Suffolk County Landscape Maintenance Company, 450-Account New York Route Business

$2.1M

Revenue

$724K

SDE

2.5x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a Suffolk County, New York landscape maintenance operation serving roughly 450 residential and commercial accounts with just three operating crews. The business is built around recurring maintenance work: lawn cutting, trimming, edging, seasonal cleanups, shrub and hedge care, planting, mulching, and fertilization. The model leans heavily on route density and scheduling discipline, which is what lets a lean team service a large account base while holding overhead down.

On roughly $2.07M in revenue the business reports about $724K in cash flow, a margin north of 35%, which is strong for a maintenance landscaper and reflects the efficiency the seller emphasizes. The 2.49x cash flow multiple on a $1.8M asking price is reasonable for a route-based service book of this size, though the listing openly flags that tax returns understate performance and that owner add-backs require normalization.

The strategic logic is straightforward: a buyer who already runs crews in the region can bolt these 450 accounts onto existing routes, or an experienced operator can increase density and upsell the current base. Seller financing is on the table for a qualified buyer, which signals some seller confidence but also makes verifying the earnings quality the central task of this deal.

Why we like it

Earnings quality looks strong on paper with roughly $724K of cash flow on $2.07M of revenue, a 35%-plus margin that is above typical for maintenance landscaping. The engine is route density and lean crews rather than price premium, which is the durable kind of advantage. The caveat is that the seller admits tax returns do not fully reflect performance, so the headline margin must survive normalization.
The 450-account base is overwhelmingly recurring maintenance work billed on repeating schedules, not one-off project revenue. Lawn cutting, cleanups, and fertilization are default-renewal services customers rarely shop annually. That recurring book is what makes this a cash-flowing asset rather than a bid-to-bid grind.
Landscape maintenance is essential, weather-driven, and non-discretionary enough to hold up in a downturn; grass grows regardless of the economy. Suffolk County is a dense, affluent Long Island market with high property values and strong demand for property upkeep. Route-based density in a market like this is hard for new entrants to replicate quickly.
For an experienced landscaper or regional strategic buyer, the operator advantage is immediate. Three crews and 450 accounts can be absorbed into existing routes or expanded by adding stops to current loops, which drops incremental revenue to the bottom line. Seller financing availability lets a qualified operator preserve capital while the book proves out.

How to improve it

Convert the account base to annual auto-renewing contracts with price-escalation clauses in the first season. Many maintenance landscapers run on handshake or season-by-season arrangements, which is fragile; locking in multi-month agreements raises retention and increases the value of the book at your eventual exit. Standardized contracts also make the next owner's diligence cleaner.
Push price increases and upsells across the existing 450 accounts before adding a single new customer. A dense, loyal base is the cheapest place to grow revenue; mulch refreshes, fertilization programs, shrub installs, and seasonal cleanup upgrades carry high margins on crews you already pay. Even a 5-8% average price lift flows almost entirely to cash flow.
Add snow and ice management or other winter services to smooth the seasonal revenue curve. A Long Island maintenance landscaper likely has slack December through March; monetizing that window with plowing or salting contracts to the same commercial accounts uses existing relationships and equipment. This also improves year-round crew retention.
Install route-optimization and job-management software to quantify and extend the density advantage the seller touts. Tools like Aspire or Jobber turn anecdotal efficiency into measurable stops-per-hour and margin-per-crew data, which both improves operations and gives you hard numbers for the next buyer. This is a cheap, fast upgrade for a business running on operator intuition.
Build a light sales and referral motion to fill routes with geographically clustered new accounts. The listing itself flags adding accounts to existing routes as the main upside; a simple referral incentive plus targeted door-to-door canvassing around current stops captures that density for minimal acquisition cost. Each added stop on an existing loop is nearly pure margin.
Document crew processes and cross-train to reduce key-person and labor risk. A three-crew operation is exposed if a lead crew member leaves; written SOPs, pay structures tied to retention, and a bench of trained labor protect the cash flow you just paid 2.49x for. This also makes absentee or semi-absentee operation feasible over time.

Diligence notes

The single most important item is normalizing the financials, because the seller explicitly states tax returns do not fully reflect performance and that cash flow depends on add-backs. Demand the supporting documentation, bank deposits, merchant statements, and a reconciliation of the $724K figure to filed returns before trusting the 2.49x multiple. If the margin only holds with aggressive or undocumented adjustments, the real price is higher than it looks.
Verify the recurring nature and retention of the 450 accounts by reviewing contracts or billing history and churn over the last two to three seasons. Confirm how many are under written agreements versus season-to-season, and the residential-to-commercial split, since commercial accounts tend to be stickier and larger. Request a route-level revenue breakdown to see concentration risk among top accounts.
Scrutinize labor and crew dependency, including whether workers are W-2 or 1099, wage rates, immigration documentation compliance, and reliance on seasonal labor. Mislabeled contractors or compliance gaps are common in landscaping and can materially change the true cost structure. Confirm the three crews will stay post-close and whether the owner personally works on a crew.
Take the offered ride-along and inspect the equipment package, age, condition, and ownership status (owned, financed, or leased). Understand what trucks, mowers, and trailers convey with the sale and whether near-term capex is looming, since fleet replacement can eat the margin quickly. Clarify exactly what assets are included at the $1.8M price.
Nail down seasonality and working capital, since a New York landscaper has a pronounced revenue curve and off-season cash drain. Review monthly revenue and cash flow to understand the trough and how payroll is covered in winter, then structure the deal and any seller note accordingly. Confirm whether the cash flow figure is a full trailing-twelve-month number or a favorable season.
Confirm there is no owner relationship doing heavy lifting that disappears at close, such as the seller personally selling, estimating, or managing key commercial accounts. Pin down the real reason for sale, which the listing does not disclose, and negotiate a transition period and non-compete covering Suffolk County. The seller's price flexibility and financing offer are leverage worth testing.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →