Established Chicago Plumbing Business, 11-Year Illinois Residential Contractor

$1.5M

Revenue

$700K

SDE

2.1x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is an 11-year-old plumbing services company serving the Chicago, Illinois market, with roughly 80% of its work coming from residential customers and the remainder spread across other segments. The business generates approximately $1.5M in annual revenue and reports adjusted earnings of about $700K, which implies a fat, roughly 47% margin that is well above typical residential plumbing norms and warrants close scrutiny in diligence. The team is lean: four employees supplemented by subcontractors scaled up or down based on project demand.

What you are buying here is a durable, non-discretionary trade business with a long operating history and a repeat-friendly residential base. Plumbing is the definition of recession-resistant: pipes fail, water heaters die, and people pay whether the economy is up or down. The asking price of $1.5M against $700K EBITDA pencils to roughly 2.14x, which is in line with or slightly below the market for a clean, profitable home-services operation of this size.

The flexible subcontractor model keeps fixed overhead low and margins high, but it also raises the central question for any buyer: how much of this cash flow is tied to the owner personally pulling permits, closing jobs, and holding the master plumber license. The seller is offering up to five months of transition support, which signals the business is transferable but also hints that the handover window matters. This fits a strategic home-services acquirer, a plumbing contractor expanding footprint, or a hands-on owner-operator who can step into the field and the office.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is the headline: roughly $700K EBITDA on $1.5M revenue is a ~47% margin, far above typical residential plumbing comps. If that number holds up in diligence, it is a highly cash-generative trade business at a cheap 2.14x multiple, but the margin is also the single biggest thing to verify.
Plumbing is as recession-resistant as home services get. Water heaters, leaks, and clogs are non-deferrable emergencies people pay for in any economy, and an 80% residential mix spreads revenue across many small, uncorrelated jobs rather than a few large contracts.
The business has 11 years of operating history under one roof, which means established referral channels, a known brand in the Chicago market, and a track record a lender can underwrite. Longevity in a trade business signals repeat customers and local reputation that are hard for a new entrant to replicate.
The lean structure (four employees plus flex subcontractors) keeps fixed overhead low and lets a buyer scale labor with demand rather than carry idle payroll. For an operator who can add a few trucks and marketing spend, there is clear headroom to grow revenue on the existing cost base.

How to improve it

Install a maintenance and membership program to manufacture recurring revenue. Residential plumbing is mostly break-fix today; a paid annual plan covering water heater flushes, drain inspections, and priority service converts one-time callers into a recurring book that lifts both valuation multiple and off-season cash flow.
Build out a dispatchable service-tech bench and systematize job scheduling so revenue is not capped by the owner's personal capacity. Hiring one or two more licensed techs and adding field management software (ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro) lets the business take more same-day calls and raise close rates.
Push into commercial and property management accounts, which the listing flags as underdeveloped. Recurring commercial relationships with landlords, HOAs, and facilities managers smooth revenue, raise average ticket, and reduce dependence on one-off residential leads.
Invest in local lead generation: Google Local Services ads, a reviews engine, and a real website presence. Most 11-year-old trade shops underinvest in digital, and in a dense market like Chicago, owning the top of local search can meaningfully increase call volume on existing capacity.
Tighten the subcontractor-versus-employee mix and audit true job-level margins. If a large share of work is subbed out, bringing high-frequency job types in-house with W-2 techs can capture margin currently leaking to subs while improving quality control and scheduling reliability.
Implement flat-rate pricing and upsell scripting at the point of service. Shifting from time-and-materials to menu pricing with trained techs offering water heater, filtration, and fixture upgrades typically lifts average ticket 15 to 25% without adding a single new customer.

Diligence notes

Verify the ~47% EBITDA margin, which is abnormally high for residential plumbing. Reconcile tax returns against the adjusted earnings figure, understand every add-back, and confirm the $700K is sustainable and not inflated by deferred truck, equipment, or marketing spend that a new owner will have to restore.
Pin down the licensing dependency. Confirm whether the master plumber license sits with the owner personally or with an employee who will stay. If the business cannot pull permits or operate legally without the departing owner's credential, the five-month transition and your deal structure must address that directly.
Dig into the subcontractor model and owner workload. Determine how much of the $700K reflects the owner personally running jobs, estimating, and dispatching. A heavy owner-dependence means the true replacement cost of management reduces the real cash flow available to a passive buyer.
Examine customer concentration and lead sources. Confirm the residential base is genuinely diversified across many small jobs, identify where leads originate (referrals, Google, past customers), and assess how much of that lead flow walks out the door with the owner.
Review the condition and ownership of trucks, tools, and equipment. The listing does not detail the asset package, so confirm what hard assets are included in the price, their age, and any upcoming replacement capex that will hit the first year of ownership.
Clarify the location and real estate situation given the listing shows an unknown address. Understand where the business operates from, whether there is a lease or shop to assume, and confirm the Chicago service area footprint matches the revenue claims.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →