Should I sell the bar to the guy who's been coming for 20 years or list it properly?
me (57F), own a small-town bar, divorced, kids grown and gone. i've had it 19 years and my knees are done. i'm selling either way, that part's decided. one of my regulars (49M) has been coming since before i owned it. he's offered 140. he'd keep the name, keep my two bartenders, keep tuesday karaoke. he's not a business guy, he manages a parts warehouse. he'd be taking on something he's never done with money he's been saving for a boat. a broker says listed properly i'd get 190 to 210, probably to somebody who'd turn it into a sports bar or gut it. that's 60 grand of difference and i don't have a pension. the thing i keep chewing on is if it goes to a stranger and closes in two years, that's just what happens to bars. if it goes to him and closes in two years, he lost his savings and i'm the one who let him.
What People Are Saying
60k is your knees, your rent, and your not-working-at-70. sell it to him at 140 and you're subsidizing his dream with your retirement.
I sold half my land to a neighbor under market because he was a good man. He was a good man. I still think about that money every winter.
He's a warehouse manager with boat money. That is not enough capital for a bar's bad winter and you already know it. Kindness that ends with him broke isn't kindness.
whoever buys it is gonna change tuesday karaoke within a year either way. sorry.
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@garyh_brewsit+148
middle option nobody's said: list it, and tell him the number. if he wants it he can match or find a partner. you're not obligated to hide the market from him but you're also not obligated to eat the difference
@tammysue_karaoke
the tell him the number thing is what i'll do. i think i wanted permission to not just hand it over.