Leading HVAC Service Company, 40-Year Northern Utah Contractor

$5.7M

Revenue

$574K

SDE

1.0x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 40-year-old HVAC services company operating across the Wasatch Front in Northern Utah, serving residential and commercial customers with heating, cooling, ventilation, indoor air quality, maintenance, repair, and replacement work. Founded in 1985, the business has built a recognizable local brand and a diversified customer base spanning homeowners, property managers, and commercial facilities, backed by a reputation for quality workmanship and long-standing relationships. It runs out of a leased 4,500 SF unit with five offices and a 3,800 SF warehouse at a modest $3,000 per month, with the lease running through 2032.

The revenue base is a mix of recurring maintenance agreements and project-based service and replacement work, which smooths out some of the lumpiness that pure install shops suffer. On $5.74M of revenue the business reports $573,727 in EBITDA, roughly a 10% margin, and includes $315,732 of FF&E in the asking price. The headline number worth staring at is the 1.04x multiple: $595,000 asking against $573,727 of EBITDA is an eye-catching price for a four-decade operator in a growing market.

Northern Utah is one of the stronger demographic stories in the country, with population growth, aging housing stock, and tightening energy efficiency codes all driving sustained HVAC demand. The seller is retiring and offering 60 days of support plus possible seller financing for a qualified buyer, which makes this a clean owner-operator or bolt-on opportunity for a regional home-services consolidator.

Why we like it

The price is the story: $595,000 asking against $573,727 of reported EBITDA is a 1.04x multiple, which is far below the 3x to 5x range healthy HVAC service businesses typically command. If that EBITDA holds up under diligence, the deal effectively pays for itself inside roughly 14 months of earnings.
HVAC is textbook recession-resistant demand. When a furnace or AC unit fails in a Utah winter or summer, it gets repaired or replaced regardless of the economy, and the recurring maintenance agreements layer in a predictable revenue floor on top of reactive service calls.
Forty years of operating history across the Wasatch Front has produced a recognizable brand, thousands of completed engagements, and a diversified book spanning homeowners, property managers, and commercial accounts. That installed base and referral flywheel is expensive and slow to rebuild, which is a real moat for a local service business.
Northern Utah has some of the best demographic tailwinds in the US, with strong population growth, aging HVAC systems due for replacement, and tightening energy efficiency and indoor air quality requirements. All of these push organic demand higher without the owner needing to invent new product lines.

How to improve it

Audit and aggressively grow the recurring maintenance agreement base. Converting one-time repair customers onto annual service plans raises revenue predictability, boosts attach rates on parts and replacements, and directly lifts the resale multiple for whoever buys this next.
Implement a modern field service management and dispatch system if one is not already in place. Route optimization, automated follow-up quoting, and technician utilization tracking typically add several points of margin to a shop running at only 10% EBITDA.
Expand the technician headcount beyond the current four full-time employees. The listing explicitly flags significant untapped demand, and the binding constraint on a service business is usually billable truck hours, so adding and training techs is the fastest path to top-line growth.
Invest in digital lead generation and reputation management. A 40-year brand with a strong local reputation is likely underweight on Google reviews, paid search, and a conversion-focused website, all of which are cheap levers to capture the growing replacement demand in the market.
Push higher-margin indoor air quality and energy efficiency upgrades. Tightening codes and consumer awareness make IAQ add-ons, smart thermostats, and high-efficiency system replacements a natural upsell on every existing maintenance and repair visit.
Document and systematize key-person knowledge before the seller exits. With only four employees and a retiring owner, codifying pricing, vendor relationships, and customer history into SOPs protects against disruption and makes the business genuinely transferable.
Evaluate commercial contract expansion with property managers. The business already serves commercial facilities, and locking in multi-site maintenance contracts with regional property management firms would build a more durable, higher-ticket recurring revenue stream.

Diligence notes

The 1.04x multiple is suspiciously low for a profitable 40-year HVAC business, so the first job is to verify the $573,727 EBITDA figure against tax returns and bank statements. Confirm whether that number is clean of owner addbacks and whether there are hidden liabilities, customer concentration, or deferred maintenance on trucks and equipment driving the discount.
Reconcile the reported financials with reality: $5.74M revenue on only four full-time employees implies very high revenue per head, which is unusual for a service HVAC shop. Determine whether the company relies heavily on subcontractors, 1099 labor, or seasonal crews not reflected in the employee count, because that changes the true cost structure.
Scrutinize the mix between recurring maintenance revenue and project-based replacement work. Understand how much revenue is contractually recurring versus one-time, and whether the large revenue base is concentrated in a few big commercial accounts that could walk when the long-tenured owner retires.
Review the lease terms and location carefully. The $3,000 per month rent through January 2032 is favorable, but confirm renewal options, whether the lease transfers cleanly on a sale, and whether the current facility can support the headcount growth needed to realize the stated expansion opportunity.
Assess technician licensing, workmanship warranties, and any open warranty liabilities from prior installs. With thousands of completed engagements over 40 years, understand callback rates and whether the company carries adequate liability coverage and proper state HVAC licensing that can transfer to a new owner.
Clarify the structure and terms of the available seller financing. Given the retirement motive and low asking price, negotiate meaningful seller paper tied to an earnout or transition milestones, which both reduces your capital at risk and keeps the seller invested in a smooth handover.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →