Selling a veterinary practice: questions owners ask

Decide which kind of buyer you want, have your books recast the way that buyer will read them, and leave time for the regulatory transfers. A sale to another veterinarian and a sale to a corporate group follow the same broad order: a valuation, a letter of intent, due diligence and closing, with permits and registrations handled along the way. The valuation starts from your tax returns, which Simmons & Associates appraisers describe recasting so that a fair-market owner salary and rent count as operating costs.

With a corporate buyer, attorneys Peter H. Tanella and Eileen R. Funnell of Mandelbaum Barrett wrote in December 2023 that sellers typically sign a nonbinding letter of intent whose only potentially binding term is often an exclusivity period. In 2024 they wrote that a consolidator's due diligence typically involves a quality-of-earnings analysis by the buyer's accountants and requests for financial statements, receivables, payables and inventory reports, and tax returns.

Some steps belong to regulators. A DEA registration cannot be assigned or transferred to a buyer without DEA's written consent (21 CFR 1301.52), and in California a premises registration is nontransferable and the Veterinary Medical Board must be told within 30 days of a change of owner (Bus. and Prof. Code 4853(f)).

How to sell a veterinary practice, step by step

Individual veterinarians, including associates already working in the practice, and corporate groups. VetFirm Sales is not one of them: it does not buy practices. Simmons & Associates, a veterinary appraisal and brokerage firm, wrote in mid-2024 that practices selling to private veterinarian buyers generally gross $800,000 to $1.5 million with one to two full-time-equivalent (FTE) veterinarians, and that the ideal practice for a corporate investor grosses over $1.5 million with at least three FTE veterinarians in a desirable suburban area.

Interest from inside the profession is real. In AVMA survey data published in 2022, 35% of veterinarians who did not own a practice said they wanted to buy or co-own one, including 36% of associates.

Several large corporate groups describe their networks publicly. Mars Veterinary Health's website names Banfield Pet Hospital, VCA Animal Hospitals and BluePearl among its practices, and says BluePearl has over 100 specialty and emergency hospitals. National Veterinary Associates describes 1,000 general practice hospitals and, under its Ethos Veterinary Health brand, more than 140 specialty and emergency hospitals; FTC documents identify JAB Consumer Partners, which the FTC called a private equity firm, as its parent. Southern Veterinary Partners and Mission Veterinary Partners, which merged in late 2024, announced in July 2025 that they had joined together as Mission Pet Health.

Corporations are still buying, at lower prices than at the peak. Brakke Consulting senior consultant John Volk told the VMX 2026 conference that the volume and valuation of practice acquisitions have declined as higher interest rates raise deal costs, and that large practices remain attractive to consolidators.

Selling a veterinary practice to a corporate buyer

Months at the least, and for a one- or two-doctor practice selling to another veterinarian, possibly years. AAHA's Trends magazine reported in July 2024 that many owners start thinking about selling too late, because finding a practitioner-buyer other than an associate can take several years and consolidators typically require sellers to keep working for years. Win Lippincott of Ackerman Group told the magazine that a sale to another practitioner is incredibly reliant on geography.

Buyers publish their own timelines, which are their claims rather than industry averages. AmeriVet, a veterinary group that acquires practices, says a sale to a consolidator takes at least six to eight months, with on average three to four months from signing the letter of intent to closing. Mission Pet Health tells sellers it typically provides a hospital valuation within 30 to 45 days of receiving the information it asks for, and that closing typically takes 90 to 120 days.

Regulators add their own notice periods. DEA rules call for written notice to the local Special Agent in Charge at least 14 days before controlled substances transfer to a buyer, unless that office waives it (21 CFR 1301.52(d)). North Carolina's board wants written notice at least 20 business days before a planned change of ownership, and a facility changing ownership must be inspected and approved before veterinary medicine is practiced there (21 NCAC 66 .0902(h) and .0207(b)).

The steps of a sale and how long each one takes

It depends on the practice's profit after paying a fair salary for the veterinary work you do and fair rent, and on which kind of buyer you sell to. BizBuySell, the business-for-sale marketplace, publishes asking-price data for veterinary listings but no free, public sold-price benchmark for veterinary practices.

The asking figures are worth knowing for what they are. On October 27, 2026, the 56 listings BizBuySell analyzed in its Veterinary Practices category had a median asking price of $1,040,000, with the middle half asking between $700,000 and $1,666,000. Those are asking prices of practices for sale that day, some of which may include real estate, and BizBuySell says listing multiples generally run higher than those of businesses that actually sold.

Firms that appraise and sell veterinary practices publish their own views. In a guide for buyers on its website, Simmons & Associates says there is no general rule of thumb, though in its view a well-managed, reasonably profitable practice grossing over $900,000 should appraise and sell for 85% to 105% of gross to a private veterinary buyer, with corporate prices far exceeding 100% of gross. That is one firm's view, and the same firm says profit and risk drive value, not gross.

One small buyer's SEC filings show what it paid. Inspire Veterinary Partners disclosed transaction values from $500,000 to about $3.11 million for the 14 hospitals it bought from January 2021 through November 2023; the five whose values included no real estate ranged from $500,000 to $1,505,000. Those were one buyer's deals, mostly small animal general practices, not a market survey.

What veterinary practices sell for: asking prices, multiples and sources

An appraiser recasts your recent tax returns into the profit a buyer would earn, then applies a multiple that reflects the practice's risk and the type of buyer. Simmons & Associates appraisers describe adjusting the owner's salary up or down to fair market and treating owner compensation and rent as operating costs. Their worked example pays the owner-doctor 22% of personal production, 3% of gross for management and rent at 8% of building value, as assumptions for one hypothetical practice, not standard rates.

Which earnings figure is used matters as much as the multiple. Seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), the figure in BizBuySell's listing data, include the owner's salary and other owner benefits. Simmons' Doyle Watson writes that many accountants and appraisers distinguish EBITDA from adjusted net cash flow, the amount an owner can take out for personal use, which Simmons likes to see around 30% of gross in a well-managed small animal practice in the Southeast. A multiple quoted on EBITDA, applied to cash flow, overstates value.

Margin moves value sharply. Simmons considers a small animal practice financially healthy at 14% to 18% adjusted profit, sees average practices at 10% to 12%, and says that, generally speaking, a practice at 7% is worth about half as much as the same practice at 14%.

If your buyer uses an SBA 7(a) loan, the lender's valuation caps the debt. Under SOP 50 10 8.1, that valuation must be prepared for the lender, by an independent, accredited appraiser when the purchase price is above $350,000, and total debt for the purchase, including any seller note not on full standby, cannot exceed it.

SDE, EBITDA and adjusted profit, with a worked example

We found no free, public sale-price dataset that answers this for veterinary practices; BizBuySell, for one, publishes veterinary asking prices but no sold-price benchmark. The ranges in print come from advisors and consultants, each tied to a date and a type of buyer, and the recent ones sit below the 2021 peak. In a 2024 presentation, law firm Mandelbaum Barrett put private (non-corporate) sale multiples in mid-2024 at 4 to 7 times EBITDA, tied to the financing private buyers can get, and corporate multiples at 7 to 15 times EBITDA in 2023, narrowing to 7 to 12 times by mid-2024.

Simmons & Associates gives similar ranges on adjusted profit as of mid-2024: 4 to 6 times for practices sold at fair market value to private veterinarian buyers, while, depending on many factors, corporations typically pay more than 8 times and as high as 13 or 14 times.

Brakke Consulting's John Volk said at VMX 2026 that 2021 was the high-water mark, when some values reached the equivalent of 18 to 20 times earnings, and that acquisition values have declined since. KPMG reported in 2023 that from the second half of 2022, single-clinic practices with two to three veterinarians generally traded at 10 to 13 times EBITDA, citing a business broker and a podcast; its 18 to 20 times figure was for platforms of 10 or more clinics in the first half of 2022, not single practices.

Two cautions. A corporate multiple describes the headline price, and AAHA's Trends magazine reported in July 2024 that sellers should expect less cash up front and more structured deals. And these multiples apply to EBITDA after a fair salary for your clinical work and fair rent, never to SDE or to the net income on your tax return.

Private and corporate multiples, by source and date

Steady profit, associates who stay and clients loyal to the practice rather than to you raise it. Simmons & Associates appraisers say buyers pay for income rather than equipment, so extra or very expensive equipment does not add value, and that a multi-doctor practice whose associates stay after the sale is worth more than a solo practice whose seller leaves at closing.

Size and doctor count decide which buyers look. Mandelbaum Barrett's 2024 presentation described the average corporate target as three or more doctors grossing $1.5 million or more, and said practices with specialty services or emergency care have higher demand. Simmons calls salability fragile for practices grossing under $700,000, in rural locations and for large-animal or mixed-animal practices, though the same firm describes mergers and partnership buy-ins as exits for them.

Dependence on you lowers it. At the 2022 AAEP Convention, Dr. Andrew Clark listed risk factors that lower an equine practice's value to corporate buyers, including client loyalty to the owner rather than the practice, no identified successor veterinarian, poor financial policies and high accounts receivable, and inadequate inventory management.

Receivables need a plan either way. Attorney Peter H. Tanella of Mandelbaum Barrett wrote in 2021 that the most common approaches are that you keep them and the buyer collects them as a courtesy or for a fee, you collect and keep them, or the buyer pays a negotiated amount and collects them after closing. That matters most in equine, large-animal and mixed practices that bill clients.

What moves a veterinary practice up or down the range

No, and corporate buyers often will not buy it. Simmons & Associates says that when the selling veterinarian owns the real estate it is typically sold with the practice in a private sale, while corporate investors typically do not buy it. Mandelbaum Barrett's 2024 presentation said most corporate buyers do not buy the real estate and require a fair-market lease, confirmed by a rent appraisal, whose rent is deducted from EBITDA.

Many owners already hold the building separately. In the AVMA's 2024 Veterinary Practice Owners Survey, 54.9% of responding owners held the practice in one legal entity and the land and buildings in another, and 19.3% held the practice, land and building in one entity.

If you keep the building, the rent in the lease changes the practice price: a higher rent lowers EBITDA and therefore what a buyer pays for the practice. Simmons' Doyle Watson puts a fair-market return at about 7% to 10% of the property's value under a triple-net, arm's-length lease, and Mandelbaum Barrett's deck corrects EBITDA for market rent of 8% to 10% of building value.

Keeping it can be part of a corporate deal. When Heartland Veterinary Partners acquired Family Vet Group, a multi-site group, in 2022, the sellers' family ownership group kept the practices' real estate and agreed to act as Heartland's real estate partner. If a buyer uses an SBA 7(a) loan that also buys the building, only the real estate portion may run longer than 10 years, up to 25.

Cash at closing is usually only part of it; the rest tends to come as equity, notes or earn-outs, with an agreement that you keep working. Attorneys Peter H. Tanella and Eileen R. Funnell of Mandelbaum Barrett wrote for Today's Veterinary Business in 2024 that corporate buyers generally no longer offer simple cash deals but a mix of cash, equity stakes, promissory notes and earn-outs. Unless you are retiring at once, they wrote, the buyer will most likely require an employment agreement setting how long you stay after closing and how many clinical hours you work, usually with a non-compete.

AAHA's Trends magazine reported in July 2024 that EBITDA multiples in the high teens were gone and that, to keep sellers working in the practice, consolidators offer earn-outs, cash plus stock in the parent company, and joint ventures in which the consolidator buys more than 51% but less than 90% of the practice. Mandelbaum Barrett's 2024 presentation said corporate buyers typically require the seller to take part of the price in rollover equity.

Public filings show the pattern. VCA's 2016 annual report shows that of the $373.0 million in total consideration for the independent animal hospitals and laboratories it bought that year (a total that leaves out its purchase of a 56-hospital chain), $9.5 million was holdbacks, typically payable within 12 months as security for the sellers' indemnification obligations, and $7.3 million was earn-outs.

The letter of intent is typically nonbinding, often except for an exclusivity period. Tanella and Funnell wrote in December 2023 that many consolidator sales are a simultaneous sign-and-close, so either side can walk away until closing day, that more buyers were walking away late in deals, and that sellers should negotiate a breakup fee.

A corporate offer, piece by piece: cash, earn-outs, equity and the work-back

Yes, and many associates say they would like to. In AVMA survey data published in 2022, 35% of veterinarians who did not own a practice said they wanted to buy or co-own one, including 36% of associates; among those not interested, the leading reasons were lack of interest in management (43%) and work-life balance (30%). Wanting to buy is not the same as being able to finance it.

SBA rules are friendlier to an associate who has been employed by the practice for at least two years. Under SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, effective October 1, 2026, a single owner selling 100% to someone employed by the practice for at least the 24 months before the application can be financed as an Existing Owner Buyout, and in an Owner Buyout the lender may reduce or eliminate the usual 10% equity requirement if the buyer has enough liquidity and working capital. The SOP says employed, so an associate paid as an independent contractor should ask the lender whether that counts.

A partial sale is another route. A 7(a) loan can fund a sale in which at least one original owner stays and guarantees the loan; you may remain as an owner or employee, and if you keep less than 20% you must give a full guaranty of the loan for at least two years after final disbursement.

Equine practice consultant Amy L. Grice, VMD, wrote in EquiManagement in January 2026 that selling to an associate is still the most common exit for small equine practices.

Selling to an associate or another veterinarian

The lender's rules set much of the structure. Under SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, effective October 1, 2026, a purchase by a buyer who was not already an owner, or who has worked at the practice fewer than 24 months, is an Initial Acquisition by default, and the buyer must inject equity of at least 10% of total project cost, which the lender cannot reduce or waive.

The lender's valuation caps the debt. It must be requested by and prepared for the lender, which may not use one prepared for you or the buyer, and above a $350,000 purchase price it must come from an independent, accredited appraiser. Total debt for the purchase, including any seller note not on full standby, cannot exceed that valuation, and any price above it must be covered by equity. In an Initial Acquisition at a price of $3 million or more, the lender also needs an independent quality-of-earnings report.

Your note and any earn-out are limited. A seller note counts toward the buyer's equity only if it is subordinated and on full standby, with no principal or interest paid for the term of the 7(a) loan, and such sources may supply no more than half of the required equity. Earn-outs are prohibited in a 7(a)-financed change of ownership.

Staying on is limited too. In an Initial Acquisition you may not remain as an officer, director, stockholder or employee, though the practice may hire you as a consultant for up to 24 months in total; the SOP does not say whether a consultant may treat patients. A partial sale is an exception.

The rules also narrow who can borrow. SOP 50 10 8.1 limits 7(a) financing to businesses whose owners are all U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals with their principal residence in the United States, and lists lawful permanent residents as ineligible. General information only; confirm the structure with the buyer's lender and your attorney.

SBA 7(a) rules, seller notes and staying on

Probably, if you sell to a corporate buyer, and your state decides how far it can reach. Attorneys Tanella and Funnell wrote in 2024 that unless you are retiring at once, a corporate buyer will most likely require an employment agreement, usually with a non-compete clause. In an asset sale, IRS Form 8594 asks whether the buyer also entered into a non-compete with the seller.

There is no federal non-compete rule. The FTC's Non-Compete Clause Rule never took effect: a federal court stopped its enforcement on August 20, 2024, the FTC took steps to dismiss its appeal on September 5, 2025, and it removed the rule from the Code of Federal Regulations effective February 12, 2026.

Several states treat a sale differently from employment. California voids most non-competes but lets an owner who sells the goodwill, or all of their ownership interest, agree not to compete where the business has been carried on (Bus. and Prof. Code 16601). In a December 2023 unpublished decision, a California appeals court affirmed a preliminary injunction keeping a veterinarian from practicing next door to the clinic she had sold to a national hospital company, because her covenant was tied directly to the sale; an unpublished decision cannot be cited as precedent in California courts. Minnesota voids employee non-competes signed on or after July 1, 2023 but still allows a reasonable one agreed during the sale of a business (Minn. Stat. 181.988).

Some states have rules for veterinarians. Maryland voids non-competes in employment contracts with licensed veterinarians and veterinary technicians (Labor and Employment 3-716), and the statute does not mention sale-of-business covenants. Utah's S.B. 111 voids veterinarian non-competes entered into on or after May 6, 2026 unless the veterinarian owns at least 5% of the business, and voids veterinarian nonsolicitation agreements from that date; Utah's sale-of-business exception does not name veterinarian non-competes, so how it treats a selling veterinarian is untested.

Rules as of October 2026. Have counsel in your state review any covenant before you sign.

The employment agreement and non-compete in a corporate deal

It depends on the state, and the answer decides which buyers can close on your practice. Texas says a corporation, partnership, trust or other entity not owned only by Texas-licensed veterinarians may not engage in veterinary medicine (Tex. Occ. Code 801.506), and that a veterinarian's services may not be controlled or exploited by a non-veterinarian who intervenes between the veterinarian and the client (801.352). New York bars any business corporation other than a professional service corporation from being organized for, licensed for or providing veterinary services (Education Law 6706).

Other states allow lay owners on conditions. Florida expressly lets a person who is not a licensed veterinarian own and operate a veterinary establishment with a premises permit and a designated supervising veterinarian (Fla. Stat. 474.215(8)). Ohio requires a separate veterinary business facility license where a for-profit entity's majority controlling interest is held by people who are not licensed veterinarians (R.C. 4741.28).

California is a split answer. A premises registrant need not be a veterinary corporation, but the premises statute does not authorize anyone other than a California-licensed veterinarian or a veterinary corporation to furnish veterinary services, and the Board must deny, suspend or revoke a premises registration if an unlicensed holder has practiced, influenced or exerted control over the provision of veterinary medicine (Bus. and Prof. Code 4853(g) and 4853.6).

One corporate buyer's filing shows how these rules shape a deal. VCA's 2016 annual report said certain states required veterinary practices to be owned by licensed veterinarians, and that it provided management and administrative services to 228 animal hospitals in 16 such states rather than owning them.

These summaries cover only the states named, as of October 2026. Confirm your state's rules with counsel before you sign with a buyer who is not a veterinarian.

Who can own a veterinary practice: state rules and what you sign

Yes, in buyer interest, in who already owns these hospitals and in antitrust review. Mandelbaum Barrett's 2024 presentation said practices with specialty services or emergency care have higher demand. In a 2018 estimate quoted in JAVMA News, a Brakke Consulting analyst put corporate ownership at 40 to 50 percent of referral practices, against about 10 percent of general companion animal practices.

FTC orders from 2022 still bind one large buyer. Under the order tied to its purchase of SAGE Veterinary Partners, JAB Consumer Partners, the parent of NVA, must for 10 years get FTC approval before buying a specialty or emergency clinic within 25 miles of its clinics in California or Texas; the order the FTC proposed that June for JAB's purchase of Ethos's parent company named California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. JAB must also give the FTC 30 days' written notice before buying such a clinic within 25 miles of any JAB clinic anywhere in the U.S., when the deal is not otherwise reportable under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. After a 2020 order, the FTC reported, NVA filed one such notice and abandoned the purchase when FTC staff raised competition concerns.

