What home services businesses sell for, and why

What HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing companies sell for, and how to sell yours for more.

Home services is the most consolidated founder market in the country right now. Private equity platforms are buying HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing companies by the hundred, and they pay a premium for one thing: a business that runs the same on the day the owner leaves.

At a glance

Published median: 2.58xon owner earnings
Typical range at sale: 3x to 6xon EBITDA
Who buys: PE-backed platforms, regional consolidators, owner-operators
Weighed first: OdOwner Dependence

What home services businesses sell for

Every figure is a multiple of something. The measure sits beside each one, because multiples of owner earnings, EBITDA, and revenue do not compare with each other.

Sale multiples for home services, by the measure each source uses
Multiple	On	Source
2.58x	Owner earnings	Owner earnings multiple, HVAC businessesBizBuySell, HVAC Business Valuation Multiples & Financial Benchmarks (businesses sold 2021–2025)
3x to 6x	EBITDA	Typical range at saleFNDRS industry playbook
3x to 8x	EBITDA	Founder-owned add-onsKroll, 2025
9.5x	EBITDA	Average deal multiple fellCapstone Partners, 2026

Owner earnings: Profit before the owner's own pay and perks, interest, taxes, and depreciation. Small, owner-run businesses are priced on it.
EBITDA: Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, with the owner paid like a hired manager. Larger companies are priced on it.

Who buys home services businesses

PE-backed platforms
regional consolidators
owner-operators

Private equity sponsors and their platforms make about half of the purchases, most of them add-ons; strategic consolidators make most of the rest. The largest funds buy whole platforms.

Sponsors buy about half. Of 92 HVAC services deals Capstone counted in 2026 to date, financial sponsors made 47 and strategics 45; private equity add-ons alone were 41.3 percent. Capstone Partners, 2026
The national platforms. Kroll names Sila Services and Apex Service Partners, an Alpine Investors platform, among the large platforms that have completed many add-ons with practised deal and integration teams. Kroll, 2025
Mega-funds buy platforms. Capstone lists Blackstone's February 2026 deal for Champions Group, $2.5 billion at about 18.5 times EBITDA, among the year's new residential services platforms. Capstone Partners, 2026

What diligence reads first

The trade is local, the demand is steady, and the buyers are professional. That combination draws a bright line between a company that sells as a platform add-on and one that sells as a job.

Buyers pay for service agreements first: a membership base is recurring revenue in a trade that is otherwise call by call.
The owner is usually the dispatcher, the closer, and the best technician. Every one of those roles has to move to someone the buyer keeps.
Technician retention is diligence item one. A buyer models turnover before margin.
Seasonality is priced. Twelve months of clean monthly financials show whether the shoulder months hold.
Fleet, licences, and permits transfer on paper. A file that is not ready delays a close by months.

Buyers model the people and the recurring revenue first: technician productivity, customer churn, and how much revenue comes from maintenance plans. Contracted service work is valued above project work.

What buyers model. Platform buyers dig into the labour model, technician productivity, customer churn and retention, and how the recurring revenue breaks down, often with outside advisers on each workstream. Kroll, 2025
Maintenance plans drive value. Kroll credits maintenance plans and membership programs with making revenue and EBITDA predictable, the main reason the sector has drawn buyers for five years. Kroll, 2025
Service work over projects. PKF's illustrative framework puts low customer retention and mostly project work toward 5x to 6x EBITDA, and high retention with repeatable service toward 10x or more. PKF O'Connor Davies, 2026

The element buyers weigh first

Owner Dependence

How much of revenue, relationships, and decisions route through the owner. Scored as control: higher is safer.

What it measures. Share of revenue, key relationships, and decisions that require the owner, and days per year the business runs without owner contact.

Read the element

Today and prepared, side by side

The difference is preparation, and in home services it shows up in a handful of measurable places. This is the shape of it, drafted for the industry and read against what buyers actually pay.

The value gap in home services
	Today	Prepared
Multiple on EBITDA	3.4x	5.6x
Revenue under service agreements	15%	40%
Owner hours a week in dispatch and sales	35	5
Buyer confidence in handover	Low	High

Illustrative figures for home services. Your numbers come from the calculator.

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