Selling a business yourself vs. using a broker.
Can you sell a business without a broker? An honest look at FSBO business sales in Texas: what owners do well on their own, where deals break, and what a broker actually does.
Yes, you can sell a business without a broker, and it works best when you already know the buyer, such as a key employee, a family member, or a competitor who approached you, and the deal is simple. Owners who sell on their own most often struggle with pricing, finding enough qualified buyers to create competition, keeping the sale confidential, and holding a deal together through financing and diligence. A broker’s fee is worth paying when the broker’s process raises the price or the odds of closing by more than the fee costs.
When selling it yourself makes sense
A for-sale-by-owner deal can work when the buyer is already at the table: a long-time manager, a family successor, or a competitor who made an unsolicited offer. If the price is easy to agree, financing is simple or seller-financed, and both sides have their own attorney and CPA, the main things you need are a good purchase agreement and patience. Many owners in that situation still hire an advisor by the hour for valuation and structure.
Where owner-run sales usually break
Pricing is the first trap: owners anchor on what they need, buyers anchor on what the books support, and without a defensible SDE the gap rarely closes. The second is buyer reach: one interested party is a negotiation you will probably lose, while three or four create competition. The third is confidentiality, since a sign in the window or a public listing with your name can cost you employees and customers. The fourth is diligence and financing, where a lender’s questions, a landlord’s consent, or a missing document can stall a deal for months.
What a broker actually does for the fee
A good broker values and packages the business, markets it without naming it, screens buyers for funding and fit before they see anything, runs multiple buyers in parallel, negotiates the letter of intent, and manages diligence, financing, and closing so you can keep running the business. The value is less in any single step than in keeping a deal moving and keeping more than one buyer interested until the end. Ask any broker you interview how many qualified buyers they reach and how they do it.
How to compare the two honestly
Estimate your likely net proceeds both ways. Selling alone, use the price you could realistically get from the one or two buyers you can reach, minus legal and accounting costs and the risk the deal falls through. With a broker, use a realistic price from a competitive process, minus the success fee. Our fees are published on the fees page and are paid only at closing, so you can run the comparison before you talk to anyone.