retiring or planning an extensive overseas or local trip after you get out of your current situation then a trade of a house or unit may get you moving a lot quicker. If you have no immediate plans of where you want to live or what you want to do next, the trade property may become something of a half way house for the you until you firm up your next move.

The concept of trades is thousands of years old and has never gone out of fashion in many countries particularly in rural areas. Trading goods for food or supplies makes great sense in product rich cash poor cultures.

Getting a fair value of product for what you are offering can work really well in any business as long as the “FAIR” part is evident on both sides of the transaction.

Offering your business at market value and accepting a unit or house trade at market value allows a sale to happen sooner for parties keen to consummate a deal. For this reason many trade deals factor in a valuation on both properties to give vendor and buyer comfort they are not paying over the odds.

Now trades come in all shapes and sizes. We have recently spoken with a couple who bought a top of the range mobile home a few years ago to go “grey nomading” after a first attempt at retiring.

They now wish to consider a new business and are looking at management rights as an option.

Now we all know that many business owners in Australia and New Zealand, who reach retirement age have a dream to buy a camper van and travel the country at their own pace.

Here’s your chance to get moving a lot quicker and be on the road in just a few months time. Take the campervan plus a cash difference as a trade on your business and start your retirement months or years earlier than planned.

As I mentioned at the start, trades don’t work for everyone.

But don’t discount the idea entirely until you have thought it through as it might just be a workable proposition that makes everyone’s plans come together a little quicker and easier.

Have a great month.

Regards

RCA Business Brokers