I recently meet with a potential client who was looking at purchasing an existing franchise business. The purchase price in my mind was too much for what they would be getting for their money.
But I have also seen it the other way around. I have seen a purchaser who was in preparation of making an offer that would never be accepted.
In both cases after the initial discussions, I offer to be part of the discussion of a reasonable final price. Neither accepted, the franchise purchaser chose to not buy the practice and is evaluation starting up a similar business. The second client tweaked the offer after our discussion and made the offer and was turned down.
In this case the buyer had not had the discussion with the seller about price expectations. If they had, the buyer would have had some idea of what the seller was looking for and could have addressed any shortage in the proposal. Explaining why the buyer thought the price should be less than the asking price.
The reason for including my presence into those discussions is to assist my client and approach the situation with no emotional needs or desires. I can remain impartial and ask the difficult questions or make the obvious statements as to value.
But all purchase decisions need to be made with the idea that there will be need filled and that there will be a return on the investment.