If you are serious about possibly buying the business, hire an attorney that specializes in business acquisitions and let them talk to the broker. Even around here, small and rural, there are enough business sales that it's not hard to find a firm with at least one or two people that specialize in buying and selling businesses. They can help you with cutting through the blue-sky portion of the asking price and get right down to what a generally accepted valuation should be. In this case it's likely to be 3-5x the businesses last 12 months earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). This is assuming your looking at buying the business as a running operation (i.e. Stock Sale / Entity Sale) as opposed to buying up the equipment and closing the doors (Cash / Asset sale). I point this out because 3-5x 12 months EBITDA is very often much lower than what an owner thinks their business is worth. It can be a very hard pill to swallow, which is why it's nice to have someone on board that deals with these realities every day. It's especially helpful if you can find an acquisitions attorney local to your area. Like a realtor they'll usually have a list of similar businesses sales in the area and know how they were valued. Besides initial valuation, they should also help anticipate pitfalls like hidden liabilities, liens, etc. Attorneys have their uses, and this is definitely one of them, but of course YMMV.