How in depth do you look at the broker's listing and OM for a facility before calling the broker to talk to them about it?
What are the main questions you want to get answered from the call with a broker?
Ask open ended questions:
- What’s the story on this facility?
- How much interest has there been?
- Do you know why the seller’s selling? (gauge sellers motivation)
- How realistic are they?
- Is seller financing a possibility?
- Do they have someone onsite to run it? Does that person want to stay with the facility?
- Do they have an onsite manager or 3rd party?
- Have you received offers yet?
Ask a question and then stay quiet and let them talk.
Am I missing anything? any other helpful questions or ways to approach these calls?
Sometimes it seems like they can get irritated if I ask them a question like "What can you tell me about the facility?" or "what's the story on this facility?" because they will say, "well, did you see the OM?"
Or in response to a question like "how realistic is the seller on price?" they will not give much of an answer because they don't want to give away anything about the seller's expectations for a price.