Are you looking to sell your business route using Mr. Route? Learn all you need to know about this business broker in our extensive Mr. Route review.
Better Alternatives to Mr. Route
As buyers and sellers of business ourselves, we’ve had the best sale valuation and customer service from the following broker.
Overview Of Mr. Route
If you have a business that is a route based business, you can use a business broker to help you sell it. There are business brokers that specialize in selling routes and one such brokerage is Mr. Route.
Mr. Route is a business broker that specializes in the sale of routes. They have been doing this since 1984 so they have a very long track record. According to their staff, they are the original route broker in the United States.
On top of this they are a family run business for over 35 years.
In the 35 plus years they have been in business, Mr. Route has sold routes from some of the world’s most popular businesses such as:
- Snapple
- Mission
- Snyder’s of Hanover
- Wonder bread
- Arnold bread
- FedEx
- Pepperidge Farms
- Tropicana
- Bimbo
- Famous Amos
- Hostess
- Snap On
and many others….
Here’s an interesting fact, they sell more FedEx routes than any other business broker.
Since this company only deals with routes, if you are selling another type of business such as a website or ecommerce business, this would not be the business broker for you.
Types Of Businesses Mr. Route Sells
When looking at this business broker closely to complete our Mr. Route review, we looked into the types of businesses they sell.
This business broker sells a wide variety of business routes including:
- Bread
- Dry cleaning
- FedEx
- Food
- Beverage
- Snack
- Flower
This broker sells independent routes as well as protected company owned routes which have protected territories and stops.
They also sell routes that come with delivery vehicles and some that do not have vehicles.
Companies such as Snapple and other big brands sell routes because they want to hire independent route drivers (owner operators) so they don’t have to pay driver salaries, payroll taxes, maintenance on the vehicles. Mr. Route matches buyers who want a route with these opportunities.
Mr. Route helps people and companies buy and sell business routes in the midwest as well as the east coast and several southern states.
In fact, they have dedicated websites for each region. They have Mr. Route Carolinas, Mid Atlantic, Sunstates, as well as a site dedicated to Texas.
Mr. Route Valuation Process
Like most business brokers, Mr. Route will look at your business financials to help you get a true valuation of your business route.
They will need to know your “net” which is your weekly income after all expenses.
Once they gather this information they will then provide you with a free valuation of your business and let you know what it’s worth on the market.
Sales Process
Once you get your free valuation from this business broker and decide to list your route with them, they then go to work to match your business with their database of buyers. Many of these buyers are experienced route drivers who have owned routes in the past.
Once your business has an interested buyer, the potential buyer may go out with you as you make your stops to verify everything you have claimed in your listing. They may spend several days in the verification process and physically with you as you make your deliveries. This means the potential buyer will need to see all of the stops on the route, the receipts to verify revenue and verification of all expenses.
When the buyer decides to purchase, Mr. Route will help walk you through the closing process. This means they will hold your hand and make sure everything goes smoothly until you close the deal. Of course this is the benefit of using a business broker whether you’re selling a website, traditional brick and mortar business, or a delivery business. They’re there for you every step of the way.
Mr. Route Success Rates
Since this business broker has been in business since 1984, it stands to reason they have helped many people buy and sell their route businesses.
The problem is, we do not know the exact number of routes they have sold through the years. We also do not know their closure rates. The Mr. Route website does not give any of these figures and when we contacted them, they did not answer this question.
We do know that they have a long track record and as stated previously that they are the “original route broker” in the United States. This would mean then that they most likely have a decent success rate when selling routes.
Fees Charged By Mr. Route To Sell A Business
The fees charged by Mr. Route are typical of most business brokers. They do not receive any money unless they sell your route.
Their commission rates vary depending on the size of the route. For routes priced under $80,000 they get a minimum commission of $8,000. For routes valued between $80,000 to $250,000 they get 9% to 10% of the sale.
On larger routes they will typically work with the seller so the price is fair. Their goal is that everyone is satisfied, meaning the commission is not necessarily set in stone and is somewhat negotiable.
Pros And Cons Of Using Mr. Route
It’s important that we look at the pros and cons of using this business broker to see if it makes sense that you use them to sell your business route.
Pros
- Long track record (in business since 1984)
- Focused only on route sales (good if you’re looking to buy or sell a route)
- Family owned
- Great response times
Cons
- Focused only on route sales (bad if you’re looking to sell another type of business)
- Mainly sell routes for big brand companies
Conclusion And Verdict
To complete our review of Mr. Route, we will conclude by summarizing our findings.
What we like about this business broker is that they have a very long track record and a good reputation. Since 1984 they have been helping others buy and sell their business routes. This is what sets them apart from other route brokers.
Some business brokers have outdated websites. That’s not the case with Mr. Route. They have a great website. It’s very well done, modern, and easy to navigate.
We also like that the success fees charged by this route broker are negotiable and not set in stone. They also do not have long-term exclusive contracts.
We also contacted this business broker to check their response times. They responded in just over one hour which is great compared to other business brokers. This means you can be assured they will answer you when you have issues. You can also call them as they list their phone number at the very top of their website.
One of the negatives we can see is if you’re looking to sell another type of business other than a route you would not be able to use Mr. Route. That’s really not a negative but is a limit on what they do. If you’re looking to sell another type of business we would suggest using a broker such as Website Properties or Quiet Light Brokerage.
The fact is, since they specialize in selling routes, using them is better than using a traditional business broker. They have the expertise and have a database of buyers who are looking only for route businesses. You could use a traditional business broker, but it’s always better to use a specialized broker to sell a business if possible. If you wanted to sell a dental practice for example, you can use a regular business broker, or you can use a business broker that specialize in the sale of dental practices. If you wanted to sell a website or ecommerce business, you would want to use a website broker. The same applies to selling a route based business.
As we wrap up this review, we would like to give you our final verdict. After careful analysis, making contact and gathering all the information possible on this broker, we can confidentially say that if you’re looking to buy or sell a route, we would highly recommend using Mr. Route to buy or sell a business.
Watch out for route brokers. They want to grab your money. They employees are the worst people and they take your deposit even if your deal goes south and it is not your fault.
Beware, there are better brokers available and they will not take your money without getting you a route.