Last updated: August 20, 2026
Key Takeaways for Premier Dental Sellers
- Premier practice owners usually sell once, while institutional buyers negotiate weekly, so expert sell-side representation can help balance the information gap.
- McLerran & Associates reports an approximately 85–90% transaction rate and around 30% higher valuations than owners who sell independently by running a structured, competitive process.
- The firm offers side-by-side doctor-to-doctor and DSO pathways, giving owners comparative valuations instead of a single recommended route.
- CPA-led, diligence-grade EBITDA analysis helps protect sellers from price cuts during due diligence by giving buyers numbers that hold up under review.
- Get a side-by-side valuation of your practice in both the private-buyer and DSO markets before making any transition decisions.
Understand Your Options: What a Dental Sell-Side Advisor Really Handles
A dental practice broker, or sell-side advisor, manages the full process of taking a practice to market on the owner’s behalf. This role differs from a real estate agent or general business broker because dental deals use specialized valuation methods, a unique buyer pool, and a sensitive process that can fall apart without experienced guidance.
McLerran & Associates structures every engagement around a four-part journey, where each step builds on the last.
- Understand Your Options. The firm first builds a comprehensive, CPA-led EBITDA analysis. EBITDA means earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, and institutional buyers use it to set price. The team unpacks discretionary, personal, and one-time expenses to reach true profitability. This work creates a valuation that can withstand buyer due diligence instead of one that gets pushed down later. That solid foundation supports every later step.
- Create Competition. With a defensible valuation in hand, the advisor takes the practice to a vetted pool of qualified buyers and runs a structured, auction-style process. McLerran’s DSO bid process typically generates around 10 offers within 45–60 days. That competitive tension can move both price and terms in the seller’s favor, but it depends on the credible valuation built in step one.
- Find The Right Fit. Once multiple offers arrive, the highest bidder is not always the best long-term partner. A good advisor helps the owner weigh buyer quality, post-close obligations, equity structure, and cultural fit alongside the headline price. The competition created in step two gives the seller room to focus on both economics and fit instead of accepting whatever a single buyer proposes.
- Maximize Your Outcome. After the owner selects a buyer, the advisor shifts to defending the agreed valuation, managing diligence, and keeping the deal on track. A buyer’s quality-of-earnings team will review the financials in detail. Without strong support, that review can lead to a re-trade, where the buyer lowers the price after signing a letter of intent. The advisor’s role is to prevent unnecessary concessions and guide the deal to closing.
Sell-side-only representation can reduce conflicts of interest because the advisor never represents the buyer. McLerran represents only the selling dentist, so its incentives stay aligned with the owner from the first conversation through the final wire transfer.
Create Competition: Broker Fees, Value, and Close Rates
Once you understand what a sell-side advisor does, the next step is to consider what that representation costs and what it can return. Broker fees in dental practice transactions are almost always success-based, meaning the advisor is paid only when the deal closes. Most dental practice brokers charge a commission of 8–12% of the total transaction value, paid by the seller at closing. For larger or more complex transactions, some advisors use tiered structures such as the Double Lehman scale, which charges 10% on the first $1 million of deal value and steps down to 2% above $4 million. Larger practices may work with advisors who combine a monthly retainer with a lower success fee.
The more useful question focuses on what the process can deliver, not just what the fee costs. A competitive, structured process run by an experienced dental-only advisor can add far more than the fee through higher price and stronger terms. Running an auction-style process with an M&A advisor can lift the headline price compared with accepting the first inbound offer. McLerran’s internal data indicate that clients often receive around 30% higher valuations than owners who sell on their own, which on a $3 million practice can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars above the advisory fee.
Do-it-yourself close rates can run as low as 15–20%, versus approximately 85–90% for McLerran’s structured process. That difference can make a deal four to five times more likely to actually close. A transaction that never closes produces no proceeds, so transaction rate can be as important as valuation lift when you evaluate an advisor.
Explore what a structured, competitive process could mean for your specific practice in a free, confidential discovery call.
Find The Right Fit: Comparing DSO and Private-Buyer Outcomes
The two primary transition pathways, selling to another dentist or affiliating with a dental service organization (DSO) or private equity partner, can differ in valuation method, deal structure, and post-sale obligations.
In a doctor-to-doctor sale, valuation usually ties to a percentage of collections or a multiple of seller’s discretionary earnings (SDE), which measures the total financial benefit available to a single owner-operator. Doctor-to-doctor dental practice transactions typically clear at 60–80% of annual collections, and the buyer often uses SBA or conventional financing. The process is generally simpler. Doctor-to-doctor or doctor-to-associate dental practice sales typically close in 60–120 days, and the seller usually works back only 4–8 weeks before exiting.
