When you sell a net-lease property, you've really got two choices: list it with a broker, or sell it directly to a buyer. People overcomplicate this. It comes down to a trade between price and certainty, and which one matters more for your situation.
Here's the honest comparison.
Listing with a broker
What you get: exposure. The broker markets the property to a wide pool at once — the listing platforms, their buyer lists, their network. More buyers can mean competing offers, and competing offers can bid the price up.
What it costs you:
- A commission off your proceeds at closing, usually a few percent of the price.
- Time. Marketing, showings, offers, negotiation — a listing is a process measured in weeks or months, not days.
- Financing risk. Most listing buyers need a loan, and a loan that falls through kills the deal and sends you back to the start.
- Retrade risk. Some buyers tie up the property, then try to grind the price down during due diligence once you're committed.
Where it wins: a clean, trophy property — strong national tenant, long lease, good market. That's the kind of deal where exposure creates a real bidding war and the extra price more than covers the fee. If that's what you've got, list it. We'll tell you so.
Selling direct to a buyer
What you get: speed and certainty. You deal with one buyer, agree on a number, and close — no listing, no marketing timeline, no commission off your side.
What it costs you: the bidding war. One buyer instead of many means you're not getting competing offers pushing the price up. You're trading some potential top-end price for a faster, surer close.
What makes it work (or not): the buyer. With one buyer, who they are is everything. A good one pays a fair, real number, closes on their own cash without a financing contingency, and holds the price they signed. A bad one lowballs you, can't actually perform, or retrades you at the end. The buyer's track record is what protects you — do they close, do they keep their word.
Where it wins: most everything that isn't a trophy. A smaller deal, a messy one (short lease, tough tenant, an environmental question), an inherited property you just want off your plate, or any situation where being done — cleanly and soon — is worth more to you than squeezing the last dollar.
The honest way to decide
Ask yourself three questions:
- Is my property a bidding-war property? Strong national tenant, long lease, clean deal, good market → a listing's exposure can pay for itself. Short lease, local tenant, smaller price, or any hair on it → exposure won't manufacture a bidding war; it just announces you're selling. Sell direct.
- What do I value more — the last dollar, or certainty and speed? If you'll trade some top-end price to know it's done and done soon, direct wins. If you've got the time and the stomach to chase the highest possible number, a listing's worth a look.
- Do I already have a credible buyer? If a direct buyer will pay a fair number and close, paying a commission to "find" buyers is paying for something you already have.
There's no universally right answer. A pristine Walgreens with twelve years left probably belongs on the open market. An inherited tire store with three years left, two states away, belongs with a direct buyer. Most deals aren't at either extreme — but those three questions will tell you which way yours leans.
Where we fit
We're the direct buyer. We buy single-tenant net-lease property with our own cash — no financing contingency, no commission off your side, and we close at the number we agree to. We're built for the deals where certainty beats the bidding war, and we're honest about the ones that aren't: if you'd genuinely do better listing it, we'll say so.
Send us the basics — tenant, location, current rent, and years left on the lease — and we'll give you a real number, usually within a few days. Then you can decide. Tell us about your property.
Want the deeper version of the money side? See selling without a broker — what it costs you, and what it doesn't.