Valuation
An opinion of value is not a listing price, and it is not a certified appraisal unless we scope it that way. It is a private, written view of what a funded buyer could pay, and why.
Request a private opinion
Foundry’s day-to-day valuation work is an advisory opinion for owners, families, partners, and sometimes a bank that wants a broker’s view of a going concern. It is built from recast earnings, comparable closed transactions where they can be seen, and the facts of the company in front of us.
It is not, by default, a USPAP-compliant appraisal. If a court, a gift-tax filing, or an ESOP needs that product, we will say so and involve a credentialed appraiser rather than stretch a broker opinion into something it is not.
A listing price is a different document. It is a go-to-market number. We will not confuse the two to make an owner feel better in the first meeting.
When people ask for a number
Two years out, or two months. Either way, you need a range before you tell a neighbor, a child, or a competitor that you might be done.
Buy-sell agreements go quiet until someone is angry. A written recast and a range is cheaper than discovering the number in a deposition.
The company is often the largest asset and the least discussed. An opinion of value is a place to start a conversation that will happen anyway.
Someone else’s number is on the table. You need your own before you answer.
If the number is disappointing, the work is not arguing with it. The work is cleaning the books, the lease, and the owner-dependence until the number moves.
Operating company and real estate are two assets. Mixing them without saying so is how owners leave money on the table, or scare a lender.
Main-street and lower-middle-market companies are usually talked about as a multiple of seller’s discretionary earnings or of EBITDA, after a recast. The multiple is the small part. The recast is the work. What stays in as true cash. What comes out as a one-time item. What a new owner would have to pay a manager to replace you.
Asset-heavy companies, contractors with bonded work, and professional practices do not all price the same way. A multiple from a national listing mill is not a method. We would rather walk you through the arithmetic than hand you a round number that sounds expensive.
Bring three years of tax returns, the current interim, a debt schedule, a lease, and an honest list of what you run through the company. That is enough to start. We do not need a polished deck.