I've been wrestling if I should post this anonymously or even to post at all, since this is a small community. However, I feel that it's important that other searchers watch out for certain brokers who may be less than professional. So recently I've had some pretty disappointing experiences with brokers. Now I'm sure there are plenty of professional brokers on this website and elsewhere so this is not directed towards you. My first poor experience resulted in me losing an LOI because the broker didn't understand the Search Fund model even though I explicitly told her that I would need to raise from LPs. If you are a broker, please don't be lazy and make sure you understand who your buyer is. The second incident happened with a broker who was asking for a quick turn around on an IOI. Not willing to provide guidance or financials but only a CIM based on cash accounting, I submitted a conservative bid. This broker literally emailed me and told me my offer "sucked." While it doesn't bother me, it clearly bothered him enough to have a long email exchange explaining why my bid sucked. Second advice to brokers, if you want good pricing don't be lazy and give us buyers full financials . Otherwise, please expect conservative bids or high bids and expect to be retraded.
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Of course, I'm sure there are plenty of brokers out there who have a litany of horror stories about lawyers killing deals or ripping off clients so I can't paint with too broad of a brush.
I guess the moral of the story with brokers (as with any transaction adviser) is to do your homework, check references, and be quick to fire if you're not getting the results you want.