Selling the CPA firm..

Thank you all for the deep insights and chuckles over the years..

Just seeing for those who sold or helped clients sell their firm if it's wiser to sell to a national chain (ie H&R block) vs a boutique/private firm. I gather the multiple (maybe fractional given these times) would be the same regardless?

My three major concerns are:

I'd rather a quick sale as I've read of some horror stories of sales to dreamy-eyed buyers who prefer earnings' based or installment transitions where my talent is heavily relied on for a year+, only the protraction causes them (usually W2'ed finance folks without any accounting knowledge) to realize how much work it takes to be an entrepreneur and they null the deal. Do larger chains (ie HR Block) generally put larger upfront payments and thus foster a quicker/cleaner sale? I'm willing to take less in total sales price in order to close the sale quickly.

Is the non-compete clause still the general default of 3 years and does this vary by buyer size? How negotiable is this?

I assume a lawyer is needed on my end? The larger chains' offering materials seem to have a streamlined process that may negate this and help save some fees. Thank you.

I'm certain that many practitioners on this site would be interested in purchasing your practice. That said a bit more information would be required to see if any interest wanes?

For example where are you located, how many returns do you prepare and types of returns, are you also selling accounting clients, assets, furniture & fixtures, what software do you use, as a CPA wouldn't you want your clients to be serviced by another professional and not H & R Block, terms and pricing?

This is a good beginning but of course there's more.

I'm an EA. I sold my bookkeeping & tax practice in 2016. I used a nationally known broker that specializes in accounting practices. It was somewhat of a unique sale in that I was keeping part of the biz. I did (and still do) sub-work for a CPA. That CPA had no interest in buying my book of business which was fine. The sub-work was about 30% of the practice. Obviously, the sub-work could not be sold to another practice. There was also one weekly, go to his office client that was about 10% of the gross receipts. The weekly client, I was paid for over six months. The rest was a single payment at time of sale.

Following are my comments regarding the sale
1) I'm really glad that I used the business broker. While he took 10%, I believe it was money well spent. The main thing is that he handled the sale listing. This brought many more potential buyers.
2) I would never sell a business on installment. While you would probably get more money on an installment sale, you're counting on their ability to run the business and maintain/keep the clients to get paid. If they run off the clients, you have nothing left to foreclose on. Gosh, I'm glad I did that!
3) Properly vet the buyer. Do they have adequate/appropriate staff already on hand to handle your business? Try to get some specifics. If your clients know how to contact you (socially, Facebook, cell phone) and the buyer drops the ball, your life will be miserable for a couple of years
4) Since I was going to continue working for the CPA, I didn't have a non-compete. I did however have a 24 month non-solicitation that only said that I would not solicit my old clients, any of his clients, or his staff

My buyer completely dropped the ball and only contacted a few of the clients. Within a year, he had lost all of them. I had been working 60-70 hours per week. I later found out that he and his partner were splitting and the people he told me would be handling my clients were retained by the other partner. He didn't have adequate staff to handle his existing work much less my clients. Because he didn't do the work, he lost all the clients within a year. My cell phone rang off the hook with complaints! The only thing good I can say about him was that his check cleared!

I would not overlook selling to a large Regional CPA firm - who is interested in setting up an associate office as your Practice. They have the cash to pay well and have the trained staff to serve your client base.
That's what I did and it worked out very well.
I solicited them and they responded positively to the idea.