The Ultimate Guide to Selling Your Florida Home Service Business

Valuations range from 2.5x to 10x+ your EBITDA, depending entirely on your vertical, recurring revenue, scale, and management depth. A $1M revenue HVAC company might sell for 3x SDE, while a $10M revenue platform with 40% recurring revenue could command 9x EBITDA.

SDE (Seller’s Discretionary Earnings) includes the owner’s salary and is used for businesses under $1M in profit. EBITDA measures the profit of the business after paying a manager to replace the owner, used for larger companies to gauge institutional cash flow.

Most lower-middle-market transactions involve 70–80% cash at close. The remainder is held as a seller’s note, an earnout tied to future performance, or “Rollover Equity” in PE deals.

Most deals are “cash-free, debt-free” asset sales. The fleet is typically included in the multiple-based valuation, not added on top of it, unless the hard assets vastly exceed what is required to generate the EBITDA.

From the day you sign an engagement letter with an M&A advisor to the day funds hit your bank account, expect a 6-to-9-month process in the current 2026 market environment.

No. Confidentiality is the cornerstone of business brokerage. All marketing is blind, buyers are strictly vetted, and NDAs are legally binding. Employees usually find out after the deal has closed.

While you can sell directly to a competitor, unrepresented sellers frequently leave 20–40% of the value on the table due to lack of competitive tension and are easily outmaneuvered by sophisticated PE legal teams during due diligence.

Yes. Due to continuous population migration, a thriving economy, and severe weather patterns that require constant home maintenance, Florida home service companies often command a geographical valuation premium compared to Midwest counterparts.

The buyer must have their own qualifier, or you must stay on as the Qualifying Agent (often for a fee) for a 3–12 month transition period until their personnel pass the DBPR/CILB state exams.

The Tampa/St. Pete area and the Orlando I-4 corridor are currently seeing the heaviest PE platform activity due to rapid commercial expansion and logistical density.

They are attracted to the recession-resilient, non-discretionary nature of the work, the recurring revenue of maintenance contracts, and the ability to achieve massive economies of scale by consolidating a highly fragmented industry.

Not necessarily. While PE platforms seek $5M+ EBITDA anchors, they actively acquire smaller businesses ($750K – $3M EBITDA) as “add-ons” to build out local geographic density and acquire skilled labor.

PE buyers often require the seller to reinvest (roll over) 10% to 30% of their proceeds into the new holding company. This aligns the seller with future growth and offers a lucrative “second bite of the apple” when the PE firm eventually sells the platform.

A QoE is a deep financial audit conducted by a specialized CPA firm (either on behalf of the buyer or seller) to verify that the claimed EBITDA is accurate, sustainable, and free of accounting anomalies.

The three biggest deal killers are: unverifiable financial records, surprise customer concentration issues, and the discovery of severe employee misclassification (1099 vs W-2) leading to Department of Labor liability.

Yes. Undisclosed litigation, EPA violations, or major safety issues will be found during due diligence. Disclosing them early allows your M&A advisor to control the narrative; hiding them shatters trust and kills the deal.

Most home service deals are structured as Asset Sales. The purchase price is allocated across various asset classes (equipment, goodwill, customer lists). Goodwill is generally taxed at favorable long-term capital gains rates, while equipment depreciation recapture is taxed as ordinary income. Florida’s lack of state income tax provides a massive windfall for sellers here.

If your business is structured as an S-Corporation, this tax election allows the buyer to treat the acquisition as an asset purchase for tax purposes (getting a step-up in basis) while legally structuring it as a stock purchase. Consult your CPA, as this heavily impacts your net proceeds.

Absolutely. Buyers will require a strict non-compete agreement, typically spanning 3 to 5 years, covering the geographic radius in which your business operates. They are buying your market share and will legally protect it.

In an asset sale, the buyer officially terminates and rehires your employees on day one. Buyers in this market are desperate for skilled labor — they are buying the company for the employees, so retaining them is their top priority.

Strategic buyers may eventually fold your operations into their brand. Private equity platforms often keep your local brand name intact indefinitely to leverage the decades of community goodwill and 5-star reviews you’ve built.

Owner-operators typically stay 3 to 6 months to transition relationships. If you take rollover equity and act as a platform CEO, you may stay for years. The timeline is heavily negotiated during the LOI stage.