Your specialists are much of what is being bought. When Mars agreed to buy VCA in 2017, the FTC required it to sell 12 specialty and emergency clinics; its complaint said opening such a clinic requires recruiting specialist veterinarians with considerably greater training than general practice veterinarians, and the order required financial incentives for key employees to stay.

These orders apply only to the buyers named and only to specialty and emergency clinics, not general practices.

Selling an emergency or specialty hospital

Not automatically. A DEA registration ends when the registrant stops practicing and cannot be assigned or transferred to a buyer without DEA's written consent (21 CFR 1301.52), and no one required to register may handle controlled substances until DEA issues a certificate (21 CFR 1301.13), so the buyer should plan on its own registration.

If your controlled-substance stock goes with the sale, you notify the local DEA Special Agent in Charge in writing at least 14 days before the transfer, take a complete inventory on the transfer date that serves as your final inventory and the buyer's initial one, and move any Schedule I or II drugs on DEA order forms. Your records pass to the buyer that day, and you remain responsible for their accuracy before it. New Jersey adds its own written notice to the state Drug Control Unit at least 14 days ahead.

In these states the premises permit does not move with the sale. California's premises registration is nontransferable, and the Veterinary Medical Board must be notified within 30 days of a change of owner. Arizona's premises license cannot be sold or transferred, and a change of owner cancels it (A.R.S. 32-2272). Missouri requires the permit to be returned within 30 days of a change in ownership and a new permit before any veterinary services are performed (20 CSR 2270-5.011).

X-ray registrations follow state radiation rules. Ohio's are not transferable, and a new owner must apply for and receive its own. In Texas a registration cannot be transferred to a buyer without written authorization from the Department of State Health Services, and the agency should be contacted about an ownership change.

Rules as of October 2026. Confirm the DEA, state controlled-substance, premises and X-ray steps with counsel and each agency.

DEA, premises permit and X-ray items in the due diligence checklist

Your state's veterinary rules decide who owns the records, how long they are kept and what clients must be told. Ohio's board rule says medical records and radiographs are the property of the practice that prepared them and must be kept at least three years after the last visit (Ohio Adm. Code 4741-1-21). Kentucky takes a different approach: the information belongs to the client, the practice is the official custodian, and originals are kept five years after the last patient encounter (KRS 321.187).

Some states require notice to clients. Pennsylvania requires written notice at least 30 days before a planned retirement or practice closing, including how to get records and any buyer's name and contact details; if no notice was given, the successor must notify clients within 60 days of taking over (49 Pa. Code 31.22(10)). Florida requires a records owner who is terminating practice, retiring or relocating and is no longer available to patients to notify clients by newspaper advertisement or in writing, offer copies, and tell the board who the new records owner is (Fla. Stat. 474.2165).

Records ownership can turn on your contracts. Florida's definition of records owner includes a veterinarian's employer when the employment contract designates the employer as records owner, so check what your associates' agreements say.

The veterinarian-client-patient relationship is tied to a veterinarian. The federal definition FDA uses for extralabel drug use requires a veterinarian who has recently seen and is personally acquainted with the animal's keeping and care, and Kentucky lets the relationship extend to another Kentucky-licensed veterinarian employed in the same registered facility who knows the case from the medical record (KRS 321.185). Neither says what happens to existing relationships when ownership changes, so ask counsel before you assume they carry over.

Rules as of October 2026; they cover only the states named.

Medical records and client notices when you sell

Buyers want your team to stay, and some make it a condition of closing. Simmons & Associates appraisers say a multi-doctor practice whose associates remain after the sale is worth more than a solo practice whose seller leaves at closing. AmeriVet, a group that acquires practices, says its closing conditions can include staff committing in writing to stay, and Mandelbaum Barrett's 2024 presentation told sellers to expect long-term employment agreements for both the seller and associates.

