Clients typically think they can start and finish the process in a month or two. Sometimes they can accomplish that, but often not. It's not that the lawyers are slow. It's that the devil is in the details. It can take as long as five years to sell an agency, as we'll see below.
Most owners fall in love with a potential buyer.
When they start thinking about selling and retiring, they look at the universe of potential buyers and pick one out. Then they try to get the deal done with that person or company. It's not the best way in most cases. If you want to extract a really nice price, the best thing is to be in contact with several buyers. Most buyers will refuse to engage in a bidding war, but buyers who recognize a good thing will want to continue, especially if they have put in a lot of time to get to the point where the bidding begins.