In a DSO affiliation, valuation shifts to a multiple of normalized EBITDA, which reflects profitability after adjusting owner compensation to a market-rate salary and removing non-recurring expenses. Valuation multiples for dental practices in the small to mid-market segment currently range from 5 to 9 times EBITDA, a range that has remained relatively stable for about 2 years. Larger, multi-location, or platform-fit practices can sometimes command higher multiples. DSO-eligible practices can receive higher multiples than comparable private-buyer transactions, although that premium can narrow or disappear for practices below roughly $1.2 million in collections, highly owner-dependent practices, or those outside a buyer’s clinical mix.
DSO deal structures often blend cash at close, equity, and an earnout. Many DSOs are offering 60–85% of total consideration as cash at close, with the remainder structured as rollover equity or earnout. Equity can sit at the joint-venture level, which usually pays distributions but has a lower upside, or at the holding-company level, which may not pay distributions but can grow significantly if the platform is recapitalized. As much as 40% of a DSO deal can be paid in equity rather than cash, so McLerran helps owners evaluate the DSO itself as an investment, not just as a buyer.
Post-sale obligations can also differ. DSO sales typically require a post-closing clinical employment commitment of 1–5 years, while private-buyer walk-away sales usually involve only a short transition period. Owners who want to keep practicing often find the DSO path appealing, while those seeking a clean exit may favor the private-buyer route.
Because McLerran works both pathways in roughly equal measure, it can produce a true side-by-side valuation that shows what a practice may be worth in both markets. That comparison helps the owner choose with fuller information instead of relying on guesswork.
Maximize Your Outcome: Protecting Valuation and Selecting Buyers
Valuation can quietly determine most of the economic outcome in a dental practice sale. A “free” valuation, often a quick estimate used as a marketing tool, can become the anchor that sets what the owner ultimately receives. When a buyer’s quality-of-earnings team, a group of accountants hired to verify the seller’s financials, reviews the numbers, a weak analysis can lead to a lower price. That reduction, called a re-trade, is one of the most common ways sellers lose value after signing a letter of intent.
McLerran’s approach focuses on diligence-grade work before the deal reaches the market. A CPA and deal advisor build the EBITDA analysis from the ground up, remotely accessing the practice’s management software, cross-checking data against financial statements, and unpacking each add-back, which is a legitimate expense added back to income because it will not recur under new ownership. Because this work happens early, the numbers are more likely to hold when buyers review them, and McLerran’s advisors can defend the valuation during diligence instead of giving up ground.
Buyer vetting can be just as important. Not every DSO offers the same stability or culture. Some groups that entered the market when capital was plentiful after COVID may now be undercapitalized or poorly run, which can put the equity portion of the deal, often 20–40% of total proceeds, at risk. McLerran has blacklisted DSOs known for poor post-close environments, so owners in its process see only vetted, well-backed buyers with records of satisfied sellers.
Choosing the right buyer also involves focusing on fit as well as price. McLerran’s mandate is to secure a strong financial result while finding a buyer whose strategy, support model, and culture protect the legacy, patients, and staff the owner leaves behind. That combined focus on economics and alignment can distinguish a premier sell-side advisor from a firm that simply lists practices and waits.
Broker Comparison Table for Premier Practice Owners
The table below compares four common alternatives to working with McLerran & Associates across six dimensions that often matter to premier practice owners. Transaction rate figures for DIY and industry-norm categories come from McLerran’s internal data and are supported by published broker and advisory sources.
| Dimension | DIY / FSBO | Local Generalist Broker | Multi-Vertical Advisor | McLerran & Associates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dental specialization | None | Local market only | Spread across healthcare verticals | Dental-only, national depth by specialty and region |
| Both sale pathways | No | Usually one | Sometimes | Both private-buyer and DSO, approximately 50/50 |
| Valuation quality | Buyer-set anchor | Typically weak, limited add-back analysis | Variable, not dental-specific | CPA-led, diligence-grade, holds up under buyer scrutiny |
| Buyer pool and vetting | One buyer | 1–2 DSOs or small local list | Generic healthcare buyer list | Largest premier pool, poorly run DSOs blacklisted |
| Competitive tension | None | Minimal | Some | Structured auction, typically around 10 offers in 45–60 days |
| Transaction rate | ~15–20% | Below industry average | Variable | ~85–90% vs. industry norm of ~35–40% |
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do dental brokers charge?
