You are reading some of the best advice you could ever get on stepping into the framing "puddle". If you want to get your feet wet, do it with some pre-planning and make sure you are getting exactly what you want and not what you "think you can make it into".
1. The customer base is only as good as what you can draw from that list of "potential" customers. If you can do as good a job or better than the present owner, you may stand a chance of keeping some of those customers. I moved my gallery about 20 miles East of where I originally set up shop and I lost most of my existing customers. Not because I all of a sudden got worse at framing but most of them didn't drive to "that town" because there wasn't enough there for shopping for them! That sounds silly but that is a reason that many won't go out of their way to follow you to a new location. And those were MY established customers!
2. Used equipment is just that, used equipment. You can find good used equipment in many other outlets other than buying it along with all the other "baggage" that goes with a frame shop purchase.
3. The inventory is still in the shop. Why hasn't it sold before now? I have inventory in my shop that is left over from years ago when I dealt largely in resale LE prints. They are good prints but they are only worth something if you can find a buyer for them. I have prints by J.D. Challenger, Terry Redlin, Ozz Franca, and many other big name artists that I am sitting on and have no buyers for. They may sell in the Southwest or up North but they are just excess prints that take up space in my flat file here.
4. Don't be tricked into paying thousands of dollars for "good will". That is as close to a scam as any term involved in selling a business. Some include their customer database as "good will" along with the built up "reputation" of the shop. What good is that "reputation" if you move the business?
I spent close to 7 years making trips down to the Gulf coast visiting virtually every town from Gulf Shores, Alabama to Naples, Florida looking for a town to relocate my business. I checked out so many demographics that it would make your head spin! I contacted every C of C, Main Street group, small business group that I could find along with talking to so many hundres business owners and checking out no less than 10 existing art galleries and frame shops that I could find. And my final decision was to start from scratch with opening a new business rather than buying an existing one. Why? Well in addition to all the reasons already mentioned, I thought that I stood as good a chance of making a successful business out of MY knowledge and skills gained from 16 years of framing as I did trying to rebuild an existing business that I had no real idea of what the real underlying reasons were for the sale of that business. Owners are never going to tell you about all the bad points associated with their wanting to sell their business. You will find those out in due time and some of those reasons may shock you.
No matter what you decide to do, base your decision on what you and your husband want for your future as professional framers. Take into consideration that, if the frame shop is going to be your sole source of income, can you and your husband take a year or two of no income or very little income until you get your database built up enough to support the two of you. There would be nothing more depressing for me than to have to take a second job just to make ends meet. And consider this, every day that you have to work another job for enough income to get by on is that many more days that your shop is either operating shorthanded or without one or both of you. And that usually means closing for those days that you are away.
I don't mean to be the harbinger of doom but it requires so much research and effort beforehand to make the right decisions and, even with all the bases covered in your mind, there is still no guarantees that you will make a successful go of it. There is no control over buyers' habits, the economy of any given area, or how the nearby competition will affect your business.
All that considered, if you are sure that this move has potential and you have done your research demographically about how your area would support a new frame shop, then I say don't sit back and 5 years from now wish that you would have just gone ahead and taken the plunge. You have this life to do what you would like to do. There aren't many second chances left today for those who hesitate and then regret passing up the opportunity to get into your own business.
Good luck and don't be afraid to ask all the questions that come to mind here on the Grumble. You will be assured of getting help from those who probably have already been down the road that you are approaching and would be glad to help you get past the various potholes.
One last thought: when I opened my first shop in 1990, I bought all new equipment. I built all new fixtures simply because I had the woodworking talents to do so. I still own all of the equipment that I started out with plus some additional stuff that I bought along the way. If I were to sell my shop tomorrow I would be selling a shop full of 14 year old equipment and fixtures. Granted, it is well maintained equipment and a workbench built as sturdily as mine don't wear out easily but I would NEVER get out of it what I put into it 14 years ago. That is fantasy. Follow your gut instincts and use some common sense when looking at what you are thinking of buying. If you feel that you would be better off going with new equipment and a better location and starting from scratch, you probably will be.
Framerguy
Rick
Leave no stone unturned, and then turn it over again just to make sure. You are eons ahead of me though, at least you are asking before the fact not after. 
