I'm relatively new here, so hi! I'm a CRE investor who's diversifying into operations businesses. In that vein, I have some questions that are probably really basic but your answers would be greatly appreciated.

1. I'm not looking to be in the operations day-to-day; I want to buy something that has or can have a manager/director in place that is hands on, and s/he'd report to me. What size EBITDA or revenue would be the minimum you'd recommend that I look for to ensure that there is enough cashflow to support this structure?

2. I am open to owning something almost anywhere - but for personal reasons, I'm not willing to move there (see no. 1). Is this doable and difficult, or am I asking for trouble biting off way too much?

3. A company I'm looking at right now is asking for a ~3.5x (to be verified still) - ~1m EBITDA, sale price 3.5m. But he just informed me that there is an additional 3.5m in debt that he wants assumed (an entity sale and not an asset sale). This is an FFE heavy business, so I'm still looking into how reasonable that debt figure is. But my question for you all is - how would debt assumption affect your pricing valuation? Do you refigure the EBITDA multiple to include total enterprise value, and this deal would now be 7x multiple?

4. Does buying a business with RE affect the multiple you'd be willing to be, because you're acquiring more assets, or it doesn't because in the end of the day EBITDA is the same?

5. I've been seeing a lot of talk about boards of directors - is this for people's searchfunds or acquisitions, or both? How large would an acquisition be before you install a board of directors? I guess I just never thought about a 3-4m (or smaller) business having a formal BoD like that.

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks!