How Long Does It Take to Sell a Medical Practice in San Diego?

Quick Answer: There is no single number. A practice sale moves through six phases, and the total depends mostly on how ready your financials were before you started. California adds a step most states do not have: a notice to the state’s Office of Health Care Affordability can apply to deals involving a management company.

Why nobody can quote you a date

Every owner asks this question first, and most advisors answer it with a range they cannot support. The honest answer is that the phases are additive, and you control the length of the first one.

Two San Diego practices with identical revenue can be six months apart at closing. The difference is almost never the market. It is whether the financials reconciled on day one, whether the owner could produce a clean set of documents on request, and whether the corporate structure was already in a shape a buyer could acquire.

Preparation is the only phase where you set the pace. After you go to market, the clock belongs to the buyer, their lender, their accountants, and in California, potentially a state agency.

So the useful framing is not “how long does this take.” It is “which phases am I about to make longer than they need to be.”

📊 At a Glance

• Six phases: preparation, valuation, confidential outreach, letter of intent, diligence, close.
• You control phase one: clean, reconciled financials shorten everything downstream.
• California adds a step: an Office of Health Care Affordability notice may apply, and a Cost and Market Impact Review can extend it further.
• The 2026 rules are still settling: OHCA published proposed regulations in May 2026 and the details are not final.
• The biggest delay is usually diligence: and it is usually caused by something that could have been fixed before going to market.
• Structure matters: a practice already split cleanly into a professional corporation and a management company moves faster.

The six phases

1. Preparation

Cleaning up financials, reconciling the books, documenting add-backs, and getting the corporate structure into a form a buyer can actually purchase. This phase is entirely within your control and it is the one owners most often skip.

Skipping it does not save time. It moves the same work into diligence, where it happens under deadline pressure with a buyer watching.

2. Valuation

Establishing a defensible range for what the practice is worth, based on adjusted earnings and the drivers a buyer will actually price. This is quick when phase one was done properly and slow when it was not.

3. Confidential buyer outreach

Approaching qualified buyers under non-disclosure agreements, without your staff, patients, or competitors learning that you are exploring a sale. The length here depends on how many credible buyers exist for your specialty and size, and on how much interest the materials generate.

4. Letter of intent

Negotiating headline terms: price, structure, what portion is paid at close, what is deferred or rolled into equity, and what happens to you after the transaction. Signing a letter of intent usually starts an exclusivity period, so this is the last point at which you have real bargaining power.

5. Diligence

The buyer’s accountants and attorneys examine everything. Financial records, payer contracts, employment agreements, leases, licensure, compliance history, and the management services agreement if one exists.

This is where unprepared deals stall. It is also where deals get repriced, because a buyer who finds a surprise in diligence will often ask for a lower number.

6. Close

Final documents, funding, and transition. Usually the most predictable phase, assuming nothing surfaced in diligence and no regulatory notice period applies.

What California adds to the clock

This is the part that catches out-of-state advisors, and it is new.

Two California laws took effect on January 1, 2026. AB 1415 expanded the state’s material change transaction notice process so that private equity groups, hedge funds, and management services organizations may have to give notice directly to the Office of Health Care Affordability, where previously only the healthcare entity filed. If a notice applies to your transaction, it adds a waiting period before closing. If the office opens a Cost and Market Impact Review, that adds more.

The important caveat: the details are not settled. OHCA published proposed regulations on May 15, 2026, took public comment through June 11, and the implementing rules were still being finalised through 2026. The proposals under discussion included a 5% ownership threshold for private equity and hedge fund transactions and a lookback period covering related deals over the preceding decade, though those figures were proposed and not final at the time of writing.

SB 351, effective the same day, is the second piece. It restricts what a private equity group or hedge fund may control in a physician or dental practice and voids non-compete and non-disparagement clauses in certain agreements with those practices. It does not directly add a waiting period, but it can add time if your existing management agreement needs to be reworked before a buyer will proceed.

The practical takeaway for a San Diego owner: ask your attorney early whether a notice is likely to apply to your deal. Finding out during diligence is expensive.

Five things that move your timeline

1. How clean your financials are on day one. The single largest variable, and the only one you fully control.
2. Whether your structure is already buyer-ready. A practice cleanly separated into a professional corporation and a management company transacts faster, because there is less to unwind.
3. How many credible buyers your specialty attracts. More competition compresses the outreach phase and improves terms. Thin buyer interest lengthens it.
4. Whether a regulatory notice applies. A required notice period is a fixed addition you cannot negotiate away.
5. How decisive you are. Deals slow down when sellers reopen settled points. That is sometimes the right call, and it usually costs weeks.

What you can do now

If a sale is somewhere on your horizon, the highest-value work happens long before you talk to a buyer.

Get your financials reconciled and keep them that way. Document your add-backs as they occur, with support, so you are not reconstructing them under deadline two years later. Have your attorney review the management services agreement against the 2026 rules. Reduce the share of production that depends on you personally, because that affects both what you are offered and how smoothly diligence runs.

None of that requires committing to a sale. All of it shortens the process if you do.

FAQ

Can I speed up the process by skipping preparation?

Not in practice. The work moves into diligence, where it happens under time pressure and in front of the buyer. Deals that skip preparation often take longer overall and are more likely to get repriced.

Does the Office of Health Care Affordability notice apply to every practice sale?

No. It depends on the parties, the structure, and thresholds that were still being set by regulation during 2026. Whether it applies to a specific transaction is a question for your own attorney, not something that can be answered generally.

Will my staff find out while the process is running?

A properly run sell-side process uses non-disclosure agreements and controlled disclosure specifically so that staff, patients, and competitors do not learn about it prematurely. Confidentiality is a design choice in how the process is run.

Is it faster to sell to a buyer who approaches me directly?

Sometimes, and that speed has a cost. An unsolicited buyer with no competing bid has little pressure to improve terms. A faster close at a materially lower number is not usually a good trade.

What typically takes the longest?

Diligence, in most transactions, and usually because of something that could have been resolved during preparation.

About Aesthetic Brokers

Aesthetic Brokers is a sell-side mergers and acquisitions advisory firm for medical and dental practice owners, headquartered in La Jolla, California. San Diego is where the firm is based, not a territory it covers remotely.

The firm represents sellers only and does not represent buyers. In a consolidating market that distinction matters, because an advisor who also works for acquirers has a structural conflict on the question that decides your outcome.

Aesthetic Brokers works with medical spas, plastic surgery practices, cosmetic dermatology, cosmetic and specialty dental practices, infusion centers, women’s health, regenerative wellness, and endocrinology. Founder and CEO Bill Walker spent his career in private equity healthcare mergers and acquisitions before moving to the sell side.

Owners who want a confidential ballpark on what their practice is worth can use the firm’s valuation estimator, which takes about two minutes and requires no email address. For a practice-specific conversation, call 619-742-0310.