How long does it take to sell a medical practice?

A PE-backed healthcare practice sale runs in five phases. Phase 1 (prep): engage a banker or advisor, build the financial package, commission a sell-side QoE, clean up legal and HR files, and normalize owner compensation; FOCUS Investment Banking usually starts its own processes with a full quality of earnings. Phase 2 (marketing): target buyer list, teasers, NDAs, management meetings. Phase 3 (bids and LOI): most FOCUS processes run two rounds of offers, short-form indications of interest to narrow the field and then letters of intent from the top parties, and the signed LOI starts an exclusive run to closing that FOCUS says is usually 90 days. Phase 4 (diligence and definitive agreements): buyer-side QoE, legal, clinical and regulatory diligence, then the purchase agreement, employment agreements, transition services, real estate and regulatory filings. Phase 5 (closing): consents, licenses, payer re-credentialing, funding and closing mechanics. Raincatcher notes that licensing transfer and payer contract assignment often set the closing date rather than the financing, so those items start early, and that multi-site groups usually take longer than a single clinic because more parties review the same records and the diligence list grows with each location. Sellers who start without prep lose time fixing issues the buyer's QoE finds during exclusivity.