The decision to buy or sell a dental practice is a significant undertaking. It can be overwhelming for many doctors because they often only buy or sell a dental practice once in their career.
As a seller, your experience from when you purchased a dental practice will significantly differ from what a buyer experiences today, whether you purchased your practice five, 10, or 30 years ago.
Conversely, buyers today face many additional challenges in the post-COVID-19 market. We look at what an ADS Dental Transitions dental broker brings to the table during a dental practice transition from the perspective of a seller looking to retire and a buyer purchasing likely their first practice.
When the time comes to sell your dental practice, you will want to ensure that you have a team in place to support you through every step of the process. Ideally, you will have consulted a financial planner to ensure that you are financially prepared to retire and have confirmed your intention to step away from owning a dental practice.
You may consider a plan to remain productive and busy in retirement. Once you have reached this point, you should be looking to choose your team. This is where an ADS Dental Transitions consultant can assist you. 
ADS dental brokers can be considered the quarterback of your team throughout the dental practice sale. When you begin the process, the broker will review all the steps involved. Your team should include an accountant and lawyer who, ideally, will have prior experience in the dental industry. Your ADS broker can provide recommendations as well and will also let you know at what stages to get other team members involved.
As you work through the process, the ADS broker will initially collect a significant amount of information about your practice and may ask many clarifying questions.
He or she will recast your financials to determine your adjusted practice net profit, and then work with you to determine an appropriate selling price, factoring in your local market.
The next step is to market the practice on the ADS Transitions website, as well as the broker’s local advertising channels and networking. As prospective buyers express interest, the broker will arrange appointments for the buyer to meet with you and tour your practice, with the goal of eventually negotiating a sale.
Once an offer has been agreed upon by the seller and buyer, the broker will work with the seller’s legal counsel to review the Agreement of Sale and help keep the process moving efficiently, as closing approaches.
An ADS Transitions dental broker can help a buyer in various ways. If a prospective buyer is interested in an ADS dental practice listing, the listing broker can provide additional information, arrange an office visit, and resolve and remaining concerns the buyer might have.
Alternatively, if the buyer is interested in a practice listed by a non-ADS broker, they can act in the role of a consultant for the buyer, reviewing information about the practice and offering guidance. 
Also, ADS broker can provide financing options and contacts to lenders that specialize in dental industry financing.
Once an letter-of-intent is made and accepted, contracts are drawn up for the practice and real estate (if involved), and as closing approaches. There are many final steps that the broker will assist with.
Patients will need to be informed after the closing takes place, and letter templates can be provided that can be customized specifically for the buyer and seller.
Effectively communicating with staff is another critical area that the broker can assist with later in the process. And, from the buyer’s side, the broker will provide resources to help with credentialing.
There are many valuable services that an ADS Transitions consultant can bring to a transaction for both a seller and a buyer. To find out more, visit our dental broker directory to locate your local consultant and schedule an appointment to discuss your situation further.
Kevin Cooper, MBA, is a practice broker at American Practice Consultants and a member of ADS Transitions.
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