Sonic Drive-In NNN Properties For Sale: Listings, Cap Rates and 1031 Buyer Guide

This page tracks Sonic Drive-In net lease properties observed for sale in the United States, refreshed automatically from listing broker materials, checks the tenant against the investment grade threshold, and walks through how to evaluate one before you make an offer. If you want the corporate credit story, the Sonic Drive-In credit rating and cap rate profile covers it. This page is about the inventory: what is on the market, what it is asking, how the pricing breaks down by term, state and lease type, and how a buyer, especially a 1031 exchange buyer, should work through it.

Sonic Drive-In NNN Properties For Sale: Latest Listings

Up to twelve of the most recently listed single-tenant Sonic Drive-In properties with published pricing. Open any listing and register for full property data, including the address, location map and an IG summary with due diligence questions.

Showing the 12 most recently listed of 36 observed listings; listings without a published asking price and cap rate are not shown here.

Search all 36 Sonic Drive-In properties on the market

Market observations aggregated from listing broker materials; not offerings by Investment Grade Income Property, LP. Asking price, cap rate and NOI as published by the listing party. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Verify all figures before relying on them.

What You Are Actually Buying

Sonic Corp. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Inspire Brands, Inc. on December 7, 2018, when an Inspire subsidiary merged into Sonic and each Sonic share was converted into the right to receive $43.50 in cash (Sonic Corp. Form 8-K, December 7, 2018), and SONIC remains one of Inspire Brands’ restaurant brands (Inspire Brands website, accessed October 8, 2026). When it last reported as a public company, the Sonic system had 3,606 drive-ins in 45 states at August 31, 2018, of which 3,427 were owned and operated by franchisees and 179 by Sonic’s operating subsidiary (Sonic Corp. Form 10-K for fiscal 2018).

Franchisees ran about 95% of the system at that point, so a Sonic listing is often a lease to a franchisee. In the same Form 10-K for fiscal 2018, Sonic also reported that it owned and leased 162 properties, and subleased 48, to franchisees and other parties, and that the majority of the leases and subleases for franchise drive-ins provided for percentage rent based on sales volume with a minimum base rent. The ratings shown on this page belong to Inspire’s IRB Holding Corp., and they apply only where IRB Holding Corp. signs or guarantees the lease.

Across the current inventory, 10% of listings with a reported build year were delivered in the last four years, and 0% are marketed as NN, NN+ or simply Net, which usually means the landlord retains roof and structure and sometimes parking and HVAC. Read the lease rather than the brochure headline. If the rating framework behind investment grade tenancy is unfamiliar, the investment grade guide explains it.

Sonic Drive-In Cap Rate, Price and Term Distribution

These tables are generated from the live inventory and refresh every few hours. Use them to place any individual listing in context rather than judging an asking cap rate in isolation.

How to read the pricing

The spread inside the Sonic Drive-In inventory runs from 5.20% to 7.50%, against a median of 6.25%. Three variables help explain much of that spread, although these tables describe asking prices and do not isolate any single effect. First, remaining term, shown in the term table above. Second, geography, shown in the state table below. Third, lease structure and real estate quality: longer terms, stronger guarantors, absolute NNN structures and strong access generally ask lower cap rates, while leases with landlord responsibilities (NN) and secondary access generally ask higher ones; ground leases can price on either side, depending on rent and land value. When a listing sits far outside the band its term and state would predict, there is usually a reason in the lease, and it is worth finding before you write the offer rather than after.

Where Sonic Drive-In NNN Properties Are For Sale

Current inventory spans 11 states. Differences between states in the table below can reflect local buyer demand, growth, taxes and the mix of lease terms in each state’s listings as much as anything about the tenant, and small state samples can shift quickly.

Sonic Drive-In as a 1031 Exchange Replacement Property

The median asking price in the current Sonic Drive-In inventory is $1.79M, and about 69% of listings fall between 1.5 and 3.5 million dollars. Whether that fits an exchange depends on the equity coming out of the relinquished property and on the debt you need to replace. The points below are general information, not tax or legal advice; confirm your own situation with your qualified intermediary and tax advisor.

• Identify from the live list, not a stale one. Listings move. Replacement property must be identified within 45 days of the sale of the relinquished property (Internal Revenue Code section 1031(a)(3)), and the three-property rule in Treasury Regulation section 1.1031(k)-1(c)(4) lets you identify up to three properties regardless of value, so keep a backup that is realistically still available.
• Debt replacement matters. Liabilities on the relinquished property that the other party assumes, or that the property is transferred subject to, are treated as money received, and they can be offset by liabilities on the replacement property and by cash the taxpayer adds (Treasury Regulation section 1.1031(d)-2). Where lender pricing sits above the asking cap rate, financed acquisitions run negative leverage, so run your debt numbers before you identify.
• Term should match your hold. If you plan to hold through the next exchange or pass the asset to heirs, weigh remaining term and options alongside cap rate.
• Certainty of closing matters. The replacement property must be received within 180 days of the sale, or by the due date, including any extension, of the tax return for the year of the sale if that comes first (Internal Revenue Code section 1031(a)(3)). A clean estoppel, a current lease and no pending relocation reduce closing risk.

For identification mechanics, timelines and the NNN, DST and UPREIT alternatives, see the 1031 exchange into investment grade property guide.

Sonic Drive-In NNN Due Diligence Checklist

These are the items that change the value of a Sonic Drive-In listing and are rarely resolved by the offering memorandum.

• Franchisee identity and scale. Establish who the franchisee is, how many drive-ins it runs and whether a parent entity or owner guarantees the lease.
• Franchise agreement term. Verify that the franchise agreement runs at least as long as the lease including options.
• Percentage rent and sales reporting. If the lease adds percentage rent to a base rent, confirm the breakpoint, the sales history behind it and whether the stated income includes any percentage rent.
• Building reuse. Review the site’s options for another user if the drive-in closes, since a drive-in layout can narrow the pool of replacement tenants.

How Investment Grade Works With Sonic Drive-In Buyers

Investment Grade Income Property, LP is a licensed commercial real estate brokerage providing national advisory on acquisitions and dispositions of net lease property, with Broker of Record co-listing partnerships in all 50 states. On a Sonic Drive-In acquisition we screen the live inventory against your criteria, pull the lease abstract behind any listing you want to pursue, benchmark the asking cap rate against the distribution above, and negotiate on your side of the table through closing. On the majority of transactions, there is no separate fee to you as the buyer, because compensation is paid from the transaction by the listing side. Where that is not the case we disclose it in writing before you engage.

Owners of existing Sonic Drive-In properties can use this page as a valuation benchmark. If you are weighing a sale, we can discuss an off-market sale to a qualified 1031 buyer as well as a broad marketing process.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Sonic Drive-In Credit Rating and NNN Cap Rate Profile
• NNN Cap Rates 2026: Tenant by Tenant Benchmarks
• 1031 Exchange Into Investment Grade Property
• Investment Grade Credit Tenant Ratings
• Search All Observed NNN Listings