Alysha Webb, Editor and Publisher
Succession and real estate valuation. Not quite as inevitable as death and taxes, but issues many dealers will face in their lifetime. This issue looks at both.
After the bombshell news of Warren Buffett’s purchase of Van Tuyl, it might seem that family-owned automotive groups are falling by the wayside, but there are still many family-owned dealership groups in the United States. Sometimes a family-owned dealership group is acquired by another family-owned group, as is the case in the Bergstrom Automotive Group acquisition featured in this week’s Transaction News.
Sometimes these sales are a choice, sometimes they are a necessity. Who will run the family business after the current generation of managers retires is not infrequently the issue that forces the sale.
In this week’s issue automotive consultant Don Ray lays out the questions you need to ask long before succession becomes the issue driving a sale. As he points out, none of the issues are intractable, but they do require commitment to resolve.
If you are selling, and you own the property your dealership sits on, you might think that because your business is good the value of the real estate has increased in value along with your sales. Not so, Brad Carter of Greystone Valuation Services explains in this issue. Booming sales can help boost the real estate value as they indicate the location is a good one for selling cars, but the overall health of the real estate market also plays an important role in the valuation, he explains.
Enjoy.
