Information for sellers

Sellers outside the United Kingdom should see ‘Schools worldwide’

To sell your school or nursery through National SchoolTransfer (NST) we ask you, first of all, to register with us. This entails:

STAGE 1 – REGISTRATION

• Please contact us initially by telephone or email and Patrick Carter will be happy to have a chat with you. We will then send you our standard Registration Form (which asks for general details of your school). Then post it to us with a copy of your school prospectus.
  
  
• We also ask you to send us your most recently produced ‘Profit and Loss Sheet’ from your accounts. This is necessary as we use these accounts to calculate ‘Operating Profit’ – a term for which we have our own specific definition. This Operating Profit figure enables our buyers to compare like-with-like when they read our assessments, and it is used in calculating ‘Goodwill’.
  
  
• Once we have received the above information we will contact you in order to arrange to visit your school.

STAGE 2 – WE VISIT YOU

• The visit to your school to prepare the marketing assessment will then be made by Pat Carter and Andrew McEwen. All have a wide experience in education generally and specifically in assessing schools for sale… and will treat the visit with utmost discretion.
  
  
• The visit is arranged for a time that suits you – either during or out of school hours and, if the former, it might be as a prospective parent, a surveyor or similar. It is worth stressing that in ALL our dealings with you, the seller, we will deal only with you directly. We are always aware of the absolute need for confidentiality and our procedures are based on long experience in delivering it.
  
  
• From this visit we will prepare the draft marketing assessment.
  
  
• There is no charge for this visit to the school.

STAGE 3 – THE ASSESSMENT

• From the information gained on our visit, together with your registration form, prospectus and ‘Profit and Loss Sheet’ we prepare a draft ‘Assessment’.
  
  
• The Assessment (a two page document) provides buyers with sufficient marketing information to decide whether or not they wish to visit your school. It is written in such a way as to conceal your school’s identity.
  
  
• Once we have drafted the Assessment we send it to you to agree or amend it.

STAGE 4 – TARGETING BUYERS

• Once you have agreed the text of the Assessment we add your school’s details to our ‘Outline List’ (a list of all schools, nurseries etc, that are on our books for transfer). The Outline List is available to all buyers who have completed our registration process and have therefore signed a Confidentiality Agreement. We have on our books about 350 buyers who have completed our registration procedure.
  
  
• We can immediately match your school’s details against our database of registered buyers. We send a copy of the Assessment to all those buyers whose declared interests (location, type of school, price range, etc) match your school’s details.
  
  
• If, after reading the Assessment, buyers think your school may be what they are looking for, we will arrange for them to visit you.

STAGE 5 – BUYERS VISIT YOUR SCHOOL

• A buyer who has read your Assessment may want to visit your school and Patrick would telephone you to agree the details of a visit. He will give you some information about the buyer and negotiate convenient times for the visit between you and the buyer. It is only at this point that we would disclose the name and exact location of your school to the potential buyer.
  
  
• Once the visit date is agreed we ask the buyer to telephone you so that, between you, you can ‘fine tune’ the details of the visit… directions and (if during school hours) what will be the ostensible reason for their visit.
  
  
• Many sellers find it reassuring that we do not give out to a buyer any detailed financial information until after a visit has been made and the buyer is still showing an interest.

STAGE 6 – OUR AIM… A SUCCESSFUL SALE!

• If, after the visit, the buyer is keen to pursue the purchase and you are happy for them to do so, we send them financial information to support our assessment. They might wish to arrange a second visit – perhaps during school hours if their first visit was out-of-hours. Confidentiality is still maintained at this crucial stage.
  
  
• Sometimes negotiations towards a sale can encounter difficulties. Legal and property matters can often prove daunting and Pat is always on hand to assist and advise. Past sellers have told us that our sensible advice and our ability to act as a go-between has been an essential element in producing the successful outcome… a sale!

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Home Counties - Nursery, Pre Prep and Prep £1,475,000 Freehold

Northern France - Language/Activity Centre €750,000 Freehold

North of England - Empty Premises £395,000 Freehold