Q: I thought business brokers work like real estate agents and gladly share and cooperate with listings. I’m located in San Diego and brokers tell me they don’t work together. Any suggestions? Do I really need a business broker?

A:

Seems ridiculous I know, but not all states have shared listings between brokers.

Where I live in Florida, co-brokered deals are the norm and for the most part it leads to just one result: more business sales.

Since you won’t be able to use a single broker to access all local listings, you should contact several of them and get as many listings as possible from each to compile a solid list of prospects.

You may also want to consider making contact with the brokerages that have the most independent agents working there because they will often work together on inter-office listings.

One of the broker’s main roles is to provide you with listings. Insofar as “needing” a broker it’s always a good idea to have one to do the grunt work and chasing for you.

Many brokers have trained their customers (the sellers) not deal directly with buyers (at least at the beginning although the course shows you how to overcome this) so in the initial stages get the broker to chase the seller for information, financials and other data you may need.