Selling your business? Don’t leave the real estate value behind.
If your company owns or occupies its space, the real estate is one of the largest — and most mishandled — parts of your exit. Real estate is my core work — and a background as an operator and investor is what lets me see exactly how your property ties into the company’s value, so you capture its full worth in the sale instead of a raw number thrown into the deal.
Three places real estate changes your payout
How it works
Start with a confidential value read — free
Tell me about the business (rough revenue/earnings) and whether you own the space. I’ll come back with a grounded value range and the smartest way to structure a sale. Confidential, no obligation.
Justin Crow is a Florida-licensed commercial real estate broker with Mattis Advisors, with private-equity and business-valuation experience. Nothing here is a business appraisal, securities, or investment advice.
Frequently asked
I have a business broker — why add a real estate broker?
Because the two disciplines rarely live in one person. A business broker values the company; a real estate broker values the property; almost no one values how they interact — how owned real estate distorts your earnings, and whether to sell the property with the business, separately, or lease it back. That intersection is where a lot of money is won or lost, and it’s exactly where I work.
What’s your background?
Commercial real estate is my core practice. On top of it, a background as an operator and investor — including private equity — means I can also read your company the way a sophisticated buyer will: earnings, add-backs, multiples, risk. Real estate is what I do; the operating background is what makes me sharper at tying it into your deal.
Should I sell my building with my business or separately?
It depends on the buyer pool and the numbers, and it’s one of the most valuable decisions in the whole deal. Sometimes bundling maximizes a strategic buyer’s offer; often a sale-leaseback (you keep the property and lease it to the buyer) nets you more total value. We model both before you commit.
Is this confidential?
Yes. Business-sale conversations are handled discreetly — nothing is marketed or disclosed without your direction.
When should I start planning to sell a business with real estate?
One to two years ahead. Both valuations improve with lead time: documented market rent, current maintenance and clean permits on the property; normalized books and reduced owner dependence on the business. None of that can be done in the weeks after an offer arrives.
Will my staff and customers find out I am selling?
Real estate is the more exposed of the two assets because property marketing is public by default, but a quiet process with a targeted buyer list and marketing that describes the property without identifying the occupying business solves it. That has to be planned at the start rather than corrected later.
The buildings where the owner's mailing address is the building
There is a way to find businesses that operate out of property they own, and it is worth showing you because it explains who this page is for.
County records carry two addresses for a parcel: where the property is, and where the owner gets their mail. When those match, the owner is almost always operating from the building rather than holding it as an investment. Across the tri-county parcels where I have both addresses on file — 19,453 of them — 2,772 match. That is roughly one in seven, and 2,526 of those are buildings under 25,000 square feet.
Tri-county commercial parcels with a structure where a mailing address is recorded for the owner, August 2026. Owner mailing address is present on 19,453 of 76,099 parcels, so this measures the subset where the comparison is possible, not the whole market. Addresses normalized before comparison; no owner is named.
That is the population this page is about: an operating business, usually not large, sitting on a building it bought years ago because owning seemed better than renting. It was. What most of those owners have not done is work out what happens to both assets when they sell the company.
Because there are two assets. There is a business with cash flow, customers, staff and goodwill, and there is a piece of real estate with its own market, its own buyers and its own price. Selling them as one thing is the default, and the default frequently leaves money behind.
Two assets, two buyer pools, two prices
The buyers are not the same people, and that is the whole argument.
A business buyer is pricing a multiple of earnings. They care about customer concentration, whether the business runs without you, margins and staff. Real estate is a complication in that conversation — it raises the cheque they must write, it may require different financing, and many business buyers would rather lease and put their capital into the operation.
A real estate buyer is pricing an income stream or a place to put their own company. They do not care about your customer list at all. What they care about is the building, the location, the condition and the lease that comes with it.
When you sell both together to a business buyer, the real estate tends to get valued the way that buyer values it — as an obligation attached to the deal — rather than the way the property market values it. I have seen buildings absorbed into a business sale at close to their assessed value while comparable properties in the same submarket were trading well above it. Nobody was cheated. The seller simply never brought the property to the market that prices property.
The alternative is straightforward. You sell the business to a business buyer, and you either keep the building and lease it to them, or sell it separately to a property buyer. Two processes, two prices, and usually more in total.
What the rent you charge yourself is doing to your multiple
This one is subtle and it moves more money than anything else on this page.
If your company occupies a building you own, whatever rent appears in the company's books is a number you chose. Many owners set it low, or charge nothing at all, because it moves money from one pocket to another. Some set it high for tax reasons. Either way, it is not a market number.
A buyer valuing your business will normalize it. They will replace whatever is in your accounts with market rent for that space, because that is what occupancy will actually cost them. And because businesses sell on a multiple of earnings, every dollar of understated rent inflates your stated profit by a dollar — which the buyer then removes, at the multiple.
