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Publications

What your agency is worth, and how to raise it.

Practical articles for real estate media agency owners on pricing, hiring, recurring revenue and selling. Each one opens on a real agency and a real number, and ends with what to do about it. Two new pieces a month.

A ring of golden light on navy
Strategy6 min read

Three Ways Out of the Middle

Sell now, keep going alone, or bring in an operating partner

One owner with a $35,000 to $50,000 a month book asked me in August why we didn't just buy it and write him a check. Under $300,000 in revenue that check is 45 to 60 cents on the dollar, and the last one the advisor in our group sold went at 40. The other two doors keep 100% of the company, and the difference between them is who carries the back office through a slow quarter.

  • Door one: sell now
  • Door two: keep going alone
  • Door three: bring in an operating partner
  • The four lines side by side
  • + 1 more section
  • growth-partner
  • exit
  • selling
Read
A small gold block resting on stacked blue tiers
Article10 min read

The Price Is Not the Payout

The headline number and the wire transfer are two different numbers

A $6 million offer can wire you $4.2 million on closing day, or it can wire you $2.4 million. Same business, same handshake, and $1.8 million of difference sitting in terms most sellers only read carefully after they have already accepted the price.

  • The multiple gets all the attention, and it should get some
  • The number you hear is not the number you get
  • Two numbers, not one
  • How earn-outs actually work
  • + 2 more sections
  • selling
  • deal-structure
  • exit
Read
A glass block lit from within, on a dark surface
Article10 min read

Clean Books Are Quiet Leverage

The most valuable work you will ever do on your agency is invisible until the day someone makes you an offer.

Due diligence runs $15,000 to $25,000 per brand and it is billed by the hour, so every month where the bank activity and the reported revenue do not line up is somebody's billable time. You pay for messy books twice. Once in the fees, and again in the discount a buyer puts on whatever nobody could verify.

  • Buyers price what they can verify
  • The add-backs you can't document aren't add-backs
  • What diligence actually looks at
  • Clean books change the close, not just the price
  • + 1 more section
  • selling
  • finance
  • exit
Read
A staircase of blue and gold steps leading up to a house
Article9 min read

The First Offer Is Not a Valuation

What a buyer is actually pricing when the call comes out of nowhere

A buyer offered me one million dollars for Aerial Canvas the year we did $4.3 million in revenue. Two years earlier, at $7 million, the offer had been $6.7 million. Same company, same founder. An unprepared seller lands near fifty cents on the dollar, and the work that closes the gap happens years before the call ever comes.

  • An offer prices your situation, not your business
  • The buyer had a number before they had your name
  • Why the first number tends to land near half
  • What actually creates leverage
  • + 1 more section
  • selling
  • negotiation
  • exit
Read
A marble model house on a stepped plinth
Article11 min read

What Your Agency Is Actually Worth

The number that decides your exit is not on your P&L

Run $75,000 of personal and one-time costs through a P&L built for tax season and you have not lost $75,000 of value. At a 4x multiple you have lost $300,000, and the buyer who spots it before you do has no reason to raise a hand.

  • Nobody is buying your revenue
  • The bottom line of your P&L is the wrong earnings number too
  • The four add-backs
  • What that number is worth
  • + 2 more sections
  • valuation
  • exit
  • finance
Read
Newsletter

New writing lands twice a month.

What agency owners in the group are seeing on pricing, offers, platforms and AI, with the numbers attached. Unsubscribe whenever. No pitching.

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