Sales Price vs Asking Price

A recent survey by BizBuySell, using their data, makes for not only interesting reading, but is very informative. BizBuySell, one of the leading websites which list businesses for sale, is providing a valuable service to all sellers by providing this date.

One  figure is significant because it bears out a figure from other sources. The chart in the BizBuySell report on small business sales price versus asking price came out at approximately 84 percent for 2011, just about the same as many other indexes.  This is a very valuable statistic. The BizBuySell report represents thousands of sales and therefore the percentage of asking price versus selling price is very meaningful.

When an offer is presented to a seller and is only 20 percent less than the asking price, the information in this report can help make a deal. And, certainly if the offer is only 10 or 15 percent less than the asking price, the results of thousands of closed deal should make a seller grab the deal. It’s pretty hard for a seller to argue with thousands of sales. What this figure strongly suggests is that businesses are listed for about 15% more than what they are really worth in the market place.