First Choice Business Brokers
At a Glance
The network that talks to buyers, on seller terms you get from whichever office holds the listing.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, The corporate site publishes no seller fee across its main pages, while individual franchisee sites publish their own terms, which is what an independently owned office means. For buyers it does answer the cost question: 'Sellers usually pay the broker's fee, so it won't cost you extra.' It also publishes the deposit convention: an earnest money deposit 'typically in the amount of 10% or $10,000, whichever is greater'. Its buyer-representation page says a buyer may be asked to agree to pay the broker's compensation if the seller or the seller's agent will not.
- Best For
- First-time buyers who want the mechanics of an offer explained before they make one
- Kind
- Independently run offices under one name, so the broker varies by market.
- Footprint
- Claims nationwide reach. It separately names Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming. It claims the whole country and names only part of it, so the list is where its offices are rather than where it stops.
- Sells
- Main Street and middle market businesses, with an M&A line for lower middle market companies up to $35M of revenue, founded 1994. Its headline $15 billion is business LISTED rather than sold and is franchise-network-wide; no count of businesses actually sold appears, and no industries are named.
- Publishes a size, and not one a buyer can use.
- Seller Fee
- Publishes the structure. It says when a fee is owed and on what basis, but names no number, so the amount takes a call.
- Buyer Fee
- Says nothing about a buyer fee. Its buyer-facing pages say nothing either way about what a buyer pays.
- Works For
- Represents buyers. Names a buy-side service a buyer engages, so somebody on this list can be working for you. None of them publishes what it costs, so ask that first.
- Before It Shows You Anything
- Wants proof of funds before it shows you a business. Proof of funds or a personal financial statement, alongside the NDA. Expect to show what you can actually spend before you see a single set of books.
- A questionnaire and financial evidence alongside the NDA, though the office varies by market under the network's own model.
- Roadmap Stages
- 2. Define & Test Your Thesis4. Source & Screen Deals
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Answers the buyer's cost question in one plain sentence, which most firms never do
- Publishes the earnest money convention with an actual figure, which a first-time buyer needs and rarely finds
- Names a buyer representation service and a custom business search explicitly
- Publishes hard scale numbers rather than adjectives, including its broker headcount and founding year
Cons
- No seller fee at brand level, so the answer genuinely varies by office
- Its own pages disagree on scale, with $18 billion and $15 billion of businesses listed on one home page
- A locations page lists offices under thirty-three state headings, a footprint with no closing sentence, and no deal size is published
What Searchers Say
Independence language, buyer answers, deposit convention and scale figures read from its own pages. Its San Diego franchisee publishes a fee structure the corporate site does not, which is the clearest evidence on this shelf that in a network the fee lives at the office.
How to Approach
First Choice Business Brokers is an office network rather than a single firm, and it works for the seller rather than for you, so this is how that side of the table comes in and what it is deciding about you.
The Typical Arc
- You reach one office rather than the brand, and that office runs its own process.
- A teaser and an NDA with the local broker who holds the listing.
- The CIM and the seller meeting, to that office's standard rather than a house one.
- Your offer, through that broker, whose duty runs to the seller.
What It Weighs
- The same three things any listing broker weighs: funds, criteria, and speed.
- Whether you are buying in that office's market, since the listings are local.
- Whether to refer you to a sister office, which is an introduction rather than a handoff.
How to Prepare
- Ask which office holds the listing and who your broker actually is.
- Write the one page a broker asks for before you inquire. Buyer Profile Builder
- Set criteria specific enough for a listing to match. Buy Box Builder