Management

Motel Sale Inspections

A potential buyer of a property/business often makes their decision to proceed with a purchase or opt out within the first five minutes of inspecting a motel/property.

Presentation is therefore paramount to the ‘first impressions’ of a buyer. Those sellers who make the effort to impress a potential buyer often come out in front where others fail to make any effort and take the attitude that “it is what it is”. Prepare the property by making sure there are no repair and maintenance issues outstanding and that there is not a lot of clutter that will make the premises appear small or dirty.

Timing – Many potential buyers are concerned only with having a thorough look through a motel property and do not consider at the time that the motel operator is running a business. It can be an awkward situation when the seller, broker and buyer are talking about sensitive business specific information and a staff member, customer or supplier walks through the door. The busiest times of the motelier’s day are therefore simply not suitable for conducting a thorough property inspection. These busy and quiet times will vary from motel to motel depending on the type of clientele and income departments the business has.

Experience has shown that by far and away most buyers do the right thing when it comes to an inspection. There are however some buyers who will not. Some will arrive on the doorstep unannounced and want to look through the property. This will no doubt be at a completely inappropriate time of the day, such as when guests are checking in or out, when the owners are away or when the broker has not been advised that they were going to attend the property. Other buyers will stay at the motel as a guest, having a quiet look around without disturbing anyone. Therefore while a marketing campaign is in progress one must always be prepared that the right buyer may very well be staying at the property in order to get a feel for the place.

Roles – The seller of the motel business can be involved in the inspection or can leave it to the broker to show the buyer through the property. This being said, at all times the broker should be in attendance at inspections and should control the inspection so that there are no unexpected surprises that arise. There are many important reasons for this including financial, legal and communicative reasons.

The vendor should be as transparent as possible and allow the buyer to look as in depth as they wish throughout the entire property. Obviously due to stay-over customers it is not possible to inspect every room within a motel. Most buyers accept this and are mainly interested to look at the different styles of unit that make up the complex.

No matter what type of business a buyer is looking at, they are looking for any problems, issues or faults that they can find. This is only natural, however knowing this, it is how one deals with and utilises that knowledge in preparing themselves and their business prior to. It is up to the seller to deal with these matters so that they do not leave themselves open to questions of their asking price.

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