Boutique Florida HOA & Condo Association Law Firm

$1.2M

Revenue

$1.1M

SDE

1.4x

Multiple

Subscribe Free

Read the full deal writeup

Get Free Access

Already a member? Sign in

Full Editorial Writeup

This is a boutique Florida law firm built around one narrow, defensible niche: representing Homeowners Associations, Co-ops, and Condominium Association Boards. By deliberately never representing individual homeowners, the firm sidesteps the conflict-of-interest minefield that plagues most real estate practices and instead builds durable, corporate-style relationships with association boards that renew year after year. This is the legal equivalent of a B2B recurring-revenue book rather than one-off transactional work.

The economics are unusually clean for a law firm. On roughly $1.16M of revenue the practice throws off about $1.1M in cash flow, an eye-popping 95 percent margin that implies a very lean cost structure and likely an owner-attorney doing much of the high-value work. The listing emphasizes fully collected monthly receivables, which for a services firm is the difference between real cash flow and a pile of aging invoices you hope to collect.

Positioned in Florida, the firm sits in one of the densest HOA and condo markets in the country, with thousands of associations legally required to handle collections, covenant enforcement, board governance, and increasingly, post-Surfside structural and reserve compliance work. At a 1.45x cash flow multiple and a $1.6M ask, the headline price looks cheap, but the entire story hinges on how much of that $1.1M walks out the door with the selling attorney.

Why we like it

The earnings quality on paper is exceptional: roughly $1.1M of cash flow on $1.16M of revenue is a 95 percent margin, and the listing specifically flags fully collected monthly receivables rather than aging work-in-progress. If those numbers survive diligence, this is a cash machine with almost no overhead drag.
The niche is genuinely defensible. Representing only associations and never individual homeowners eliminates most conflict-of-interest problems and creates recurring, corporate-style relationships with boards that renew rather than one-and-done transactional clients. That recurring structure is rare in a law firm and is the closest thing legal services has to a subscription.
Florida is the ideal geography for this practice, with one of the highest concentrations of HOAs and condo associations in the country and a regulatory environment (reserve studies, structural inspections, delinquency collections) that keeps generating mandatory legal work. Post-Surfside legislation has structurally increased the volume of association compliance work, a real tailwind.
The 1.45x cash flow multiple is well below typical service-business pricing, which usually reflects seller-attorney dependence risk. For a buyer who is themselves a licensed Florida attorney or has one on the team, that discount is a genuine opportunity to buy durable recurring relationships cheaply.

How to improve it

Immediately map every association client relationship and get renewal or engagement letters re-papered to the acquiring entity, not the selling attorney personally. The entire moat is the recurring board relationships, so lock down that the clients follow the firm, not the departing lawyer.
Systematize the work into productized flat-fee packages: covenant enforcement, delinquency collections, annual meeting and governance support, and document review. Association boards value predictable pricing, and productizing reduces reliance on the founder's judgment and enables associate leverage.
Hire and train one or two junior attorneys or paralegals to handle routine collections and enforcement matters. The 95 percent margin almost certainly reflects the owner personally doing the work, so building a delivery bench is the only path to scaling revenue past the founder's capacity.
Build a targeted business development motion toward property management companies and community association management firms, which control the introductions to hundreds of boards. Winning a few management-company referral channels can multiply the client count without one-off marketing spend.
Add adjacent recurring revenue lines the client base already needs: reserve study coordination, structural inspection compliance under Florida's post-Surfside laws, and amendment drafting. These are mandatory, deadline-driven services that deepen wallet share with existing associations.
Implement practice-management software and clear financial reporting to institutionalize the collected-receivables discipline. Clean recurring billing and matter tracking make the firm more valuable at resale and protect the cash flow story from slipping under new ownership.

Diligence notes

The single most important question is key-person risk: how much of the $1.1M cash flow depends on the selling attorney personally, and will the clients stay after they leave? Demand a client-by-client revenue breakdown, tenure, and whether relationships are institutional to the firm or personal to the lawyer.
Verify the 95 percent margin by reconciling the reported cash flow against tax returns and bank statements. A near-total margin usually means the owner draws minimal compensation, so normalize for a market-rate salary for whoever will actually do the legal work and recompute the true multiple.
Confirm the licensing and transition mechanics. A Florida law firm can generally only be owned by licensed Florida attorneys, so a non-attorney buyer needs a clear structure, and the seller's post-sale involvement and non-compete terms are critical since none are disclosed.
Analyze client concentration and contract structure. Determine how many associations make up the book, whether engagements are on renewable retainers or matter-by-matter, and what percentage of revenue sits in the top five clients, since a few large management-company relationships could carry outsized risk.
Assess pending and contingent matters, malpractice exposure, and trust-account compliance. Confirm there is adequate malpractice insurance, review any open litigation the firm is handling, and verify that client trust accounts and receivables are clean before assuming the collected-receivables claim.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →