Restaurant Realty Company, which is headed by the efforts of myself (Steve Zimmerman, President/Broker) is successful because of our team approach to getting deals done. A competent, trained member of our staff handles each phase of the process, including listing the business, marketing the business, screening potential buyers, making the deal, and closing escrow.
The Listing Stage – First, I meet with the seller and tour the business. Then, I review the financials and premises lease to determine the value of the business with the seller. I collaborate with the seller to determine which features to highlight when marketing their business. In addition, I advise the seller on how to best prepare his or her business for sale—for example, taking care of deferred maintenance, paying attention to housekeeping and health department issues, and getting their financials in order.
The Marketing Stage – Our comprehensive marketing program is tops at exposing listings to potential buyers. We do extensive newspaper and Yellow Pages advertising, Internet and website marketing, and a weekly mailing program. Sally Packman, our Mailing Coordinator, sends out 1,500 mailings weekly. Every 3 months nearly 20,000 restaurant, bar and club owners receive our listings, newsletter, and other information. Cara Crandall, our Marketing/Information Systems Coordinator, oversees all of our advertising and marketing activity. Daily, she maintains our website and updates the 7 other websites on which we have listings. She also administers our email broadcast that goes out every other week to over 7,500 buyers in our database regarding our new, price-reduced, featured and coming-soon listings. Every time we have a price reduction, she prepares an email to inform all of the buyers that have previously completed a confidentiality agreement for that particular listing. Currently, we are setting up a system so that every time we receive a new listing, every buyer that has registered online with specific criteria for the type of business they are looking for will be notified by email if the new listing matches their acquisition criteria. Jacob Zimmerman, our Director of Technology, develops and oversees all of our management information systems activities. We have a state-of-the-art management software system that gives everyone in our office immediate status updates on listings, all buyers in our system, all deals in the works, and a calendar of all our activities including buyer appointments.
The Buyer Screening Stage – When buyers contact us regarding one of our businesses for sale, they will be greeted by Julie Riboli or Kathy Page, our Buyer Coordinators. Before any information is given to a prospective buyer, the buyer is required to sign a confidentiality agreement. Then they are screened by Julie or Kathy to determine if they are operationally and financially qualified. If qualified, they will be instructed regarding the rules of confidentiality. We keep track of each buyer in our management system so we have access to all of our buyer’s history at any time.
The Deal Making Stage – Once the buyer has seen the business and has reviewed the business’s lease, equipment list and financials and wants to make an offer they will contact me, Steve Zimmerman, or Nicki Evatz, our Sales Manager, who will work with the buyer through the deal making and closing stage. The buying process includes: 1) writing the offer, 2) getting the offer accepted, and 3) the buyer completing the due diligence process, including physical inspections, review of books and records, and landlord approval for an assignment of the existing lease or negotiating a new lease. After the due diligence process is signed off by the buyer, escrow is opened. The buyer increases his deposit and we begin processing the alcoholic beverage control (ABC) license transfer if applicable.
The Closing Stage – Steve and Nicki also oversee this process that includes directing the buyer to do the following: obtain a business license, set up a resale permit with the State Board of Equalization, set up an EDD account, take final inventory between buyer and seller, set up liability insurance, file a fictitious business name statement, change over utilities, and final inspection.
Together, we create a well-managed structure to the process in order to ensure a smooth transaction for you.
***Restaurant Realty’s team is well equipped to handle the sale of your business. ***
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