Complaint Review: Sunbelt Business Advisors

Sunbelt on Vancouver Island is part of the same group. They have a track record of lies, scams and then use legal sounding threats to try and scare poorer people not to take them to court. If that does not work they try to hide behind their phony churchy type words. Beware when dealing with this guy and their firm for even the head boss from the USA from what I was told will not even get involved to find the truth and deal with this character. Its all about them, regardless of the smoke and mirrors they use. Very unethical person who always has an excuse or a reason to try and shift the blame to another. Is not man enough to step to the plate and admit his faults let alone change them to be the person he claims to be.

I believe you are mistaking our "Sunbelt" from the "Sun Belt in Canada."  It is not the same organization and our people work with high integrity.  People can make accusations but there's always 2 sides to a story.

Maybe all Sun Belt owners are not crooked but I know of one From Vancouver Island Bc who liedd cheated and manipulated and people. He purchased another business and after many failed promises chose to walk away. They also failed to honour at least other contract than i know about.

I'm sorry for "S"'s bad experience with one of the sunbelt offices, but please don't tarnish everyone else who does business brokering. Several things needs to be said: Sunbelt's claim of 365 offices represents, insofar as I know, franchise offices sold. Not all may have been opened. I know of one owner who bought multiple territories, has opened two, and has rights to others that he has yet to open. So we need to be clear on that.

More to the point, Mr. S. you must understand what is the basic function of a business broker. We bring businesses to market. In doing so, at some point the owner is going to render to a qualified (viable, legitimately interested) buyer the innermost secrets of the business, down to its tax returns filings, its personnel information, etc. If you owned a business and "just anyone" came up to you and said I'd like to buy your business, let me see everything, and you hadn't yet "qualified" that buyer as someone legitimately interested and financially able to meet your price, wouldn't you send him off packing with an earful? Of course.

What we are charged to do for the people we represent is to look behind the putative buyer. I've seen many people interested in million dollar businesses who have $25,000 to their name. That's not going to get a business sold. I've heard of others who are competitors of the listed businesses who are interested only in knowing about their competition, and I've even heard of competitors coming into businesses for sale and actually enticing away key employees, and then not buiying the company after virtually decimating it.

We're not private investigators, but we are charged with a duty of finding out about the person who presents himself as a prospective buyer in order to give our client - the seller - enough information to judge whether he/she wants us to work with that prospect. In 11 years, I've had more than a handful of sellers say to me that they feel the buyer is not legit and ordered us not to work with him or her. It doesn't happen often, but it happens.

In the same time frame, I've seen literally manifold dozens of people seek information on businesses that they couldn't possibly (a) afford, (b) qualify for funding, or (c) operate capably, even if affordable, for lack of experience in the industry. Since perhaps up to 80 to 90 percent of businesses privately sold in the U.S. have some form of seller-financing involved, sellers want to know that someone capable is taking the business over - and that usually means industry-experience, good credit, and solid collateral - if they are going to risk the value of their take-back note. Heck, I've even seen employees buy a business and, despite their experience, they've run it into the ground, declared bankruptcy, and the owner lost his/her note.

So what we do, and how we do it, is important in the commercial world. And it is deeply important that we, the broker, get to know enough about a prospective buyer to give our seller some sensible information on which the seller can make his or her judgment.

How each broker goes about the job is a different matter. My particular office doesn't mandate a social security number at the beginning of the process, but we do advise that at some point in time, as the seller's rep, we will be required to get even that information - usually when an offer is submitted, contingently or absolutely; and I think you would agree that at that point the seller is entitled to know as much about the buyer as the buyer gets to know about the seller's business.

Yet I don't blame the particular broker of whom you complained. If that's the practice of that office, so be it ... there may be a justifiable reason for it -- perhaps that office was "burned" by a buyer previously and wants to avoid a repeat. We are, after all, creatures of our experiences, and a broker's principal responsibility is to his/her seller. If a seller requires us to get an SS number, even if it goes against our grain, we are duty-bound to do so if we want to stay on the listing. The situation raised may therefore not even be of the broker's making!

I've no comment on Mr. S's remarks about Ed Pendarvis. Nine lawsuits doesn't mean that any of them had any legitimacy at all. If you find a different scenario, then perhaps you may comment on him personally, but even then Mr. Pendarvis's history is more than just debts, and who knows what the claims are for? I know Ed Pendarvis to be a terrific person.

But as for the underlying complaint against the broker involved - please don't put a taint on all business brokers, Mr. S., or particularly on all Sunbelt brokers, because of the experience you had ... it's not fair!

