“Time kills deals” isn’t just something brokers say to sound seasoned — it’s a real, measurable pattern in sold transaction data. The longer a listing sits, the more buyer skepticism builds, the more the seller’s story starts to feel stale, and the more leverage shifts to whoever’s left in the negotiation. Like a dead fish it starts to stink

I looked at days-on-market across nearly 600 sold property management and service business transactions in Florida to see what actually drives a fast sale versus a slow one.

The headline number

Median days on market across the dataset was 146 days — call it right around five months from list to close. That held up remarkably consistently across deal sizes:

That’s the part worth pausing on. Deal size barely moves the needle on how long a sale takes. A $2M business and a $200K business landed in roughly the same window. If size isn’t the driver, something else is.

What actually drives days on market

In my experience running these deals, and consistent with what this data implies, the businesses that sell fast share two things: a price anchored to a defensible SDE or revenue multiple from the start, and financials clean enough that a buyer’s first round of diligence doesn’t turn up surprises.

The 90/10 reality

Roughly 90% of the buyers who inquire on any given listing aren’t going to be the eventual buyer — they’re tire-kickers, competitors doing research, or people who aren’t actually financially qualified. The 10% who are serious move fast when a listing is priced right and the numbers hold up under diligence. A long time on market isn’t usually a sign you need more buyers in the funnel; it’s usually a sign the serious 10% looked and passed, which is a pricing or documentation problem, not a marketing problem.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it typically take to sell a small business in Florida?

Across nearly 600 sold property management and service business transactions, the median time from listing to close was about five months, with relatively little variation by deal size.

Does pricing a business lower help it sell faster?

Not necessarily, and it isn’t the right lever to pull. A defensible, well-supported price at the right multiple for the business’s size and earnings quality tends to move faster than either an inflated or an underpriced listing, because it doesn’t trigger buyer skepticism or leave obvious value on the table that invites a bidding delay.

What causes a business listing to sit unsold for a long time?

The most common causes are a price that isn’t supported by the business’s SDE or documentation, financials that don’t hold up under buyer diligence, and owner dependency that makes the transition feel risky to a buyer’s lender.