So if you are going to purchase a practice, you will need your own dental transition attorney as well as your own dental specific CPA representative, preferably one with experience in dental transitions. If you need some names, I'd be happy to recommend who I used in a PM. My attorney cost was around $9,500 for the purchase agreement/negotiating he did, he drew up the initial LOI (letter of intent), negotiated with the seller's attorney, and drafted the final purchase agreement. His attorney or CPA should not be drafting your purchase agreement, IMO. This is a perfect way for you to get completely hosed over. I'm not sure of the entire situation, but you absolutely need your own representation. Little things like patient credit balances accounts, equipment breakage issues, overhead issues that devalue the practice, insurance issues (you may be forced to go into networks that he wasn't---depending on where you live, Delta Dental PPO).
The patient credit balance was over $13,000. The seller wanted to "pay the credits as they came in." My attorney said absolutely not, you need to zero out your tab completely before the practice is sold. So on my first day as owner, the seller wrote me a check for over $13,000. That paid for the attorney cost itself, and I would've never even thought of that, nor would an attorney that didn't have experience in dental transitions---and guess what, if it wouldn't have been included in the contract, the seller would've laughed at me when I asked him to pay back his own credits to the patients.
One major thing I'd recommend (especially if you are purchasing an older practice with older equipment) is to get a one year warranty of some sort on the equipment. I've been there four months and the following things have gone down: Autoclave ($5,500), Pano sensor (~$4,000), Nitrous system leak ($800 to get fixed by Patterson), Ultrasonic ($2,000). Learn from my mistakes, get a 1 year warranty and also have someone come in and test the equipment/building for major issues (i.e. electrical issues causing equipment failure).
The good thing about having professionals (dental specific CPA and attorney) is that they 1) save you a TON of money and headache (on things like I listed above) and 2) know the industry and what the true valuation of the actual practice and what it is producing/region/potential, any negative insurance repercussions, etc.
Someone can fake to be your friend to get their practice sold, and trust me, they put on a BIG show for you and make you feel like they'd absolutely never get over on you. "I'm treating this as if you were my own son taking over my practice." They intentionally "Jerry rig" everything until you take over and then you're stuck with it. I guess I shouldn't be too upset about it, because I will get a lot of years of usage from my own equipment...but it's just irritating to barely have taken over a practice and have so much of a hit so soon. If you need any advice, let me know and I'll try to steer you guys as best possible.