Premier Landscaping & Maintenance, 27-Year Long Island Contractor

$1.0M

Revenue

$640K

SDE

3.1x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 27-year-old landscaping and property maintenance company operating on Long Island's East End since 1999. The business serves a primarily residential customer base with a diversified service mix: recurring maintenance, seasonal clean-ups, landscape enhancements, lawn treatments, tree work, and snow management. That service spread matters because it smooths out the seasonality that kills single-service landscapers, with snow revenue backfilling the winter trough that mowing routes leave behind.

The financial profile is clean for a business this size. Roughly $1.01M in 2025 revenue produced $638K in reported net earnings, a fat 63% owner-earnings margin that suggests a lean, owner-heavy operation with pricing power in an affluent market. More than 75% of revenue comes from returning customers, and no single account represents 10% or more of sales, so customer concentration risk is low and the revenue base is sticky.

The sale includes approximately $209,500 of essential equipment owned outright. The deal is explicitly NOT SBA eligible, which narrows the buyer pool and changes how you structure the capital stack. At a $2M asking price against $640K cash flow, the 3.13x multiple is in the normal range for a residential landscaping book, but the buyer will need to unpack how much of that $638K is truly transferable versus tied to the owner's personal labor and relationships.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is strong: $638K net on roughly $1.01M revenue is a 63% margin, which for a residential landscaping route means the owner is billing well above cost and running lean. The 75%-plus returning-customer base and no customer over 10% of sales means the revenue is diversified and predictable, not lumpy project work.
The moat is durability through longevity and reputation. Twenty-seven years of continuous operation in an affluent, geographically constrained market like Long Island's East End builds referral density and brand recognition that a new entrant cannot buy overnight. Route density in a defined territory is the real defensibility here, not any single service line.
Recurring maintenance plus snow management creates a natural revenue hedge across seasons. Mowing and lawn treatments carry the warm months while snow removal fills the winter, which is exactly the diversification that keeps cash flow stable when a pure mow-and-blow operator would be idle. Essential services like these get cut last in a downturn on high-income properties.
The buyer profile fits either an existing operator bolting on route density or a first-time owner-operator stepping into a proven book. With $209,500 of equipment owned outright and included, the buyer inherits an operational business day one rather than assembling a fleet, lowering execution risk on the transition.

How to improve it

Audit and formalize the recurring maintenance contracts within the first 90 days. If the 75% returning revenue is handshake-based rather than under written seasonal agreements, convert customers to auto-renewing annual contracts with prepay or ACH billing to lock in retention and improve working capital.
Push price on the existing book. In an affluent East End market, a business running 63% margins likely still has room to raise rates 5 to 10% on longstanding customers who have not seen an increase in years, and route-based price increases flow almost entirely to the bottom line.
Build a simple upsell motion into every maintenance visit. Crews already on-property should be systematically quoting landscape enhancements, tree work, and lawn treatments, turning a mowing contract into a higher-ticket annual relationship and increasing revenue per customer without adding acquisition cost.
Reduce owner dependency by promoting or hiring a crew lead and operations manager. A 63% margin often signals the owner is doing sales, estimating, and scheduling personally, so documenting these functions and transferring relationships early protects the earnings the buyer is paying for.
Add a snow management sales push before the first winter under new ownership. Snow contracts are high-margin and contractual, and expanding the winter book among existing summer maintenance customers is low-cost cross-selling that materially smooths annual cash flow.
Invest in basic digital presence and review generation. A 27-year-old referral business often has minimal online footprint, so building a Google Business Profile with active review solicitation captures the affluent homeowners now searching online and creates a second lead channel beyond word of mouth.

Diligence notes

Verify the $638K net earnings and the $1.01M revenue against tax returns and bank deposits for the last three years. A 63% margin is unusually high for landscaping, so confirm whether it reflects genuine profitability or aggressive add-backs of owner labor, unrecorded subcontractor costs, or personal expenses run through the business.
Quantify exactly how much of the cash flow depends on the owner's personal labor and customer relationships. If the owner is estimating jobs, running a crew, and holding the key customer relationships, a large share of that $640K may not transfer, which changes the real multiple you are paying.
Scrutinize the recurring-revenue claim by pulling the actual customer list with billing history. Confirm whether the 75% returning figure is contractual or simply repeat behavior, and check churn and average customer tenure to understand how durable the base really is.
Confirm labor structure and legal exposure, since landscaping frequently relies on seasonal and immigrant labor. Verify worker classification, I-9 compliance, workers comp coverage, and whether crews are W-2 employees or contractors, because misclassification can create material successor liability.
Understand why the deal is NOT SBA eligible, as this is a red flag worth explaining. It could reflect books that will not survive lender scrutiny, cash-based revenue, or a structure that fails financing standards, all of which affect both valuation and your financing options.
Assess equipment condition and replacement timeline behind the $209,500 figure. Landscaping fleets and mowers wear fast, so inspect the trucks and machinery, confirm what is owned free and clear, and budget for near-term capex that could erode the first years of cash flow.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →