Established Painting Contractor, 35-Year Southwest Florida Operator

$7.0M

Revenue

$1.3M

SDE

3.8x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

Operating for over 35 years, this family-owned painting contractor has built a dedicated base of HOA/Condo, Commercial and Residential customers...

Why we like it

Earnings quality is solid for the category, with $1.3M of cash flow on $7M revenue for an 18.6% margin. A painting contractor clearing seven figures of cash flow is well past the founder-with-a-truck stage and almost certainly has crews, supervisors, and a real estimating function in place.
The moat here is the 35-year relationship base with HOA and condo associations plus property managers. In Florida association work, incumbents get invited back on maintenance cycles and referred across managed portfolios, so a new competitor cannot simply buy their way in on price.
Southwest Florida climate is a durable tailwind for repainting demand. Salt, sun, and humidity force exterior recoats on a shorter cycle than almost anywhere else in the US, which turns painting from a discretionary purchase into recurring building maintenance.
Customer diversification across HOA/Condo, commercial, and residential lowers single-segment risk. If residential softens in a downturn, the association and commercial maintenance work is budgeted and code-driven, so it holds up better than a purely consumer-facing repaint business.

How to improve it

Formalize a recurring maintenance program with the existing HOA and condo clients by putting them on scheduled repaint and touch-up contracts. Converting one-off jobs into multi-year agreements smooths revenue and raises the multiple a future buyer will pay.
Build a dedicated property-manager referral channel. Each management company controls dozens of associations, so signing a handful of new managers can compound into recurring pipeline without proportional sales spend.
Audit and tighten job-level gross margin by tracking labor hours and paint cost per project. Painting margins leak through under-bid jobs and crew inefficiency, so installing job costing can add points to the 18.6% owner margin quickly.
Layer in adjacent high-margin services such as pressure washing, waterproofing, and exterior coatings/sealants. These are natural attach-ons for the same association clients and increase revenue per building visit.
Reduce owner dependence by promoting or hiring a general manager and a lead estimator if not already in place. The current $1.3M cash flow likely includes owner labor, and de-risking that seat both stabilizes operations and supports a cleaner exit.
Invest in a simple digital presence and review base for the residential segment. Consistent local reviews and a functioning website turn residential leads from word-of-mouth into a repeatable acquisition channel that funds crew utilization between commercial jobs.

Diligence notes

Confirm the true composition of the $1.3M cash flow and how much is owner add-backs versus recurring operating profit. Verify whether the number reflects a working owner-operator salary or a passive owner, because that changes the real earnings a buyer inherits.
Break down revenue by segment and by customer to test concentration. Find out what share comes from HOA/Condo versus commercial versus residential, and whether any single association or management company represents a dangerous portion of the book.
Examine the recurring versus project-based nature of the association work. Ask whether these are contracted maintenance cycles or repeat-but-uncommitted relationships, since that distinction drives both durability and the defensibility of the 3.83x multiple.
Assess labor and crew stability, including whether key foremen and estimators stay through transition. In a 35-year contractor the institutional knowledge and property-manager relationships often live with a few long-tenured people, so retention terms matter.
Verify licensing, insurance, workers comp history, and any past litigation or lien claims. Painting is a claims-exposed trade and Florida carries meaningful insurance cost, so understand the loss history and current premium load against that 18.6% margin.
Clarify what assets are included at the $4,975,000 price, including vehicles, equipment, and any real estate. The listing does not indicate real estate or a major equipment package, so confirm this is a going-concern operations sale before underwriting the multiple.

Source

Originally listed on Sunbelt Business Brokers. View original listing →