IBBA
At a Glance
Start here twice: once to build the broker list, once to know the actual medians before anyone quotes you a multiple.
- Pricing
- Free, Free for buyers and sellers: the broker directory and the Market Pulse highlight reports are public. Brokers pay membership and CBI program fees; that cost is theirs, not the reader's.
- Best For
- Building a shortlist of credentialed local brokers, and knowing the market's median multiples before a broker quotes theirs
- Kind
- Not a brokerage at all: a membership body with a directory you search yourself.
- Footprint
- Has members nationwide.
- Seller Fee
- Charges no seller fee. It represents no seller, so there is no sell-side fee to publish.
- Buyer Fee
- Says nothing about a buyer fee. Its buyer-facing pages say nothing either way about what a buyer pays.
- Works For
- Not a brokerage. A trade body rather than a firm that lists businesses, so there is nobody here to hire on either side.
- Before It Shows You Anything
- Nothing to gate: it lists members, not businesses. A membership body rather than a brokerage. It has no listings to withhold, and its directory is open.
- Roadmap Stages
- 4. Source & Screen Deals
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The Market Pulse survey is the most-cited public source for Main Street multiples by deal size, and the quarterly highlights are free
- Member directory is searchable by location at no cost
- The CBI credential requires coursework, ethics commitments, and transaction experience, which is more vetting than most of the industry has
- Active education calendar, conference, and podcast signal a functioning association rather than a paper one
Cons
- The directory lists paying members, not vetted performance; presence in it is a starting list, never a recommendation
- The full Market Pulse report is member-gated; the public gets the highlights deck only
- CBI holders are a minority of members, so the credential still has to be checked broker by broker
What Searchers Say
Recognized as the Main Street brokerage industry's standard-setter; the Market Pulse (with M&A Source) is quoted across the deal press each quarter, with Q2 2026 results now public. Its own 2026 chair letter counts 3,239 members, an all-time high, with about 500 CBIs. Community discussion treats CBI as a meaningful signal and plain membership as noise; the CBI requires three closed transactions as lead broker, so the badge attests closings, not quality.
How to Approach
IBBA is a trade association rather than 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
- You search the member directory yourself, by market and by credential.
- You contact firms directly, because the body places nobody with anybody.
- Everything after that is the individual firm's process, not the association's.
What the Directory Tells You
- Membership and credential rather than results: it lists brokers who joined and certified.
- Nothing about you at all, because it represents no seller and screens no buyer.
- Nothing about a fee, because the fee is the member firm's and never the body's.
How to Prepare
- Filter to your market first, then read each firm the way you would read any other.
- Write the profile once and reuse it with every firm you contact. Buyer Profile Builder