Financing the Sale of a Dental Practice

Ideally, a practice seller will be paid in cash at closing.  The good news is that full outside financing ought to be available in most cases.  The exceptions tend to be when the purchase price is substantial and/or where the buyer is a recent graduate with little or no work experience.  In any case, the buy-sell documents ought to provide that purchase price will be paid in cash.

Sometimes, the junior doctor can obtain most, but not all, of the purchase price from an outside lender.  In these cases, we recommend to our Dr. Seller clients that they provide the remainder of the financing.  This is fair.  The good news is that defaults on dental practice loans is extremely rare (well below 1%), which is why the specialty dental lenders continue to make loans to purchasing doctors.  This low default among dentists rate makes sense.  Most every dentist is a good person, a dedicated student and a hard worker.  People with these traits tend to succeed and are able to meet their obligations.