Running more than one buyer at a time
One buyer is not a market. Why a second one changes the terms more than the price, and how to keep them on the same clock.
One buyer is not a market. It is a negotiation where the other side knows he is the only one at the table, and he will price accordingly.
Why more than one changes the terms
It is rarely about starting a bidding war. It is that a buyer who knows he is alone takes his time, reopens settled points late, and finds reasons to adjust the number during diligence. A buyer who thinks somebody else is reading the same file behaves differently, and the difference shows up in the terms more than in the price.
Terms are where the money actually moves: cash at closing against a seller note, how long you stay, which liabilities transfer, how much working capital you leave behind.
Keep them on the same clock
Running several buyers is a scheduling job. Everyone gets the same material at the same stage, and offers are due on the same date. If one buyer gets the full file two weeks early, you no longer have a process, you have a frontrunner and some spectators.
You do not need to say who else is looking, how many, or what they have offered. You are not required to volunteer it and inventing it is a bad idea — it tends to be checkable, and a buyer who catches you is gone.
A Straight Answer
Never say a competing offer exists if it does not. In a trade where buyers know each other it gets back, and the deal you lose is the one you had.
Keeping a second buyer warm through diligence is unglamorous and it is the cheapest insurance in the process. The first deal falls apart more often than owners expect.
BuiltEquity is a sell-side brokerage for trades and field-service companies. Nothing here is legal, tax or accounting advice. Your CPA and your attorney are the authority on your situation.