Dental practice broker fees: 5%, 8% and 10% on a $1.2M sale

What I've seen

When I sold a practice of my own, I paid a broker, an attorney and a CPA. The broker was paid a variable fee at around 7%. The CPA cost about $2,500 for a deal review and the tax implications. The attorney was $25,000 for document review and suggestions.

The broker was the biggest of the three. That is the line this article prices.

What dental practice brokers charge, and how the fee is figured

Dental practice broker fees are a percentage of the sale price, paid by the seller at closing. A Texas broker, McLerran & Associates, publishes that most 2026 commissions "fall between 6% and 12% of the final deal value, paid by the seller at closing on a success-fee basis." The American Dental Association says brokers generally charge "~10% of the value of the practice" and calls it "typically the largest cost associated with selling your practice." Student Loan Planner wrote in 2023 that brokers typically charge, "on average, 10% of the selling price."

McLerran sorts the rate by practice revenue, not by price:

The same page says the rate can sometimes be negotiated down "to 6–7% for practices over $750,000 in revenue."

Three structures change the total without changing the headline rate.

• A tiered scale. McLerran's example is a "Double Lehman": 10% on the first $1M, 8% on the second, 6% on the third, 4% on the fourth and 2% above $4M.
• A minimum. McLerran says minimum commissions of "$30,000–$50,000 are common for smaller deals".
• An upfront fee. The same site says some brokers charge a listing or marketing fee on top of the commission, so look at the total fee, not the posted rate.

A $1.2M sale at 5%, 8% and 10%

The example is a representative sale, not a client. Price is $1,200,000. It is a sale price, not collections.

The gap between 5% and 8–10% is $36,000 to $60,000. The ADA's "~10%" and Student Loan Planner's 10% land on the bottom row. My own 7% is $84,000 on this price (1,200,000 × 0.07).

Which McLerran row does a $1.2M sale sit in? Their tiers use revenue. At the 0.75× median of collections for an individual buyer of a single office in DPC's 2025 table, $1,200,000 ÷ 0.75 is about $1,600,000 in collections. That is the $1M–$2M row, 8% to 10%, the range DPC uses for a traditional fee.

Two more rows, on McLerran's published structures:

• Double Lehman on $1.2M. 10% × $1,000,000 is $100,000. 8% × $200,000 is $16,000. The total is $116,000, an effective 9.67% ($116,000 ÷ $1,200,000).
• A $50,000 minimum. At $1.2M it does not bind, because 5% is already $60,000. On an $800,000 sale, 5% is $40,000, so the minimum is the fee.

Every figure here is before your attorney, your CPA and a valuation. Those are separate bills. The fee is on the sale price, so a higher price raises it at any rate.

What the fee pays for, line by line

A rate tells you nothing until you know the work behind it. Inside a traditional brokerage, I split the hours three ways: technical delivery (valuations, updates, document preparation), sales conversations between the seller and potential buyers, and marketing and other overhead. Most of the fee ends up as a sales commission to the assigned broker's representative. The rest covers the cost of running the organization.

DPC's 5% pays for eight services:

1. Valuation from your books
2. Pricing and the prospectus
3. Confidential marketing
4. Buyer screening and NDA
5. A logged data room
6. Offers and negotiation
7. Financing and diligence
8. Closing and transition

Your attorney handles the lease. DPC takes no fee from lenders. It is paid at closing, from proceeds, and nothing before.

Ask any broker for the same list in writing, next to the rate. Then mark which items are included, which are extra, and which you do yourself.

Why I landed on 5%

The size and value of dental offices have risen over the past decade, and commissions have grown in turn. The cost structure has room to improve, and that is what we are doing at DPC: using technology so doctors keep more money in their pockets.

Where this breaks

A lower fee is not better by itself. If the cheaper fee leaves out work you then pay for or do yourself, the saving shrinks or disappears. That is why the comparison is the list of services.

The established brokerages argue for the higher fee, and they have a case. They have real costs to bear, and this business does not easily leverage economies of scale. Selling offices is still largely a people business. I agree with all of those arguments. They are all true. We also have more opportunities than ever to save on those costs and make the work more efficient, and it is our duty to the people we serve to do so.

I run a brokerage that charges 5%, so weigh my numbers with that in mind. The arithmetic above is yours to check.

The 8–10% is the published market range, not any named firm's quote. The ADA page carries no publication date. The tiers by revenue are McLerran's own, a Texas broker that sells brokerage services.

What to do this month

1. Ask each broker you are considering for the fee in dollars on your expected price, with every extra fee included, and the list of services it covers.
2. Read the listing agreement for the fee first. I tell owners the fee is always number one. Then read the term and the tail. Both should be short.
3. Check the tail period. McLerran says many listing agreements run 12–24 months, and the success fee can still apply to a buyer introduced during the engagement who closes after it ends.
4. Get a price range before you talk to anyone. DPC's free valuation takes six numbers, and the fees page shows what we charge. Read what dental practices sold for to see where your range sits.