Among the US firms that publish anything at all, the answer runs from a flat $29 listing fee to 15% of the sale price, and which end you land on depends far more on the route you choose than on which firm inside it you pick.
The three parts of the number
The commission is a share of the final sale price. The floor is a flat minimum that replaces the percentage on a small business, and it is almost never in the headline: Empire Flippers charges a flat $10,000 on anything under $66,666.66, which on a $50,000 sale is 20%. The third part is whatever is payable before the sale, which on a marketplace is a listing fee of $25 to $100 a month and with an M&A adviser is a monthly retainer nobody publishes.
Blended is not tiered
Empire Flippers says on its own page that the commission structure is blended, meaning the rates are stacked on one another based on the value of the business. So a $2m sale does not pay 8% on the whole price; it pays the ladder, band by band. A tiered scale that applies one rate to everything produces a materially larger number, and the difference is worth asking about before you sign.
What the ones who publish nothing are likely to want
The range repeated across this trade, and quoted in Raincatcher's own selling guide, is a commission of 5% to 10% of the final sale price. That is a starting point for a question rather than a quote, and on a business under about $500,000 the minimum fee usually decides the price rather than the percentage.
Questions people ask about how much does a business broker charge
Do I pay anything if the business does not sell?
On a marketplace, yes: the listing fee is not contingent. With most brokers, no, and two of the published schemes in this record say so in terms. With an M&A adviser a monthly retainer is normal and none of the advisers read here publishes what it is.
Is the commission negotiable?
Often, on larger deals, and rarely at the published end. A marketplace rate card is a rate card; a broker quoting on a $3m business is quoting.
What is a success fee?
A fee payable only when the business actually sells, as against a retainer or listing fee that is payable regardless. Flippa states the arrangement in one line on its pricing page: the success fee is paid only when your business sells.