Confidential business sales · California CA DRE #02111340
About

I became a broker because I knew I could do it better.

I'd been through my own transactions. I'd helped friends and family buy and sell. I'd worked with enough brokers to know what was missing: someone who picks up the phone, tells you the truth, and actually shows up for the hard parts.

Rebecca Chatham, Principal Broker
Rebecca Chatham · Principal Broker

I've been on your side of the table.

I built three businesses before I brokered one. A document destruction company, a landscaping company, and a cleaning company called Well Maid. I made payroll on hard months. I dealt with the landlords, the equipment loans, the employees who called in sick on the worst days. And I sold each one. I know what it feels like to hand something you spent years building to a stranger and hope for the best, because I've done it.

Before that, I spent eleven years as a Field Sales Leader at Allstate, advising agency owners on growing, valuing, and transitioning their businesses. That's where I got fluent in the financial mechanics of owner-operated companies: SDE, book value, what buyers actually look at, what lenders actually want. Years of those conversations before I ever brokered a deal.

I started RLC Business Brokers because I'd been through transactions myself, helped friends and family buy and sell, and worked with enough brokers to know I could do it better. More responsive. More honest. More of an advocate. I bond quickly with people and I'm not afraid to ask the hard questions, or to give you the answer you didn't want to hear.

Credentials

  • California DRE Licensed Broker · #02111340
  • Brokerage services through Main Street Properties · DRE #00481220
  • Member, California Association of Business Brokers (CABB)
  • Office: 201 S Lakeview Ave Suite A, Placentia, CA 92870
Real deals

Not every deal is clean. Here's how they actually go.

Client identities are protected. The situations, and the results, are real. I'm showing you the complicated ones on purpose.

Sell-side · Auto repair

Positioned turnkey, not owner-dependent.

The situation

An auto repair shop with strong revenue but no documented systems. Other brokers had quoted 1.8 to 2x SDE off generic industry averages.

What I did

Sixty days tightening operational documentation, customer-retention tracking, and growth positioning, so the business presented as turnkey rather than owner-dependent.

What happened

Sold at 2.5x SDE within 90 days of listing, roughly $70K more than other brokers had estimated.

"She knew exactly what to fix before we went to market, and how to bring the right buyers."

Buy-side · Buyer advisory

The deal I killed on purpose.

The situation

A buyer deep in escrow on a service business acquisition when a critical lease contingency expired unresolved, and closing meant inheriting a fatal flaw.

What I did

I exercised the purchase agreement's termination provision and walked away. Clean, by the book, zero drama.

What happened

Full deposit returned. The buyer avoided a business that would have failed them. He came back for the right one. That's the job.

Every broker promises to close your deal. I'll also tell you when not to.

Valuation · Family succession

Putting a number on forty years of someone's life.

The situation

A son buying his father's HVAC company, initially framed around $400K. Family deals carry weight that doesn't show up in the financials. Mispricing them strains more than the balance sheet.

What I did

A full SDE recast revealed the true earnings picture and the son's majority contribution to revenue, supporting a revised valuation in the mid-$500Ks with an SBA structure and seller note built for both generations.

What happened

A price grounded in documented evidence rather than family emotion, with both sides able to trust the number.

Complex transactions · Business + real estate

Four owners, one building, one business.

The situation

A 46-year industrial distributor owned by four parties, offered together with its real estate, and courted by buyers with fundamentally different structures, from SBA individuals to all-cash investors.

What I did

Unified offer templates covering business and property, structured counters, commercial comp analysis, and communications keeping four co-owners aligned through every decision.

What happened

An active engagement being run the way complex deals should be: every party informed, every offer comparable, nothing left to chance.

As seen in

Let's have an honest conversation.

About what your business is worth. About whether you're ready. About what's actually in the way.

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