Las Vegas Commercial Plumbing Contractor, 11-Year Nevada Business

$632K

SDE

3.6x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is an 11-year-old commercial plumbing contractor operating in the Southern Nevada market since 2015. The business focuses on new construction and tenant improvement work, serving general contractors and commercial clients across the fast-growing Las Vegas metro. It comes with an established field crew backed by estimating and administrative support, meaning the operation runs on a team rather than solely on the owner.

The asking price of $2.3M against $631,503 in cash flow puts the deal at roughly 3.64x, a reasonable multiple for a licensed trade business with an installed base of contractor relationships. The sale includes vehicles, equipment, furniture and fixtures, plus $300,000 of working capital, which is a meaningful inclusion for a project-based contractor that carries materials, labor, and receivables between billing milestones.

What makes this notable is the combination of a licensed, team-run trade operation in one of the most construction-heavy markets in the country, paired with a retiring seller willing to stay on for up to two years. The revenue is undisclosed, so the true size and margin profile need verification, but the fundamentals (essential trade, repeat GC relationships, established crew) are the kind of boring, durable cash flow that holds up across cycles.

Why we like it

At 3.64x $631,503 in cash flow, the entry multiple is fair for a licensed trade business, and the price includes $300k of working capital plus vehicles and equipment. That working capital inclusion matters a lot for a project-based plumber that funds materials and labor ahead of progress billings, so you are not immediately refilling the tank post-close.
Commercial plumbing is a non-discretionary trade: new construction and tenant improvement work still needs licensed plumbers regardless of the cycle. The business runs on an established field team with estimating and admin support, meaning it is not a one-man show dependent entirely on the owner swinging a wrench.
Southern Nevada remains one of the most construction-active metros in the country, with ongoing commercial development and tenant improvement churn. An entrenched book of general contractor relationships built over 11 years is the real asset here, since GCs reward known, reliable subs with repeat invitations to bid.
The seller is retiring and willing to stay up to two years, with office and accounting transition help for six months. For a buyer without a Nevada plumbing license, that runway plus potential qualifying-employee support is the difference between a clean handoff and a licensing cliff.

How to improve it

Verify and then systematize the GC relationship pipeline: map every active general contractor the business bids with, track win rates by estimator, and formalize a cadence of staying in front of the top 10 relationships. Repeat invitations to bid are the lifeblood of a commercial sub, and losing a key GC contact at transition is the single biggest revenue risk to close.
Add a recurring service and maintenance arm layered on top of the new-construction and TI work. Every building this crew plumbs is a future repair, backflow testing, and maintenance customer, and converting even a fraction into service agreements builds the kind of repeat revenue that smooths the lumpy project cycle.
Tighten estimating and job costing discipline so bids reflect true labor and material costs on each project. Commercial plumbing margins live or die on accurate estimating, and even a modest improvement in bid accuracy and change-order capture flows straight to the $631k cash flow line.
Recruit and license additional field crews to expand capacity, since the growth opportunity cited is literally adding contractor relationships that the current team may not have bandwidth to serve. In a construction-hot market, the constraint is usually skilled labor, so a recruiting and apprenticeship pipeline is the real growth lever.
Formalize the qualifying-license path before close by securing a licensed employee or obtaining your own Nevada C-1 plumbing license. Nevada licensing requirements are strict, and the deal only works if the business can keep operating legally the day the seller walks, so lock this down in diligence.
Build a simple CRM and bid-tracking system to replace whatever informal tracking the retiring owner carries in his head. Institutional knowledge about which GCs pay fast, which jobs run profitably, and which to avoid should live in a system, not a founder's memory.
Pursue adjacent trade bolt-ons or referral partnerships with HVAC and electrical subs who bid the same commercial projects. Shared GC relationships make cross-referral or even a small roll-up a natural path to grow wallet share on the same jobs.

Diligence notes

Revenue is undisclosed, which is the first thing to pin down. Pull three years of tax returns and financials to confirm the $631,503 cash flow, understand gross margins, and calculate revenue so you can judge whether 3.64x is actually cheap or whether margins are thin and volatile.
Scrutinize customer concentration among general contractors, since a commercial sub often derives most revenue from a handful of GCs. Identify what percentage of revenue comes from the top three relationships and whether those contacts are loyal to the retiring owner personally rather than the business.
Confirm the Nevada contractor licensing structure, including who holds the qualifying license and what it takes to transfer or replace it post-close. If the license is tied to the departing owner and no qualifying employee stays, the business cannot legally operate, which would gut the deal.
Examine the work-in-progress schedule and backlog, including signed contracts, open bids, and progress billings. Project-based contractors can look healthy on trailing numbers while the forward pipeline has dried up, so you need to see committed future work and the retention status of key field staff.
Review the condition and ownership of the included vehicles and equipment, confirming they are owned free and clear and not nearing replacement. Verify the $300k working capital composition, specifically how much is receivables, aging of those receivables, and whether any are at risk of non-payment.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →