# IBBA

The broker directory and the Market Pulse data.

The business brokers' trade association: the CBI credential, a searchable member directory, and the quarterly Market Pulse survey of Main Street deal terms, published with M&A Source.

- Category: Business Brokers & M&A Advisors
- Pricing model: Free
- Where it fits: Source & Screen Deals
- Website: https://www.ibba.org

## At a Glance

Start here twice: once to build the broker list, once to know the actual medians before anyone quotes you a multiple.

- 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.

## What It Costs

Free for buyers and sellers: the broker directory and the Market Pulse highlight reports are public. Brokers pay membership and CBI program fees, the member CBI bundle's first part at $1,614; 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

## Pros and Cons

- Pro: The Market Pulse survey is the most-cited public source for Main Street multiples by deal size, and the quarterly highlights are free
- Pro: Member directory is searchable by location at no cost
- Pro: The [CBI](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/cbi) credential requires coursework, ethics commitments, and transaction experience, which is more vetting than most of the industry has
- Pro: Active education calendar, conference, and podcast signal a functioning association rather than a paper one
- Con: The directory lists paying members, not vetted performance; presence in it is a starting list, never a recommendation
- Con: The full Market Pulse report is member-gated; the public gets the highlights deck only
- Con: 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 board election post counts more than 3,100 members worldwide; the chair letter's 3,239 and roughly 500 CBIs sat on no page fetched on the September 2026 re-read. 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.

## Sources

- https://www.ibba.org
- https://www.ibba.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/market-pulse-highlights-q4-2025.pdf
- https://www.ibba.org/cbi-certification/

Also on this site: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/category/broker.md
Source: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/ibba
Last checked: 2026-09-19

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