Work an example. Suppose your building would rent for $120,000 a year at market and your company has been paying itself $50,000. Your books overstate normalized earnings by $70,000. At a four times multiple, the adjustment takes $280,000 off the business valuation. It does not vanish — it reappears as value in the real estate, which now demonstrably supports $120,000 of rent. But it only reappears if the real estate is being valued properly and separately. If it is buried inside the business sale, that $280,000 is simply gone.
So the first thing to establish is what market rent for your own space actually is. That number sets your real profitability, and it sets the value of the building. Getting it right is not an accounting exercise; it is the single input both valuations depend on.
Four ways to structure it
Sell both together, to one buyer
Simplest, one closing, one negotiation. It works when the buyer genuinely wants both and has the capital, and when the property is specialized enough that its value is mostly tied to the operation. It is also where the real estate most often gets underpriced, so it should be a decision rather than a default.
Sell the business, keep the building, become the landlord
You get a clean exit from the operation plus an income stream secured by a tenant whose business you know better than anyone. The lease you sign at closing is the deal, and it is easy to under-negotiate because you like the buyer on the day. Term, escalations, who carries the roof and structure, personal guarantees, and what happens if they later sell — all of it should be handled as carefully as if a stranger were signing, because eventually one might be.
Sell the business, sell the building separately
Two processes, two buyer pools, usually the highest total. The coordination matters: the business buyer needs certainty about occupancy, which normally means a lease is signed as part of the business sale and the building is then marketed with that lease in place — which frequently makes it worth more, because now it is an income-producing property rather than a vacant one.
Sale-leaseback first, sell the business later
If the business is not ready to sell but you want the equity out of the property, a sale-leaseback gets the capital now and leaves a cleaner, real-estate-free company to sell later. The lease you sign has to be one a future buyer of your business would accept, which is a constraint worth building in from the start.
Sequence and confidentiality
Two practical points that decide how well this goes.
Start the valuations early and start them together. Not when you have a buyer — a year or two before you intend to sell. The reason is that both numbers are improvable with lead time. A building with a documented market rent, current maintenance and clean permits is worth more than the same building with none of that. A business whose books have been normalized for real occupancy cost, and which has been shown to run without the owner, is worth more than the same business without that work. Neither improvement is available in the sixty days after an offer arrives.
Confidentiality is a real constraint here. Staff, customers and competitors finding out that you are selling can cost you the value you are trying to realize. Real estate is the leakier of the two assets, because property marketing is public by nature. That is a solvable problem — a quiet process, a targeted buyer list, marketing that describes the property without identifying the occupying business — but it has to be planned rather than patched afterwards. Anything I look at for you stays with me until you decide otherwise.
I am a broker, not an accountant, a business broker or an attorney. On a transaction like this you want a business broker or investment banker on the company, a CPA on the tax structure, and a transactional attorney on the documents. My part is the real estate: what it is worth, what market rent for it is, and how to keep it from being the piece nobody priced. I work alongside those advisors rather than in place of them.
Questions from owners selling a business with real estate
Should I sell my business and my building together or separately?
Separately produces a higher total more often than not, because the two assets have different buyer pools that value them differently. A business buyer prices a multiple of earnings and treats real estate as a complication; a property buyer prices the building on its own merits. Selling together is simpler and sometimes right, particularly for highly specialized property, but it should be a deliberate choice rather than the default.
How does owning my building affect what my business is worth?
Through the rent line. Whatever rent your company pays itself is a number you chose, and a buyer will normalize it to market before applying a multiple. If you have been charging below-market rent, your stated earnings are overstated by the difference and the buyer removes it at the multiple. That value moves into the real estate, but only if the real estate is being valued separately and properly.
Can I keep the building and lease it to whoever buys my business?
Yes, and it is a common structure. It gives you an exit from the operation plus income from a tenant you understand. The lease signed at closing is the whole deal, so term, escalations, maintenance obligations, guarantees and assignment rights deserve the same scrutiny you would give a stranger, because the buyer may later sell the business to one.
When should I start planning a sale like this?
One to two years ahead. Both valuations are improvable with lead time — documented market rent, current maintenance and clean permits on the property side; normalized books and reduced owner dependence on the business side. None of that can be done in the weeks after an offer arrives.
Will my staff and customers find out?
Not from me. Real estate is the more exposed of the two assets because property marketing is public by default, but a quiet process with a targeted buyer list and marketing that describes the property without identifying the occupying business solves it. That has to be planned at the start rather than corrected later.
Do I need a business broker as well as a real estate broker?
Usually yes. Valuing and marketing a company is a different discipline from valuing and marketing a building, and a transaction with both should have someone accountable for each, plus a CPA on the tax structure and an attorney on the documents. My role is the real estate side, working alongside the rest of your team.
Market data: Broward · Miami-Dade · Palm Beach · Justin Crow, South Florida commercial broker