Whether your associates' non-competes hold depends on the state. Maryland voids non-competes in employment contracts with licensed veterinarians and veterinary technicians, though not agreements about taking or using client lists. Utah voids veterinarian non-compete agreements entered into on or after May 6, 2026 unless the veterinarian owns at least 5% of the business, and voids veterinarian nonsolicitation agreements from the same date. California voids any non-compete clause in an employment contract that does not meet a statutory exception, no matter how narrowly tailored (Bus. and Prof. Code 16600).

Rules as of October 2026. Have counsel review your associate agreements before a buyer does.

Associate and staff records a buyer asks for

Each part of the price can be taxed differently, so work out with your CPA how the price should be split among the practice's assets before you sign a letter of intent. The IRS says a business sale is usually treated as a sale of each asset separately, while an owner who sells the stock of a corporation usually realizes capital gain or loss. This is general information, not tax advice.

In an asset sale, you and the buyer generally both file Form 8594. It allocates the price class by class, and goodwill and going concern value receive whatever is left after the other assets are assigned no more than their fair market value. The buyer amortizes purchased goodwill and a covenant not to compete over 15 years.

Gain on depreciated equipment, such as digital radiography, anesthesia machines or an in-house lab analyzer, is ordinary income up to the depreciation allowed or allowable on it, not capital gain. If part of the price is paid in later years, for example under a seller note, depreciation recapture, including section 179 recapture, must still be reported in full in the year of sale.

Who owns the goodwill can depend on agreements you signed with your own corporation. In Howard v. United States (9th Cir. 2011, an unpublished memorandum), a dentist who practiced through his own professional corporation under an employment contract and a non-compete with it could not treat the goodwill from his sale as a personal asset. We found no veterinary case on the point; whether it applies to your practice is a question for your CPA and attorney.

The tax questions to take to your CPA

Financial statements and tax returns that agree with each other, practice-management software reports that match them, the licenses, permits and contracts a buyer will review, and a complete controlled-substance file. Attorneys Tanella and Funnell wrote in 2024 that a consolidator's due diligence typically involves a quality-of-earnings analysis by the buyer's accountants and requests for historical financial statements, cash-flow breakdowns, detailed revenue and expense data, receivables, payables and inventory reports, and business tax returns, along with corporate documents, licenses, permits, contracts, pending legal matters, insurance policies and employee benefit plans.

An SBA-financed buyer's lender will test your earnings. Under SOP 50 10 8.1, an Initial Acquisition must meet a debt service coverage ratio of at least 1.25 to 1, measured on the last fiscal year-end or an average of the last two, and at a price of $3 million or more an independent quality-of-earnings report is required.

State how you count active clients. Practices define the term differently: in a 2015 dvm360 article, the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association's executive director called a transaction in the last 12 months the industry standard, while most respondents to a small member survey had extended the window to 18 months or longer. Give the definition with the number.

Keep the controlled-substance file and the lease in order. DEA requires every required inventory and record to be kept at least two years and available for inspection (21 CFR 1304.04), and AmeriVet, a buyer, says its closing conditions can include bringing the lease up to date.

The veterinary practice due diligence checklist

VetFirm Sales does not buy veterinary practices, and a valuation here is free. Requesting one is confidential and does not list your practice or commit you to anything. VetFirmSales.com is operated by a non-licensed entity and is an affiliate of Wraith Brokerage, LLC.

After you send the request, someone follows up to understand what a form cannot show, such as how much of the medicine you produce yourself, your associates and staff, your lease and your equipment. If you only want a rough range for now, the estimator on the valuation page gives one from your revenue and earnings.

Neither replaces the valuation an SBA lender needs if your buyer uses a 7(a) loan. Under SOP 50 10 8.1, effective October 1, 2026, that valuation must be prepared for the lender, which may not use one prepared for you, and above a $350,000 purchase price it must come from an independent, accredited appraiser.

Estimate a range for your practice