I'm sorry for "S"'s bad experience with one of the sunbelt offices, but please don't tarnish everyone else who does business brokering. Several things needs to be said: Sunbelt's claim of 365 offices represents, insofar as I know, franchise offices sold. Not all may have been opened. I know of one owner who bought multiple territories, has opened two, and has rights to others that he has yet to open. So we need to be clear on that.

More to the point, Mr. S. you must understand what is the basic function of a business broker. We bring businesses to market. In doing so, at some point the owner is going to render to a qualified (viable, legitimately interested) buyer the innermost secrets of the business, down to its tax returns filings, its personnel information, etc. If you owned a business and "just anyone" came up to you and said I'd like to buy your business, let me see everything, and you hadn't yet "qualified" that buyer as someone legitimately interested and financially able to meet your price, wouldn't you send him off packing with an earful? Of course.

What we are charged to do for the people we represent is to look behind the putative buyer. I've seen many people interested in million dollar businesses who have $25,000 to their name. That's not going to get a business sold. I've heard of others who are competitors of the listed businesses who are interested only in knowing about their competition, and I've even heard of competitors coming into businesses for sale and actually enticing away key employees, and then not buiying the company after virtually decimating it.

We're not private investigators, but we are charged with a duty of finding out about the person who presents himself as a prospective buyer in order to give our client - the seller - enough information to judge whether he/she wants us to work with that prospect. In 11 years, I've had more than a handful of sellers say to me that they feel the buyer is not legit and ordered us not to work with him or her. It doesn't happen often, but it happens.

In the same time frame, I've seen literally manifold dozens of people seek information on businesses that they couldn't possibly (a) afford, (b) qualify for funding, or (c) operate capably, even if affordable, for lack of experience in the industry. Since perhaps up to 80 to 90 percent of businesses privately sold in the U.S. have some form of seller-financing involved, sellers want to know that someone capable is taking the business over - and that usually means industry-experience, good credit, and solid collateral - if they are going to risk the value of their take-back note. Heck, I've even seen employees buy a business and, despite their experience, they've run it into the ground, declared bankruptcy, and the owner lost his/her note.

So what we do, and how we do it, is important in the commercial world. And it is deeply important that we, the broker, get to know enough about a prospective buyer to give our seller some sensible information on which the seller can make his or her judgment.

How each broker goes about the job is a different matter. My particular office doesn't mandate a social security number at the beginning of the process, but we do advise that at some point in time, as the seller's rep, we will be required to get even that information - usually when an offer is submitted, contingently or absolutely; and I think you would agree that at that point the seller is entitled to know as much about the buyer as the buyer gets to know about the seller's business.

Yet I don't blame the particular broker of whom you complained. If that's the practice of that office, so be it ... there may be a justifiable reason for it -- perhaps that office was "burned" by a buyer previously and wants to avoid a repeat. We are, after all, creatures of our experiences, and a broker's principal responsibility is to his/her seller. If a seller requires us to get an SS number, even if it goes against our grain, we are duty-bound to do so if we want to stay on the listing. The situation raised may therefore not even be of the broker's making!

I've no comment on Mr. S's remarks about Ed Pendarvis. Nine lawsuits doesn't mean that any of them had any legitimacy at all. If you find a different scenario, then perhaps you may comment on him personally, but even then Mr. Pendarvis's history is more than just debts, and who knows what the claims are for? I know Ed Pendarvis to be a terrific person.

But as for the underlying complaint against the broker involved - please don't put a taint on all business brokers, Mr. S., or particularly on all Sunbelt brokers, because of the experience you had ... it's not fair!

I represent one of the franchised offices of Sunbelt. The core of our business is helping sellers sell their business in a strictly confidential manner and help "qualified" buyers with buying the ideal businesses for them.

We do not request social security numbers as you indicated in your complaint. We do need to know that you are a qualified and capable buyer, hence our need to understand some of your personal and business information. Buying a business is the most complex process an individual can undergo unlike a buying a house. We simplify that whole process and it starts with working with a buyer interested in our businesses that have the capability to finish the transaction if indeed it is a business that matched what they were looking for.

As far as your comments to an individual at Sunbelt, it is just that - an individual situation. Are you saying that Toyota is a bad company just because of one of their executives cannot handle their personal financial concerns? Your comments are not reflective of the high quality of service we provide.

Sunbelt is represented by almost 1400 individuals who have the utmost integrity in servicing our clients and providing what we say we will do.

If you were an insider to Sunbelt you would have the ability to comprehend and appreciate our position.

We have a simple "road map" to help you navigate your business buying pursuits. It is readily available on our website and it shows you how we work and how we maintain the service level for our sellers and buyers.

Feel free to call me at 614-734-8338 if you need further clarification on our process and if we can help you get back on track in understanding our service and get you the business that you want.

Emmet Apolinario
Sunbelt Franchisee