Has anyone paid the $10/month for Vested Business Brokers?

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July 23, 2020

by a searcher from University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School in New York, NY, USA

Apparently they require a $10/month membership to filter out non-serious buyers. Can't tell if it's a weird money grab or a legitimate rationale. They do refund you your membership fees if you do eventually acquire a business they are representing.

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commentor profile
Reply by an intermediary
from The University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ, USA
As a licensed Business Broker for over 15 years I understand the importance of qualifying potential buyers as to their financial capabilities, experience and motivation for purchasing a business.. Charging buyers $10 a month is not a great way to do this as it would turn off a great deal of legitimate buyers and all it will really tell you about the person is that they have $10.

The only argument I could make for this practice would be that obtaining credit card information could be a way to verify the identity of the person, however I doubt that is the motivation in this case and there are other more professional ways to do that but it would involve the broker getting off their butt and meeting potential buyers in person (mindful of Covid concerns currently of course).

As a buyer, what are you really getting for your $10 per month "membership"? A quick Google search pulled up the following Yelp reviews which I would take into consideration before deciding if this is the right broker for you or not. https://www.yelp.com/biz/vested-business-brokers-northport

There are good Business Brokers, bad Business Brokers and a whole bunch that are somewhere in between. It usually doesn't take very long to determine which type you are dealing with.
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Reply by a searcher
from University of Colorado at Denver in Houston, TX, USA
This is one of many examples I've seen where brokers try to get you to pay to look at their "deals". I am glad someone brought this up and I would suggest walking away from any form of this. I've even talked to some scammers that want a $4000 fee to look at their "exclusive" pocket listings. I would also say the brokers charging their clients very high up front fees and justifying these fees with unrealistic selling expectations should be avoided full stop. Talking to other searchers and intermediaries I think that these parties are widely known. Direct to owner interactions, quality brokers, and any investment banker interactions that I have had never required a 'pay to see' model. All of them have a 'vet the buyer' process and I fully support that. No reason to waste each others time.
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