Sell the real estate, keep running the C-store
A sale lease back turns the land under your C-store into cash while you keep operating. See the rent math and who it fits.
If you own the land under your store, you are sitting on cash you cannot spend. With a sale lease back, an investor buys the land and building, you become the tenant on a long lease, and the store runs exactly as it does today. Customers, staff and your supplier see no change. Your balance sheet does.
How it works
- We look at your store's earnings and pick a rent the business can carry comfortably.
- We set the lease terms: length, yearly increases, and who pays taxes, insurance and repairs.
- We take the property, with the lease attached, to net lease investors who buy on the rent.
- You pick an offer. The investor does its diligence on the property, the tanks and your financials.
- At closing you sell the land and building, sign the lease as tenant, and keep the business.
The investor buys a rent check. You trade the dirt for cash now and rent later.
Who it fits, and who it does not
It fits an owner who wants to pay down debt, buy or build another store, remodel, or take money off the table without selling the business. It also fits an owner with a partner who wants out of the real estate but not the operation.
It does not fit an owner who plans to sell the business in a year or two, since a buyer of the business then inherits your lease and its rent. It does not fit a store with thin or falling earnings, since the new rent comes straight out of profit. And if the cash has no job to do, it is a poor trade: the land and any future gain on it are gone.
A sale of real estate can bring a large taxable gain. Some owners look at a 1031 exchange into other real property, which has strict IRS deadlines. Talk to your CPA and attorney before you sign anything.
The rent decides everything
Every part of a sale lease back comes back to rent. Set it high and the price goes up, but the store has to pay it every month for years. Set it low and the store breathes easier, but you get less at closing.
- Rent coverage. Divide the store's yearly earnings before rent by the yearly rent. We like to see at least 2.0x. Between 1.5x and 2.0x is tight. Below 1.5x, one bad year puts the lease in trouble. These bands are our own rule of thumb, not a lender standard.
- Lease length. Investors pay more for a long lease and less for a short one.
- Rent increases. A fixed bump every year or every five years protects the investor against inflation. It also raises your costs, so the store's growth has to keep pace.
- Who pays what. These are usually net leases: you pay taxes, insurance and repairs, often the roof and structure too. Tank and environmental duties need careful wording, because both sides care who owns a future leak.
How investors price your lease
Investors price a lease by cap rate: the yearly rent divided by the price. A lower cap rate means a higher price. The Boulder Group put the average single-tenant net lease asking cap rate at 6.92% in Q3 2026.
Strong brands and long leases trade well below that. In its September 2026 tenant profiles, Boulder listed asking cap rates of 4.80% to 5.15% for a 7-Eleven with 15 years left, 5.25% to 5.55% for a QuikTrip with 15 years left, and 6.60% to 6.90% for a Circle K with only five years left. Those are large chains with a corporate balance sheet behind the rent.
An independent operator is a different tenant. The lease is backed by one store or a small company and its owner, so expect investors to ask a higher cap rate than any of those ranges, and possibly higher than the 6.92% average. How much higher depends on your earnings, coverage, lease length, the land's value if the store ever went dark, and your environmental file. Do not plan around chain pricing.
A worked example
These are round, made-up numbers to show the math, not market data or a promise of price.
Say your store earns $400,000 a year before rent. We set the rent at $160,000 a year, for coverage of 2.5x. If an investor buys at an 8.0% cap rate, the price is $160,000 divided by 0.08, or $2,000,000. You walk away with that cash, before your loan payoff, costs and taxes, and the store's earnings after rent drop to $240,000.
Push the rent to $200,000 and the same 8.0% cap gives $2,500,000, but coverage falls to 2.0x and the store keeps only $200,000. That is the trade you are making.
Using the leaseback check
The calculator below runs this math on your numbers.
- Yearly rent: the rent you would pay the new owner for the first year.
- Store earnings before rent: what the store makes in a year before any rent or loan payments on the property.
- Cap rate: the rate an investor would buy at. It starts at 6.92%, the Boulder Q3 2026 average; for an independent operator, try higher.
What investors look for
- Two to three years of store financials, and a personal or company guarantee behind the lease.
- Coverage that holds up in a weak year, not just a good one.
- A location that would work for another operator, or another use, if the store closed.
- Clean tank records and a recent environmental report. Your environmental consultant should review the site before you go to market.
- A fuel supply agreement with enough time left, so the store's volume is not in doubt.
Use the form below to tell us about your store. We will tell you whether a sale lease back makes sense before you spend anything on it.
Leaseback check
Pick a yearly rent you could live with. We show the price an investor could pay for the land and building, and how much of the store's earnings the rent eats.
Default cap rate: The Boulder Group, average single-tenant net lease asking cap rate, Q3 2026. Investors pay lower cap rates (higher prices) for strong brands and long leases. The coverage bands are our rule of thumb, not a lender standard.