I think the most important thing is understanding the franchise fundamentals - support, franchisee satisfaction, bulk buying discounts, and non-onerous fees. I have been quite suspicious of franchise resales that aren't doing well until I spoke to a franchisee who bought an MSP franchise from someone who was floundering and couldn't get past 4 customers. She bought the business for the price of the franchise fee and is now one of the top franchisees in the entire system. I asked how she was confident enough to buy what was basically a failing franchise and she said she was such a better fit for the franchise and it was such a solid franchisor, it never even occurred to her that she wasn't going to scale it massively.

A few thoughts: -Talk to other franchisees -If a franchise business is for sale publicly, it means all of the other franchisees in that system have passed that deal over. There's probably a good reason for that. -Understand your path to growth within the system. Is deal flow a challenge for other multi center owners? Is your geographic area competitive? Strongly recommend AJ Wasserstein's articles on franchising: redacted