Buying an existing SIT STILL franchise

A transfer is an owner selling a unit that keeps operating; an exit is a unit that left the system. The ratio between them is the health of the secondary market. In SIT STILL's latest year, units left the system but none transferred — the disclosed secondary market was silent. Ask the franchisor directly how many units have resold in the last three years and at what prices; the absence of transfers is itself a data point about what you'd be able to get back out.

Two cautions. Reacquisitions (0 in fiscal 2025) are the franchisor buying units back — sometimes strategy, sometimes a rescue; ask which. And a location that has transferred repeatedly is the classic churning pattern: always ask how many owners your specific location has had, and call the previous one — former franchisees are listed in the FDD exhibits.

A new unit is a projection you stress-test. A resale has evidence — three years of a real unit's books — and the whole job is tying that evidence out. The seller's broker will hand you an “owner benefit” number; it is a marketing figure until every add-back in it has been tested against documents.

• The seller's own numbers, three ways. P&Ls, the matching tax returns, and the royalty statements the franchisor holds. Revenue on a royalty statement is revenue the seller paid a percentage on — it is the hardest number in the deal to inflate.
• Every add-back, tested. “Owner benefit” recasts the P&L by adding back the seller's salary, family wages, personal vehicle, one-time costs. Some add-backs are real; each one must survive the question “will this cost exist for me?” — a manager you must hire to replace the seller is not an add-back, it is a cost.
• Reason for sale, triangulated. Sellers retire, relocate, and burn out — and sometimes they are selling ahead of a road closure, a lease step-up, or a remodel mandate. Ask the seller, then ask neighboring franchisees, then ask the franchisor. The answers should match.
• The lease, before the LOI. You need the landlord's consent to assign, the remaining term with options, and any personal guarantee the assignment drags you into. A great unit on a two-year lease tail is a two-year business.
• The franchisor's gate. Transfers need franchisor approval, usually a transfer fee, often retraining — and frequently a remodel-to-current-image obligation that lands on the buyer. Get the franchisor's transfer conditions in writing before you price the deal; they are in the FDD and the seller's franchise agreement.
• Your agreement, not theirs. Many franchisors sign the buyer to the CURRENT franchise agreement, not the seller's — different royalty, different territory language, different renewal terms. Compare the two before assuming you are buying the seller's deal.

SBA 7(a) loans finance franchise resales routinely — often on better evidence than a new unit, because the bank underwrites real historicals instead of projections. SIT STILL's SBA cohort is too thin to publish a reliable charge-off rate, which itself is worth knowing: your lender will be underwriting the unit and you more than the brand. Price the resale against the alternative you always have: the franchisor's own Item 7 estimate of $158K–$598K to build new.

SIT STILL's full SBA loan record →

This is the deal my Deal Review was built for: three years of the seller's P&Ls tied out against tax returns and royalty statements, every add-back tested, and what the unit really clears after your debt service — not the broker's number. Start with the free call; if the deal is real, we go deep.