“Because of what’s going on in the capital markets and with the public companies, activity begets activity,” said Mark Johnson, president of buy-sell firm MD Johnson Inc. in Enumclaw, Wash. “So when dealers see other dealers selling, it sort of gets in the back of their head, ‘What do they know I don’t know?’ Typically it’s nothing other than that seller has decided, ‘This is good timing for me,’ and other dealers are seeing the same thing.
“There’s dealers that have sold this year that I thought wouldn’t really be that interested in selling right now.”
Teddy Morse, CEO of Ed Morse Automotive Group of Delray Beach, Fla., described today’s buy-sell market as “very active.” His group this month bought four stores across Missouri and Illinois in two separate transactions.
“We get offered at least two different deals a week,” Morse said. “Some of them are single-point stores, some are groups. And the vast majority we say no to because it doesn’t fit our business model for one reason or another.”
