New Deals: A remotely-operated short-term rental company, commercial landscaper with 200+ maintenance contracts, and 3 other finds...

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NEW DEALS

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📍 Location: Southern California
💰 Asking Price: $2,972,011
💼 EBITDA: $794,871
📊 Revenue: $1,061,131
📅 Established: 2010s

💭 My 2 Cents: A property manager renting a house to a family for a year takes 8% to 12% of the rent. Renting the same house by the night costs the owner 20% to 35%, because somebody has to clean it, price it and let guests in. This company keeps a deliberately capped portfolio of premium short-term rental homes, and the owners who sign its annual auto-renewing agreements stay a decade or more. One operations lead handles owner and guest relations, and nightly rates come off a pricing engine built on 12 years of local data. Because a custom platform covers after-hours inquiries, upsells and property access, that one person can run the whole book. A buyer does not have to live in Southern California, since the company owns no office, no vehicles, no real estate, and runs fully remote. That said, I'd want fee income home by home, because a capped portfolio concentrates earnings in a few addresses. Airbnb and Vrbo take a cut of every night they fill, so I'd also want the share of bookings coming direct. A California city cannot restrict short-term rentals inside the coastal zone without Coastal Commission approval (which is how Manhattan Beach lost its ban), so I'd also want to know how many homes sit in the zone. There is a waiting list of owners who want in, which makes the cap a choice rather than a ceiling, and a buyer decides how far to lift it.

📍 Location: Missouri
💰 Asking Price: $6,500,000
💼 EBITDA: $1,300,000
📊 Revenue: $3,200,000
📅 Established: 2020s

💭 My 2 Cents: A tow truck costs $50,000 to $150,000 and needs a yard to park in. On the other hand, a lockout or a jump start needs a reliable car and a box of tools, so the non-towing half of this work can run on a dispatch network instead of a fleet. This company works that side across several states: lockouts, jump starts, tire changes and fuel delivery. Contracted providers do the work, and the dispatching, training and performance standards run on systems the company built itself. That said, I'd want the call volume split by which network sends it, because the insurers and motor clubs that sell roadside coverage do not dispatch their own calls, and whoever hands this company the most work sets the price of it. A contractor can sit on several dispatch lists at once, so I'd also want to know how many of these are exclusive, since its arrival times depend on people it does not employ. I'd also want to see how the contractor relationships are papered, because the Labor Department made a roadside company called ACD Emergency Road Services pay $166,030 in 2021 for treating its workers as contractors, and training and performance standards are exactly the facts a regulator weighs. Agero bought Urgently in April, so two of the networks that hand out this work are now one, and a buyer here is acquiring a seat on a list that just got harder to get.

📍 Location: Texas
💰 Asking Price: $2,985,000
💼 EBITDA: $600,000
📊 Revenue: $3,600,000
📅 Established: 1999

💭 My 2 Cents: Most building maintenance can be deferred quietly. Grounds care cannot, because a property that stops being mowed looks it. This company has built to 200 to 250 maintenance agreements across three territories, with 40 people on payroll, eight crews, two yards and an in-house mechanic keeping 27 vehicles and trailers on the road. Crew leaders handle most of the daily load, and three quarters of revenue comes off that maintenance base. That said, I'd want the largest accounts listed by how long each has been on the book and how many visits a year each buys now, because a book that renews every year while the visit count drifts down is a declining book with a perfect retention record. Landscaping takes about 40% of every H-2B visa issued and this year's extra supply ran out in the spring, so I'd also want to know how much of the crew comes in on visas, since a company without them pays 15% to 20% more for labor. I'd also want the hour meters on the mowers, because commercial machines go 2,000 to 3,000 hours before a major overhaul, so the fleet turns into a replacement number a buyer has to plan for every year. Growth here means more accounts inside the territories the company already covers rather than a fourth one, because a buyer who adds work to a route a crew is already driving adds revenue without adding a crew.

📍 Location: Florida
💰 Asking Price: $1,600,000
💼 EBITDA: $464,505
📊 Revenue: $1,574,938
📅 Established: 2000s

💭 My 2 Cents: A water treatment company sells the equipment once and the filters forever. Pre-filters come out every 6 to 12 months and the membrane lasts 2 to 3 years, so every system keeps paying as long as the customer comes back for the parts. This company installs and services softeners, whole-house filtration and reverse osmosis for residential and light commercial customers, with leads arriving through organic search and referrals rather than paid advertising. It buys direct and puts its own brand on the equipment, which is where the margins come from. That said, I'd want to know whose valve is actually inside the branded equipment, because most dealer brands sit on standard Clack or Fleck platforms and the filter housings come in standard sizes anyone can buy. I'd also want the share of installed systems on a scheduled service plan, because a customer who is not on one waits until the water tastes wrong and then decides all over again who to call. Its own brand also means its own warranty, so I'd want the annual cost of callbacks. The owner still runs sales himself, so a buyer either takes that job or pays the roughly 20% commission this trade runs, and I'd want him committed long enough to train a replacement. About 2.5 million Floridians drink from private wells that no agency is required to test, so a buyer here is acquiring a market where only the homeowner can fix a water problem.

📍 Location: Washington
💰 Asking Price: $1,150,000
💼 EBITDA: $420,000
📊 Revenue: $2,100,000
📅 Established: N/A

💭 My 2 Cents: An electrical contractor in Washington has to keep a certified administrator on file, and that certificate belongs to a person, not the company. It does not have to be the owner, which is why someone who has never pulled wire can own one of these. Electrician jobs are projected to grow 9% through 2034 while certifying one takes 8,000 hours of supervised work, so demand in this trade outruns supply. This one has six technicians, a scheduler and a bookkeeper covering commercial projects, new residential construction and service contracts, and the owner oversees the day to day. Six of its service trucks are working and two are parked, waiting on hires rather than on customers. That said, I'd want to know who holds the administrator certificate, because the license goes void 90 days after that person leaves. I'd also want to know how many of the six are certified journeymen, since Washington lets each one supervise a single trainee, and that ratio sets how fast a buyer can grow the crew without poaching. Revenue per technician here runs well above the $180,000 to $250,000 the trade expects, so I'd also want it split out, since that usually means a few large contracts rather than a steady book. Important note: On commercial jobs a general contractor holds back 5% to 10% of every payment until long after the work is done (this is called retainage), so a buyer pays electricians every week out of money the customer has not released.