Turnkey Ready, the seller badge

This is educational. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it is not a certification from SBA, SCORE, or any state.

Turnkey Ready is a badge NewHands puts on a listing. It is not the name of the marketplace, and it is not a government program. A listing is certified only when the seller marks all three criteria: verified financials, a clean diligence file, and a transition plan. Miss one and the badge stays off. Checking the boxes records what the seller says is true. NewHands does not audit the books when the box is checked. On a sample listing the badge is part of the sample.

Verified financials means the internal statements and the tax returns tell the same story for the years a buyer will read, and the add-backs have a receipt. A lender looking at an SBA 7(a) loan will ask for that package. SBA describes the 7(a) program on its site. This page does not state a current equity-injection percentage. The SOP the lender applies is the one in force on the day of the application.

A clean diligence file is the lease, the entity papers, the licenses, and the customer list in one place, with the gaps written down. A buyer who has to hunt for the lease is not looking at a turnkey file.

A transition plan names who stays, for how long, and which jobs the owner still does. "The manager will figure it out" is not a plan. SCORE and America's SBDC are places an owner can find a mentor while they write one. They do not issue this badge.

The price a buyer pays for the business property has tax consequences. IRS Publication 544 is background on selling business property, not your return. Talk to your own tax advisor before you rely on a structure.

Buyers can filter the market to Turnkey Ready only. The field on the listing document is `turnkeyReady`, with `certified`, `verifiedFinancials`, `cleanDiligenceFile`, and `transitionPlan`. `certified` is true only when the other three are true.