Most dental practice brokers charge a success-based commission paid only when the transaction closes, typically in the range of 6–12% of the final sale price. The exact percentage can depend on practice size, deal complexity, and whether the advisor uses a flat percentage or a tiered structure that steps down as deal value increases. For larger practices, some advisors combine a monthly retainer with a lower success fee. The more useful consideration is what the process delivers, because a well-run competitive process can add more than the advisory cost through higher valuations, stronger terms, and a higher likelihood of closing.
What does a dental broker do?
A dental practice broker, or sell-side advisor, manages the full process of taking a practice to market on the owner’s behalf. Typical responsibilities include building a defensible valuation, preparing marketing materials, identifying and qualifying buyers, running a competitive bid process, negotiating the letter of intent and deal structure, and managing the transaction through due diligence to closing. A sell-side-only advisor, such as McLerran & Associates, represents only the seller and has no financial relationship with the buyer, which can reduce conflicts of interest that arise when one broker represents both sides.
What are the economic differences between selling to a DSO versus a private buyer?
The two pathways can differ in valuation method, deal structure, liquidity, and post-sale obligations. Doctor-to-doctor sales are often valued as a percentage of collections or a multiple of seller’s discretionary earnings, close for full cash with no performance contingencies, and involve only a brief post-sale transition. DSO affiliations use EBITDA-based multiples, which can produce higher headline valuations for practices with strong profitability, but the deal structure differs from a private-buyer sale. Instead of full cash at close, DSO deals usually blend immediate liquidity with deferred consideration and a multi-year clinical employment commitment. The after-tax, after-risk net to the seller can be higher or lower in a DSO deal depending on structure, not just the headline number. Because McLerran works both markets in roughly equal measure, it can produce a side-by-side comparison so owners decide with fuller information.
How do valuations hold up in due diligence?
Valuation integrity through due diligence can depend heavily on the quality of the analysis completed before the deal goes to market. A quick or “free” valuation that does not carefully review each add-back and normalize owner compensation can be vulnerable when a buyer’s quality-of-earnings team reviews the financials. That review often leads to a re-trade, where the buyer lowers the agreed price after the seller has already committed to the deal. McLerran’s CPA-led EBITDA analysis is built to diligence-grade standards from the start, so the numbers are more likely to hold under scrutiny and the firm’s advisors can defend the valuation during diligence.
How do I choose the right buyer for my dental practice?
Choosing the right buyer involves weighing financial strength, deal structure, post-close support, clinical autonomy, and cultural fit, not just the headline offer. For DSO deals, that process includes evaluating the buyer organization itself by asking whether the platform is profitable, whether revenue is still growing at existing locations, whether the management team is experienced, and whether the private equity sponsor is well-capitalized with a record of successful exits. McLerran vets buyers on these points and has blacklisted DSOs known for poor post-close environments, so owners in its process see only well-backed, well-run buyers. For doctor-to-doctor sales, the right buyer is usually one who is financially qualified, will preserve the practice’s goodwill and patient relationships, and will care for the staff the seller leaves behind.
Conclusion: Making a Once-in-a-Lifetime Transition Decision
Premier dental practice owners often face a once-in-a-lifetime decision while buyers negotiate deals every week. The information gap is real, the process can be fragile, and valuation can move by millions depending on who participates and how the deal is run. Professional, dental-only sell-side representation can be one of the main factors that shape the final outcome.
McLerran & Associates is sell-side only, dental-only, and national, with offices in Cleveland (led by Justin Klingshim), Atlanta (led by Matt Sutton), Northern Virginia (led by Andrew Kobylski), Los Angeles (led by Steven Au), and Phoenix covering the Mountain West (led by Brian Carroll). The firm runs both doctor-to-doctor and DSO pathways in roughly equal measure, delivers CPA-led valuations that hold up under buyer scrutiny, and creates real competition among a vetted national buyer pool. That transaction rate and the valuation premium discussed earlier reflect a process built to sell practices, not just list them.
For owners who are not yet ready to commit, the McLerran M&A Summit (October 29–30, 2026) is a PACE-accredited, no-pressure educational event designed for dentists who are still exploring options. The event features expert panels, one-on-one CPA sessions, 4 CE credits, and a complimentary practice valuation, which the firm values at $2,500.
Schedule a free, confidential discovery call to discuss your practice, your goals, and your options. Call (512) 900-7989 or email info@dentaltransitions.com.
