One drive-thru coffee chain — 7 Brew — plans 447 new franchised openings in 2026, which would put it at the top of net U.S. development in the coffee sector and could push it past 1,000 locations by year-end. The published development map is instructive: roughly 41 new locations slated for Texas, 35 for Florida, and about 30 apiece for Illinois and Georgia, with confirmed stands landing across nearly two dozen other states this summer.

Multiply that by every other expanding drive-thru and QSR concept, and the practical consequence for property owners is simple: if you own a well-trafficked corner in a growth corridor, people are going to write to you. Some of those letters will be from serious, funded buyers. Some will be from wholesalers hoping to tie up your property cheap and flip the contract. A few will be from people who couldn't close if you said yes tomorrow.

The letters are coming. Here's how to sort them.

Five questions that separate real buyers from noise

  1. Are you the buyer, or are you assigning the contract? A principal buyer closes in its own name or a related entity. If the answer involves "our end buyer," you're talking to a middleman — which isn't illegal, but you should know it, and price it.
  2. Who pays for diligence? Survey, title, and environmental should be on the buyer's dime. A buyer who asks you to fund reports is not a buyer.
  3. Will you show the math behind your number? Serious buyers can explain their price with comparable sales and site costs. "This is our best and final, sign this week" is pressure, not analysis.
  4. How long is your diligence period, and what does the earnest money do? Reasonable diligence timelines and money that goes hard at defined milestones show real intent. An unlimited free look is an option, not an offer.
  5. Where does closing happen? The only good answer: a licensed title company or closing attorney in your state. Anyone proposing anything else is a hard no.

Ask us these five questions. We publish them because we like our answers — and because an informed seller makes a better counterparty, even when they say no.

The honest caveat

A hot development map doesn't make every parcel in a hot state valuable. Brands cluster along specific commuter corridors and co-tenancy patterns; two miles off the corridor can be the difference between multiple offers and none. If your property is the latter, the most useful thing a buyer can tell you is the truth.