Multifamily General Contractor, San Diego County Renovation Specialist

$6.8M

Revenue

$842K

SDE

3.3x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a mid-tier general contracting firm serving San Diego County's multifamily residential sector. The business self-performs turnkey tenant renovations, design-build work, and structural exterior renovations (balconies, waterproofing) for institutional property managers that oversee thousands of Southern California units. A dedicated in-house crew of 20-plus field employees does the core work, supervised by a 10-plus year VP and a project manager, which keeps the operating model tight and owner dependence relatively low on the field side.

The standout feature is how the work is sourced. Management claims nearly all jobs come through direct, non-competitive work orders from long-standing property management relationships, which is unusual in a trade where most GCs grind through competitive bids. That dynamic, if real, turns a project-based business into something closer to a preferred-vendor flow with recurring order volume from the same anchor accounts.

The growth story leans on SB 721, California's mandatory balcony and exterior elevated element inspection law, which is forcing property owners into structural and waterproofing remediation. Revenue roughly doubled from $3.4M in 2023 to $6.8M in 2025, with SDE climbing from $309K to $896K over the same window, and 2026 is already pacing at $5.4M through August. The company also holds a manufacturer-direct wholesale cabinet distributorship bought at under half retail, an underused margin lever and a potential secondary revenue line.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is improving fast, with SDE growing from $309K in 2023 to $896K in 2025 on revenue that nearly doubled to $6.8M. At a $2.737M ask, the 3.25x multiple on cash flow looks reasonable for a growing GC, and the deal is pre-approved for roughly 90% SBA 7(a) financing which means about $274K down controls the whole thing.
The order flow is the real asset here. Nearly all work arrives as direct, non-competitive work orders from institutional property managers overseeing thousands of units, which converts a bid-dependent trade into something closer to preferred-vendor recurring volume. Those anchor relationships are the moat, and the seller commits to personally introducing the buyer to each one.
SB 721 is a genuine regulatory tailwind, not marketing fluff. California law now mandates balcony and exterior element inspections across multifamily stock, which forces structural and waterproofing remediation on a defined timeline and feeds a high-margin pipeline the company is already positioned to capture.
The field is built to run without the owner, which lowers transition risk materially. A 10-plus year VP manages operations, a capable PM supports him, and a 20-plus person in-house crew self-performs the work. The owner's main role is bidding and estimating, and the seller has already started hiring a dedicated estimator to replace himself.

How to improve it

Raise prices immediately on the non-competitive work orders. The owner admits to being the lowest bidder on most jobs, so a systematic 10-15% increase targeting a normal 70% win rate would drop hundreds of thousands straight to the bottom line with no added headcount. This is the single highest-return move in the first 90 days.
Stand up a sales motion for the wholesale cabinet distributorship, which has received $0 in marketing to date. Selling solid wood cabinetry bought at under half retail directly to other builders and self-performing property managers is a credible $1M to $2M revenue line that leverages an asset the firm already owns.
Finish hiring and onboarding the dedicated estimator the seller started recruiting. Taking bidding off the owner's plate removes the last meaningful piece of owner dependence and increases bid capacity, freeing the new owner to focus on account expansion rather than daily estimating.
Deepen penetration within existing anchor accounts. These clients manage thousands of units across Southern California, so mapping their full renovation and SB 721 compliance calendars and proactively scheduling work would expand wallet share without acquiring a single new logo.
Formalize the client relationships into written master service agreements where possible. Converting handshake vendor arrangements into documented preferred-vendor or MSA terms protects the revenue base post-sale and materially improves the business's value and financeability at the next exit.
Build a light CRM and pipeline tracking system around the work-order flow. Right now the relationships appear to live in the owner's head, so documenting contacts, job history, and bid-to-win data de-risks the transition and surfaces upsell patterns.
Explore geographic expansion of the structural and waterproofing remediation service beyond San Diego County. SB 721 applies statewide, so the same crew capability and compliance expertise can be exported to adjacent markets like Orange County or the Inland Empire.

Diligence notes

Scrutinize the durability and concentration of the anchor property management relationships, since nearly all revenue flows through them without contracts. Pull a customer-level revenue breakdown for the last three years and confirm no single client represents outsized concentration that would crater the business if it walked post-sale.
Verify the 2026 revenue pacing and the SB 721 pipeline. The claim of $5.4M through August 2026 and a multi-year remediation backlog needs backing with a signed and bid work schedule, because the entire growth thesis rests on this regulatory demand being real and bookable.
Examine the quality of the VP and project manager and their intent to stay. The low-risk transition narrative depends entirely on these two people, so understand their compensation, any equity or retention expectations, and whether they are flight risks once the founder exits.
Validate the cabinet distributorship's exclusivity and economics. Confirm the manufacturer-direct agreement is transferable, genuinely exclusive, and actually priced at under half retail, since this underpins both the interior margin story and the proposed secondary revenue line.
Reconcile the SDE build and add-backs across all three years, given the rapid jump from $309K to $896K. Confirm the normalizations are legitimate, understand what drove the step-change in margin from 2023 to 2024, and verify the numbers tie to tax returns before relying on the 3.25x multiple.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →