IBA
At a Glance
The Pacific Northwest answer, and the rare brokerage that tells a buyer in writing what it costs to look.
- Pricing
- Success Fee, The model without a number, in its own words: '100% of our business brokerage fees are contingent on successful completion of a transaction', and it is 'not interested in collecting retainers & administrative fees as part of our business model'. For a buyer: 'There is no cost for a buyer to evaluate a business represented for sale by IBA as a potential acquisition.' No percentage is published anywhere.
- Best For
- Buyers hunting in Washington, Oregon or Alaska who want to know what the listing broker costs them before they call
- Kind
- One firm, one bench of brokers, one process.
- Footprint
- Names Alaska, Oregon and Washington. It names those states and works others too, so a state it does not name is worth asking about rather than ruling out.
- 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.
- Roadmap Stages
- 2. Define & Test Your Thesis4. Source & Screen Deals
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Publishes a value band, $500,000 to $30,000,000, that straddles most of what a searcher can finance
- States its fee model in two places in consistent language, including what it does not charge
- Answers the buyer's own cost question in writing, which most brokerages never do
- Fifty years in one region, with over 4,400 completed transactions by its own count
Cons
- No percentage, no ladder and no minimum, so paid on performance tells a seller nothing about the number
- Its buy-side representation page states no fee basis at all, so a searcher wanting representation cannot price it
- Three states: outside the Pacific Northwest this firm answers nothing
What Searchers Say
Footprint, fee language, value band and transaction count all read from IBA's own pages. It rations buy-side work by its own statement: 'IBA is predominantly a seller representation company. We traditionally do not represent buyers interested in acquiring a company represented for sale by another mergers & acquisitions firm.' Its buyer gate is three documents: an NDA, an acquisition criteria profile, and proof of ability to negotiate in good faith.
How to Approach
IBA is a brokerage, 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
- A teaser and an NDA, before you see the name of the business.
- A call with the listing broker, who is screening you as much as answering you.
- The CIM, then a seller meeting the broker schedules and usually sits in on.
- Your offer, carried by the broker to the seller they represent.
What It Weighs
- Whether your money is real: how much is cash, and where the rest is coming from.
- Whether your criteria are specific enough to match against a listing.
- How fast you move, because the fee arrives on a close rather than on a conversation.
How to Prepare
- 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
- Know what you can pay before the CIM lands. Business Valuation Calculator