What percentage of advertised business for sale don't sell?

professional profile

November 20, 2021

by a professional from University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business in North Palm Beach, FL, USA

Looking for reliable stats re the number of businesses for sale advertised online (such as at bizbuysell.com) that don't sell. The ads are removed without a corresponding report of sale. Wouldn't it be useful to see that stat segregated by business asking price, sector and geography?

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commentor profile
Reply by an investor
from United States Military Academy in Bentonville, AR, USA
Ted, I have never seen that exact data. BizBuySell does post number of active listings (~30k), number of closed transactions (~2k per quarter), and median days on market (~180). This suggests that either a lot of BizBuySell listings do not close or get sold through another venue, though you could probably construct a more exact model.
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Reply by an intermediary
from New York University in Menlo Park, CA, USA
Ted, I've heard numbers like only 20% of businesses for sale actually get sold. With the biggest factor being asking price is too high/unrealistic seller's expectations. I believe this was published by IBBA and the team that studies these things at Pepperdine University. Check out the Market Pulse Reports they publish quarterly.
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