How to sell a dental practice in Texas

Disclosure: DPC, the Texas brokerage that publishes this site, is paid 5% of the sale price at closing and nothing before. DPC takes no fee from lenders and never holds funds. It represents both sides of a sale only with written disclosure and consent.

How to sell a dental practice in Texas: the path in five steps

The order is the part worth learning first. The ADA's seller roadmap says why: "Every transition timeline is unique, driven by your goals and the local market. However, they tend to follow a similar process."

The five steps below are DPC's own process, and the table is DPC's division of work. It is not a Texas rule or a sourced standard. The full walk-through is at how a DPC sale runs.

Your attorney handles the lease and the building. DPC does not negotiate either one.

What do you do before anyone sees the practice?

Know your number and fix your books before any buyer sees them. This article's view, not a sourced finding: the order of the steps matters more than who runs them. The two checks below and the step placement of the Texas texts are this article's view too.

The number starts with a free valuation. The free valuation takes six numbers from your P&L and returns a range. A free account can also start from an uploaded P&L or QuickBooks. How the number is built is in how the valuation formula works.

Two checks come first. First, compare the P&L with the tax return and the bank statements. Second, put paper behind every add-back, meaning, in DPC's usage, an owner expense a buyer removes to see the practice's true earnings. How buyers test add-backs is a separate page.

The ADA's roadmap names two preparation topics in its ebook: "How to build your transactions team" and "What financial documents should be updated and ready for your buyer." The documents a buyer asks for are on their own page.

Who decides at offers, the LOI and diligence?

Offers, the LOI and diligence are steps four and five, and the seller decides which offer to sign. In DPC's process the broker markets the practice, brings offers and negotiates them, and your attorney reviews the LOI and papers the closing. What a Texas broker does and how to check one is a separate page.

What timeline range and fee come with a sale?

Henry Schein's practice-transition team gives one range for the active sale: "In many cases, the active sale process may take 6–12 months from valuation and buyer sourcing through due diligence and closing." That is one publisher's range, not a promise. The same page adds: "However, a compressed timeline usually gives the seller less control." How long each phase takes has the phase detail.

The fee is a percentage. DPC charges 5% of the sale price at closing, nothing before. On a representative $1,000,000 sale, that is $50,000. The example is representative and is not a customer's sale.

DPC takes no fee from lenders, never holds funds, and represents both sides only with written disclosure and consent.

Which Texas items go to your attorney, and when?

Three Texas texts are worth taking to your attorney, one at each of three steps. They are quoted here and not interpreted. Ask your attorney how each one applies to your sale.

Before offers: spouses. Tex. Fam. Code 3.102(c) says: "Except as provided by Subsection (a), community property is subject to the joint management, control, and disposition of the spouses unless the spouses provide otherwise by power of attorney in writing or other agreement."

Before the LOI: covenants not to compete. Tex. Bus. & Com. Code 15.501, added by S.B. 1318 and effective September 1, 2025, defines a "health care practitioner" as "a person licensed by the State Board of Dental Examiners to practice dentistry in this state." Subsection (b) says a covenant not to compete is not enforceable against a health care practitioner unless the covenant meets stated conditions. Two of them read: "(2) expires not later than the one-year anniversary of the date the contract or employment has been terminated; (3) limits the geographical area subject to the covenant to no more than a five-mile radius from the location at which the health care practitioner primarily practiced before the contract or employment terminated." Other conditions are not quoted here. Read all of subsection (b) with your attorney.

At closing: patient records. 22 Tex. Admin. Code 108.8(e) says: "A dentist who leaves a location or practice, whether by retirement, sale, transfer, termination of employment or otherwise, shall maintain all dental records belonging to him or her, make a written transfer of records to the succeeding dentist, or make a written agreement for the maintenance of records." Subsection (e)(2) adds: "A dentist who enters into a written transfer of records agreement shall notify the State Board of Dental Examiners in writing within fifteen (15) days of a records transfer agreement."

The Cornell Legal Information Institute copy of 108.8 shows more than one version. Confirm the current text with your attorney or the State Board of Dental Examiners.

What are the limits of this guide?

• The timeline range comes from a single publisher.
• The table is DPC's division of work, not a standard.
• Texas rules change, and the text above is quoted as found on November 11, 2026.
• The fee example is arithmetic on a round number, not a quote and not a prediction of any sale.

What are the first four things to do?

Do these four things in order.

1. Get the number. Run the free valuation with six numbers from your P&L and read the range.
2. Fix what a buyer would question. Compare the P&L with the tax return and the bank, and put paper behind each add-back.
3. Bring the books to DPC's confidential first conversation (step two).
4. Write your attorney questions. One on the spouse text, one on the covenant text, one on the records text. Add the lease and the building.