Well-Established Irrigation Service & Repair Business, 28-Year Florida Contractor

$1.7M

Revenue

$799K

SDE

1.6x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a nearly three-decade-old irrigation service and repair company based in Indian River County on Florida's Treasure Coast. The business focuses on irrigation service and repairs, pump systems, variable frequency drives, low voltage landscape lighting, and monthly maintenance programs. Roughly 70% of revenue comes from service and repair work, which drives consistent year-round demand, while recurring maintenance contracts add predictable cash flow on top.

The customer base is a diversified mix of HOA communities, commercial properties, and residential clients concentrated within a tight geographic territory, which keeps drive times short and response times fast. An experienced eight-person team is in place, and the retiring owner is offering an extended transition to hand off relationships and know-how. On $1.73M in revenue the business throws off $798,811 in owner cash flow, a roughly 46% margin that is unusually strong for a field-service operation.

At $1,255,000, the deal is priced at just 1.57x cash flow, a notably low multiple for a business with this age, margin profile, and recurring maintenance base. The seller cites retirement, and the listing is positioned for either an existing contractor seeking a bolt-on or an operator looking to buy an established, profitable book. Florida's climate, HOA density, and year-round watering requirements make irrigation a durable, non-seasonal service line in this market.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is exceptional for the category: $798,811 of cash flow on $1.73M revenue is a 46% margin, far above typical field-service comps. That points to strong pricing power, efficient routing in a concentrated territory, and a repair-heavy mix that carries better margins than install work.
The moat is age plus reputation: nearly 28 years of operating history since 1997 and a loyal HOA, commercial, and residential base create switching inertia and steady referral flow. Irrigation service is a trust-and-relationship purchase where an established local name with an eight-person crew is hard to displace.
Market tailwinds are structural in Florida: year-round warm weather means irrigation systems run and fail continuously, so demand does not go dormant in winter the way it does up north. HOA density on the Treasure Coast and mandatory landscape watering create a recurring maintenance and repair pipeline.
The operator advantage here is priced-in value: 1.57x cash flow for a business with recurring contracts and a trained team is cheap, and an existing landscaping or home-services contractor could bolt this on with immediate route and admin overlap. The obvious growth levers (marketing, website, geographic expansion, adding landscape maintenance) are all still untouched.

How to improve it

Build a real digital presence in the first 90 days: the listing flags no meaningful website or marketing, so a modern site, Google Business Profile optimization, and paid local search could capture demand the company currently earns purely on reputation. In a Florida market with constant irrigation failures, inbound lead flow is likely leaking to competitors.
Convert more of the 70% repair revenue into recurring maintenance contracts by offering annual service plans at every repair visit. Every one-off repair customer is a candidate for a monthly or quarterly program, which raises revenue predictability and the eventual resale multiple.
Add complementary landscape maintenance and lighting service lines to the same routes and crews, as the listing explicitly suggests. Selling more services per truck-roll increases revenue per customer without adding proportional overhead or acquisition cost.
Systematize scheduling, dispatch, and invoicing on field-service software if not already in place, so the business is not dependent on the departing owner's memory of accounts and system histories. This protects the transition and makes crews more productive.
Expand the geographic territory into adjacent counties along the Treasure Coast, using the existing brand and crew as a base. Given the concentrated footprint today, disciplined expansion into neighboring HOA markets is a clear, near-term revenue lever.
Implement price increases on legacy accounts that have not been repriced in years, common in owner-run service firms. Even modest, phased increases flow almost entirely to the bottom line given the labor is already scheduled.
Formalize a recurring maintenance renewal and retention process so contracts auto-renew by default rather than lapsing. Tightening churn on the maintenance base directly lifts the durable, predictable portion of revenue that buyers pay up for.

Diligence notes

Verify the $798,811 cash flow with tax returns and bank statements, and understand exactly what add-backs make up SDE. A 46% margin is unusually high for irrigation service, so confirm it is genuine and not inflated by owner labor being under-counted or one-time items.
Quantify the recurring maintenance base precisely: how many maintenance contracts, what monthly value, contract terms, and historical churn. The listing leans on recurring revenue as a selling point, so pin down what share of the $1.73M is truly contracted versus reactive repair work.
Assess customer concentration across the HOA, commercial, and residential mix. Losing one or two large HOA or commercial accounts could materially dent cash flow, so review revenue by top accounts and the length and stability of those relationships.
Evaluate the eight-person team's tenure, licensing, and dependence on the owner for technical or estimating work. Confirm which employees hold irrigation and low-voltage licenses and whether the business can operate on someone else's license after the retiring owner exits.
Confirm working capital, inventory, and equipment condition included in the deal: $40,000 inventory and $189,823 of FF&E are stated, but verify vehicle age, condition, and any near-term replacement capex. Aging trucks could offset the attractive purchase multiple.
Clarify the licensing and relocatability claim, since the listing is marked relocatable but the value is tied to a concentrated Treasure Coast territory and local reputation. Understand what would actually transfer if a buyer moved operations versus what is anchored to this specific market.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →