Does anyone have stories from experience they would be willing to share about how they convinced a reluctant seller to hold a note in an acquisition transaction?
What were your main points that shifted their reluctance to willingness?
Is there a way to calculate potential tax savings in holding a note?
How to Pitch a reluctant seller to hold a seller note?
by a searcher from Georgetown University
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1. how fewer dollars they'll pay the IRS assuming they'll be in a lower tax bracket as they take the seller note over x years versus all at once in a cash purchase.
2. how much interest, especially nowadays, they'll accrue simply by letting you pay them back over time.
Obviously buyer competition will dictate how convincing this point is to the seller as there might be another buyer willing to pay all cash. Either way, it's also a really good sign that the seller believes in the business and that they're willing to bet some of the purchase price on it. Every deal is different but it's something to be weary of if a seller wants all cash up front with zero skin in the game. That's where I think most searchers would start to ask "what does the seller know that I don't?"
Good luck!