Jo Ann...you need to talk with an agent who can act as a buyers agent and has had commercial training and experience...we do both commercial and residential real estate and as trained and certified buyers agents can illustrate the numbers to both you and your partners as well as the seller to make the offer make sense...there are more numbers needed than those you supply for determining the price. With an offer that features the kind of analysis that we can provide...you may know more about buying than the sellers do about selling.

I was a licensed realtor for 25+ years. If you are not embarrassed by your offer, you are offering too much, especially in today's market. I think you need to do a lot of research on the type of business you are entering into, I was also in the bar/grill business. This is a high risk business. I own a lake home in northwestern Bayfield county, WI. All the restaurants are for sale after the first year of new ownership. Sell time exceeds 5 years. Not your typical liquid investment. Good Luck.

Jo Ann,
Now of course with a Land Contract your interest is going to be up for negotiation. So you and your partners need to sit down and decide on your ceiling.
Secondly, I use to own and run restaurants for almost 20 years. I still do some consulting on the side. The one and major factor you need to figure into your equation is your overhead for the startup. Not knowing your concept or menu you need to go into this with as little overhead and as much working capital as you can. As far as the payment that is going to need to be based on square footage of the site which you need to equate down to how many seats you have in the restaurant, what your check average will be based on the menu, and then with a rough draft P&L how many turns do you need a night to breakeven with all of your costs.

As far as the real estate side Yes I would say the $350,000 is a nice offer. First question though is the property free and clear of any liens? If not you need an ironclad way to make sure that the payments are going to be made so that in 6 months you are not shut out because the owner has been taking your money but, not paying any of his notes. I have seen it happen before.

If the fair market value is 327,000 though why are you offering 350,000. Is it because you want the Land contract. Maybe you should start a little lower.

Hope this helps,

i've heard land contracts with interest up to 10% WOW, Is it crazy to buy in this market now?