We Sell Restaurants, the nation’s leading restaurant brokerage firm, is once again sharing exclusive insights into buyer behavior drawn from more than $500 million in active restaurant listings and traffic from buyers on its powerhouse platform, wesellrestaurants.com. As Certified Restaurant Brokers with boots on the ground across all 50 states, we don’t just list restaurants. We analyze, strategize, and close restaurant deals.
This month’s analysis dives deep into our September 2025 data across the top 75 high-velocity active listings and closings. We tracked engagement through four core channels: Google search visibility, new buyer inquiries, signed confidentiality agreements (CA’s) and sold transactions. The result? A roadmap of where savvy buyers are hunting, what concepts convert, and how to position your restaurant for a swift exit.
Comparison to National Trends
The latest BizBuySell Quarterly Insight Report, released yesterday and covering nationwide transactions, points to steady if modest momentum in the restaurant sector. The report notes that “restaurants had a moderately strong quarter, with closed deals up 2% year-over-year and 27% quarter-over-quarter.” .
This broad-market snapshot tells only part of the story. When compared to the hyper-focused performance of We Sell Restaurants, the nation’s only brokerage exclusively dedicated to restaurant sales, the contrast is striking. Our Q3 2025 closings surged 30% year-over-year, more than triple BizBuySell’s national growth rate.
The reason is specialization. Our Certified Restaurant Brokers® concentrate on high-velocity segments including franchise resales in Sun Belt markets, turnkey independents under $200,000, and listings with six-figure owner earnings. In a marketplace crowded with generalists, We Sell Restaurants demonstrates that focus isn’t just an advantage, it’s the accelerator that transforms moderate into meteoric.
In September 2025, the signals were unmistakable. The Sun Belt is on fire, with North Carolina and Florida edging out the pack. Quick -service powerhouses like cafes, pizzas, and multi-unit franchises dominated inquiries and CA’s, while turnkey independents fueled the fastest closings. Above all, listings screaming “proven profits” (think six-figure owner benefit), generated 2 – 3x the traction. Buyers aren’t browsing. They are buying with eyes wide open and focused on ROI (return on investment).
The Buyer Funnel: From Search to Sold
Every restaurant sale begins with discovery. Our September data confirms that the listings attracting attention on Google also perform best in buyer inquiries and signed CAs, ultimately leading to faster closings.
Listings that appeared across all three visibility channels (Google, Buyer, and CA) were four times more likely to sell within six months. These listings share common traits: clear financial metrics, franchise or brand name recognition, and strong geographic keywords like Orlando, Charlotte, or Tampa in their headlines.
Where Buyer Interest Is Concentrated
The Sun Belt Dominates
The most active states in September 2025 were:
- Florida (32%) – led by Orlando, Cape Coral, Tampa Bay, and Sarasota
- Georgia (24%) – anchored by Marietta, Peachtree City, and Atlanta suburbs
- Texas (16%) – particularly Sugar Land, Dallas, and Spring
- North Carolina (16%) – Charlotte and surrounding markets saw consistent engagement
Together, these four states accounted for nearly three-quarters of all active buyer and CA activity nationwide.
This concentration mirrors demographic and economic trends: population growth, small business relocation, and strong franchise resale ecosystems across the Sun Belt corridor.
What Buyers Are Searching For
When it comes to restaurant type, five categories dominate:
Franchises: Buyer interest is very high, confidentiality agreements signed are also high and average sale price out paces other restaurant models at an average price of $367,000. These are the not only the most searched listing, they are also the most bankable with predictable models and SBA lending driving conversions.
Pizza: Buyer interest in pizza is high and signed confidentiality agreements are also high. With average selling prices of most trafficked listings at $295,000, these pizza opportunities are consistently in demand, familiar, affordable, and scalable.
Café and Breakfast: Buyer interest in café and breakfast is moderate with high confidentiality agreements. The average sales price is slightly lower at $220,00 and these are popular with lifestyle buyers that favor “no-nights” operations.
Bar/Grill: Still driving interest, we rank buyer interest in bar and grills at moderate and signed confidentiality agreements as the same. Average sales prices are higher and one reason could be the liquor licenses that sell slower but command premium pricing.
Burger/QSR: Interest from buyers was again, moderate and signed confidentiality agreements were also moderate with average selling prices of $170,000. These were popular among first-time operators seeking fast-casual entry.
Across channels, winners are those with both simplicity and profits. Easy operations scored points with buyers (listings mentioning turnkey and equipped). Key to those searching for listings are numeric proof. Franchises edged independents 2:1 in overlaps, but sold listings flipped to 60% sold in this month’s cycle of closed deals. Overall, buyers are drawn to concepts that are easy to manage, familiar, and cash-flow positive.
Pricing and Profitability Trends
Price still drives velocity. In September, the average selling price among top listings was $292,000. Six figure earnings are a strong driver with 68% of the listings sold reporting owner earnings in excess of $100,000. Listings priced between $150,000 and $350,000 were the most active across Google, inquiries, and confidentiality agreements. The average time on market for sold listings: 182 days, or just under six months and the average number of signed confidentiality agreements per listing was 54, showing broad buyer interest and serious engagement.
Listings under $300,000 continue to attract the highest inquiry volume, while SBA-qualified listings over $350,000 deliver longer but more predictable closings.
Channel Insights: How Buyers Are Engaging
The highest-visibility listings all had something in common:
- Franchise or brand names (e.g., Schlotzsky’s, Wingstop, Subway)
- Geographic identifiers (Orlando, Charlotte, Atlanta)
- Numeric proof of performance (“$3.9M in Sales,” “Six-Figure Earnings”)
Certified Restaurant Brokers know that confidentiality agreements convert best on listings that build buyer confidence with details that demonstrate financial disclosure. This credibility accelerates trust and engagement. Listings with well-structured, data-driven titles outperformed generic “Restaurant for Sale” posts, often generating 2–3x more traffic.
Buyer Activity
Listings that received the most buyer inquiries shared key traits. Moderate pricing ($150K–$400K) were the key price points for the month. Restaurants ready to go. Turnkey or fully equipped descriptions had the highest engagement. Clear earnings statements along with strong photography or video walkthroughs were also drivers for these listings.
Signed CA Conversion
Once buyers sign a confidentiality agreement, quality rises sharply. The top five listings by CA volume all reported:
- Verified financials or detailed P&Ls
- High-traffic locations in Florida or Charlotte
- Franchise credibility or transferable leases
These listings averaged 171 days to close, confirming that the most qualified buyers take the time to validate deals before closing.
Sold Listings for the Month.
September 2025 was a banner month for We Sell Restaurants with a 91% increase in the count of units sold over the prior year. Across categories and concepts, 49% of the buyer interest was driven by franchise locations. These continue to show highest velocity from listing to close based on their predictable models, clear SBA financing pathways, and recurring buyer confidence.
Conversely, 51% of the interest was for independent location which included a high count of pizza shops, bars, grills, or cafes with strong local followings and turnkey operations. It seems that buyers want to step into locations that are ready to go. Also, key among the independents that were not only searched but sold was an appeal for low rent, and listings priced under the $300,000 mark.
Trend Insight:
Buyers are split between turnkey low-cost independents and proven franchise resales. Both categories perform well — but the common denominator is ready-to-operate simplicity (no buildout or uncertainty).
Fastest-Moving Listings
The quickest sales of September 2025 shared a distinct profile:
Price: They were priced under $200,000. They were also clustered in Florida and Texas. They emphasized the structure as turnkey or a franchise resale and had owner benefit of $100,000 to $150,000,
Examples include:
- Turnkey Franchise Mexican Restaurant – Sugar Land, TX (96 days)
- Panama City Franchise – $150,000 Owner Earnings (95 days)
- Winter Park Café – Motivated Seller (98 days)
Turnkey listings in strong Sun Belt markets continue to close within 90–100 days which is half the industry average recently quoted by online sources like BizBuySell.
What This Means for Sellers and Franchisors
For sellers, the data underscores the value of positioning your restaurant for success:
- Prepare financials early—buyers engage more deeply when numbers are clear.
- Use quantifiable, benefit-driven language in your listing title.
- Focus on strong visuals and turnkey appeal.
For franchisors, the trends confirm that resale readiness is a competitive advantage. Multi-unit and single-unit franchise resales are now a major growth engine, representing nearly half of all We Sell Restaurants closings.
Overall, buyer interest in 2025 is concentrated, informed, and confidence driven. We’re seeing a shift from speculative searching to data-backed decision making. Buyers want performance, simplicity, and proven systems. Florida, Georgia, Texas, and the Carolinas remain the nation’s restaurant resale hotspots, while cafés, pizza shops, and franchise resales lead every stage of the funnel, from first search to final sale.
As we analyze the data and provide the results, the We Sell Restaurants, mission remains unchanged: Sell More Restaurants Than Anyone Else. Period.