Guide / Sale leaseback

Selling the building your business operates from

If your company owns the building it works out of, the equity in that building is capital sitting still. A sale leaseback releases it without the operation moving a pallet, and the lease you sign is what sets the price.

Phil Maisano · 30 August 2026 · 9 minute read

By Phil Maisano Industrial Storage Brokers

The short version
  1. You sell the real estate and sign a lease back on the same day. The operation never moves.
  2. The lease is the product. Term, rent, escalations and your company's credit are what a buyer is actually pricing.
  3. A longer term at a market rent generally produces a stronger price than a short term at a low rent.
  4. You are converting an asset you control into capital plus a fixed obligation, and the obligation is real.
  5. Owner occupied industrial is the strongest candidate for this, which is why so many operating companies are sitting on more value than they think.

What it actually is

Your company owns its building and operates out of it. A sale leaseback sells the real estate to an investor and, at the same closing, signs a lease that keeps you in occupation as the tenant.

Nothing about the operation changes on the day. The trucks arrive at the same doors. What changes is that the equity that was locked in the building becomes cash on your balance sheet, and rent becomes a line in your operating costs.

For a lot of operating companies this is the largest single source of capital available to them, and most of them have never had it explained.

The lease is what you are selling

This is the part that surprises owners, and understanding it is the difference between a good outcome and an average one. A buyer is not primarily pricing your building. They are pricing the income stream your lease creates, and the building is the security behind it.

Four things drive that.

  1. Term

    How long you commit to stay. Longer terms are worth more to a buyer, because they are buying certainty. This is the single biggest lever you control.

  2. Rent against market

    Setting the rent above market inflates the income but a buyer discounts it, because they know what happens at renewal. Setting it below market lowers the price today. Honest market rent generally produces the best outcome and the fewest problems in diligence.

  3. Your company's credit

    The buyer is underwriting your business as the tenant. Financial statements, trading history and whether the lease is guaranteed all feed into what they will pay.

  4. Structure and escalations

    Triple net is the standard expectation, meaning you continue paying taxes, insurance and maintenance much as you do now as owner. Fixed annual escalations are normal and are priced.

You are not selling a building. You are selling the promise you are about to make. Which means the terms you agree to before going to market are the terms that set the number, and they are hard to improve afterwards.

Why an operating company does this

  • Capital for the business. Equipment, fleet, acquisitions, hiring, or paying down expensive debt. Money in a building earns nothing for the operation.
  • A partner buyout or an estate. One of the most common triggers, because real estate is the hardest asset to split between people who want different things.
  • Separating two businesses. Many owners run an operating company and a property company without ever deciding to. This makes the separation explicit and gives each a value.
  • Ahead of selling the company. Buyers of an operating business frequently do not want the real estate, and dealing with it separately can produce a better total outcome.
  • Certainty of occupation. Counterintuitively, a long lease you wrote yourself can be more secure than owning a building you might need to sell in a hurry.

When it is the wrong move

This section exists because a page that only sells is not worth reading, and because the wrong sale leaseback is very hard to undo.

  • You might need to leave. If the operation could outgrow or leave the building within a few years, you are signing a long obligation on a site you do not want. That is worse than owning it.
  • You do not have a use for the capital. Releasing equity to leave it in a bank account converts a controlled asset into a fixed liability for no gain.
  • The building is worth more for something else. If the site's real value is redevelopment, a sale leaseback prices it as your rent rather than as its highest and best use, and you would be selling the upside cheaply.
  • Your accounts will not support it. A buyer underwrites your company. If the business cannot show it can carry the rent, the process will find that out publicly.

Phil will tell you if you are in one of those four. He will also tell you to keep the building, which is regularly the right answer.

What Phil needs to give you a real number

Bring these

  1. 01
    The propertyAddress, size, building specification, and the site including any usable yard.
  2. 02
    What term you would signThe single biggest lever on price, and the one decision only you can make.
  3. 03
    Company financialsThe buyer underwrites your business as the tenant, so this is not optional.
  4. 04
    How the building is currently heldWhether the operating company or a separate entity owns it, and who the partners are.
  5. 05
    What the capital is forIt shapes the structure, and it is the honest test of whether this is the right move at all.

