Understanding Business For Sale Websites

by 20th of March, 2013

When beginning the process of buying a business there are a number of different business for sale websites you can look at to find the ideal business. There are a number of misconceptions people have about searching for a business for sale. Often people compare it to Real Estate which is actually quiet different in terms of searching for an ideal business. You need to ensure you are accessing all avenues to find an ideal business and have an understanding of the business for sale websites available.

1. All Business For Sale Websites have the same content:

WRONG! With property you can be assured most properties are advertised on RealEstate.com.au and Domain.com.au . Why? because most of the properties in Australia are sold through a Real Estate agent and they know that these are the top ranking websites with the most visitors. So if you want to sell a property you need to appear on these websites to ensure interested buyers are seeing your property. RealEstate.com.au alone receives something like 6 Million visitors a month.

So why would business for sale websites be different? Three reasons:

- Not all businesses are sold through business brokers so they dont necessarily have access to the big ranking business websites.

- Smaller business brokers may not have the budget to advertise on these larger websites so choose different avenues.

- Some businesses are sold through Real Estate agents (restrictions apply) and they only have access to the real estate side of these portals and not neccessarily the business side so might choose to advertise on different websites.

For these reasons, it means businesses can be advertised for sale on a number of different websites, which is why it is important to visit the many websites when looking for a business for sale, as there may be more ideal businesses for sale then you realise.

2. All Business For Sale Websites have the same policies:

WRONG! As websites are independent they tend to have different policies on the information provided and the types of advertsiing they allow on their website. Some websites are restricted to business brokers only (e.g. realcommercial and businessview) whilst other allow private sellers to advertise with brokers (e.g. Domain Business and SeekCommercial) and others allow a combination of private sellers and business brokers (Bsale.com.au, businessesforsale.com.au)

Some websites allow you to provide unlimited information, external links, youtube videos, whilst others have restrictions on these abilities.

So which websites should i visit when buying a business?

RealEstate.com.au, Domain.com.au, SeekCommercial are the big business broker fed websites. So these websites will have a lot of content from business brokers including the large brokerage. Domain and Seek may also have some private seller listings.

Bsale.com.au and BusinessforSale.com.au are two of the first business for sale websites and have been operating for over 12 years. They cater to private sellers and the smaller brokerages. They operate quiet differently to the larger websites but have a good amount of content and businesses for sale that you wont find on the above websites.

Have you ever searched any of these websites? What are your thoughts? Did you find a desirable business?