Speak to your accountant and your attorney about the tax and accounting treatment before you commit. Phil sells real estate and he is not your tax adviser, and anyone who tells you otherwise is overreaching.

When Phil is the wrong call

If the property is not industrial, office, retail or medical sale leasebacks have their own specialists and their own buyer pools.

If you want advice on the tax and accounting treatment, that is your accountant's work rather than a broker's. He will run the real estate process and expect your advisers to run theirs.

The process, in order

Seven steps, in the sequence they actually happen. Most of the value is created in the first three, before the property is ever shown.

How the sale runs

  1. 01
    Decide whether you actually want to stayThe whole structure rests on this. If the operation might leave within a few years, stop here.
  2. 02
    Establish what the capital is forA sale leaseback that funds growth or a buyout makes sense. One that funds a bank balance usually does not.
  3. 03
    Get the property valued both waysAs a building and as an income stream, because the two numbers can differ and the gap is the decision.
  4. 04
    Decide the lease term you will commit toThe single biggest lever you control on price, and the one nobody can decide for you.
  5. 05
    Set the rent honestly against marketInflating it does not fool a buyer and it creates a problem at renewal that lands on you.
  6. 06
    Prepare the company financialsThe buyer underwrites your business as the tenant, so the accounts get read carefully.
  7. 07
    Run a competitive process and closeTake it to the investors active in owner occupied industrial rather than to the first party who offers.

Read next: Buy or lease, Finding space. If you are weighing this against simply moving, read buy or lease first.

A note on numbers

Why there is no price on this page

Nothing here quotes a rent, a price or a cap rate. On a sale leaseback the number depends on your lease terms and your company's accounts, so a figure published on a website would be meaningless and an owner who anchors on one negotiates against himself. Phil concludes every valuation himself after he has seen the property.

Nothing on this page is a valuation of any specific property, legal advice or tax advice. No figure here should be applied to your asset without an inspection, and no page on this site quotes a price, a rent or a cap rate. Phil Maisano concludes every valuation himself after he has seen the site.

Straight answers

Questions owners actually ask

You sell the building your company operates from to an investor and sign a lease on the same day that keeps you in it as the tenant. The operation does not move. The equity that was tied up in the building becomes cash for the business, and rent becomes an operating cost.

Mostly by the lease you agree to sign. Term, rent against market, escalations and your company's credit are what a buyer underwrites, with the building as the security behind it. That is why the lease terms get settled before going to market rather than after.

It rarely works. Buyers know what market rent is in that submarket and they discount an inflated rent, because they can see what happens at renewal. An above market rent also becomes your problem for the whole term. Honest market rent generally produces the best price and the cleanest diligence.

There is no fixed answer, and it is the one decision that is genuinely yours. Longer terms are worth more to a buyer because they are buying certainty. The right term is the one your business can honestly commit to, because signing a term you cannot live with is how a good transaction turns into a bad one.

Then this is probably the wrong structure, and that is worth saying plainly. A sale leaseback commits you to a site. If there is a real chance of outgrowing or leaving it, you would be signing a long obligation on a building you do not want, which is worse than continuing to own it.

Yes. On a sale leaseback the buyer is underwriting your business as the tenant, so financial statements and trading history get read carefully, along with whether the lease is guaranteed. A company that cannot demonstrate it can carry the rent will find that out during the process.

Where this applies

All Florida markets →

Phil sells industrial across Florida. Open the page for your market to see what trades there and what sets the price.

Fort LauderdaleTri-county core MiamiTri-county core West Palm BeachTri-county core Pompano BeachTri-county core TampaTampa Bay OrlandoCentral Florida JacksonvilleNortheast Florida Fort MyersSouthwest Florida

Next step

Tell Phil what your business needs.

Size, yard, loading, power and the markets you are considering. He will tell you what exists, what it takes to get it, and whether buying beats leasing for you.

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