What's your home-service business worth?

How are home-service businesses valued?

A buyer prices the company as a multiple of profit. On the smaller shops that sell on BizBuySell, that profit is SDE, and the average multiple on reported closed deals from Q3 2021 through Q2 2026 is 2.83x for HVAC, 2.61x for plumbing, 2.77x for electrical and mechanical contracting, and 2.61x for service businesses overall.

Once EBITDA is about $1 million or more, the quotes in these notes switch to EBITDA multiples, and the multiple jumps. Ad Astra calls size the biggest driver, because the buyer changes: an individual using an SBA loan, a private-equity add-on, and a platform are not the same bid.

Two kinds of numbers show up on this page, and they are not the same thing. BizBuySell Valuation Multiples by Industry is reported sold-deal data: averages of what closed, not an opinion about what should close. M&Apedia, WETYR, CT Acquisitions, Value Alpha, and Ad Astra are advisor estimates. They publish ranges, and the ranges do not agree. This page does not average them into a new number.

IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse is the quarterly broker survey that reports multiples by deal-size band, from under $500,000 to $50 million, and it is not broken out by trade. Quarterly broker survey of multiples by deal-size band, from under $500,000 to $50 million. Not broken out by trade. This page does not reprint an IBBA multiple. The research notes name the survey and do not include a figure from it.

What is the difference between SDE and EBITDA?

SDE (seller's discretionary earnings) is profit after adding back the owner's salary, personal expenses, and one-time items. It is the usual metric for a smaller shop where the owner is still in the number. EBITDA is profit after a market-rate manager is already paid. Buyers use it once the company is large enough that the owner's wages are not the story.

An HVAC shop with $400,000 of SDE times BizBuySell's 2.83x sold-deal average is $1,132,000. That is not the same as $400,000 of EBITDA. The calculator will not run the second multiplication. M&Apedia's first HVAC EBITDA band, $1–3 million, is 6–8.5x. Putting an SDE figure under that multiple would pretend the owner is already replaced.

The labels in the source tables are easy to mix up, so they stay spelled out here. M&Apedia's sub-$1 million EBITDA column is quoted as an SDE multiple. WETYR's sub-$2 million EBITDA column is also an SDE multiple. Ad Astra's under-$1 million HVAC band, 3–4.5x, is quoted as an EBITDA multiple. Same neighborhood of company, different profit definition. The calculator keeps them apart.

What multiple does each trade sell for?

On sold deals, HVAC is the highest of the three trades BizBuySell breaks out, at 2.83x SDE. Plumbing and service businesses overall both average 2.61x. Electrical and mechanical contracting averages 2.77x. Advisor ranges for smaller shops sit around those averages and then split by trade. Pest control is the high one. Roofing and landscaping are the low ones.

BizBuySell sold deals, Q3 2021–Q2 2026

Reported closed deals. Average SDE multiple, average revenue multiple, median sale price. Not a size band.

M&Apedia 2026, advisor estimates

Sub-$1 million EBITDA is an SDE multiple. The $1–3 million and $3 million+ columns are EBITDA multiples. Pool and garage door are in the source and are not calculator inputs. Garage door matches pool.

WETYR Q2 2026, advisor estimates

Sub-$2 million EBITDA is an SDE multiple. The other two columns are EBITDA multiples. Commercial cleaning is this row only. The notes do not include a residential maid-service multiple, so a house-cleaning route should not borrow it.

How do multiples change with size?

The step is steep, and it is not a smooth line. M&Apedia's HVAC row goes from 2.5–3.5x SDE under $1 million of EBITDA, to 6–8.5x EBITDA at $1–3 million, to 8.5–11x at $3 million and up. Those are advisor estimates. BizBuySell's sold-deal average of 2.83x SDE describes the smaller deals in that marketplace. It is not a platform sale.

The same shape shows up in every trade M&Apedia publishes. Pest control steps the furthest, from 3–4x SDE to 9.5–13x EBITDA at $3 million and up. Roofing and landscaping start lower, at 2–3x SDE, and still step up once EBITDA clears $1 million. Read each column as the metric the source named. The first column is SDE. The next two are EBITDA.

HVAC has more advisor cuts than the other trades, and they do not line up on the same dollar marks. WETYR's small HVAC band runs to $2 million of EBITDA and is 2.5–4.5x SDE. CT Acquisitions uses that same 2.5–4.5x for HVAC under $500,000 of SDE, then 4–7x EBITDA from $500,000 to $2 million, 6–9x from $2–10 million, and 8–12x above $10 million. Value Alpha's micro band, under $500,000 SDE, is 1.5–2.5x. Its $250,000–$1 million SDE band is 2–3.3x, with a reported median around 2.7–3.0x. The chart keeps every band. Nothing on it is an average of the others.

What did home-service businesses actually sell for?

BizBuySell's median sale price over Q3 2021–Q2 2026 is $750,000 for HVAC, $699,000 for plumbing, $1,009,000 for electrical and mechanical contracting, and $350,000 for service businesses overall. A median is the middle closed deal in that set. It is not a forecast for a shop that is larger, smaller, or cleaner than the deals in the file.

The BizBuySell Insight Report, Q3 2026 puts the Q3 2026 service-business median sale at $350,000, on median cash flow of $157,378 and median revenue of $561,633. The median sale matches the five-year service-business median. The cash flow and revenue figures are the quarterly report, not a new multiple.

Revenue multiples from the same sold-deal file are 0.6x HVAC, 0.69x plumbing, 0.63x electrical and mechanical contracting, and 0.83x for service businesses overall. The notes do not include a clean revenue-band multiple (under $1 million of revenue, $1–5 million, and so on) by trade from a deal database. If you type revenue into the calculator, it is a cross-check against these averages. It does not move the profit estimate.

How do you go from 2.5x to 4.5x?

That spread is an HVAC small-shop band, not a rule for every trade. CT Acquisitions puts HVAC under $500,000 of SDE at 2.5–4.5x SDE. WETYR's Q2 2026 HVAC band under $2 million of EBITDA is the same 2.5–4.5x, also quoted on SDE. M&Apedia's tighter HVAC band, for sub-$1 million EBITDA, is 2.5–3.5x SDE. The calculator uses the tighter band as the low and high for smaller HVAC shops, and starts the estimate at BizBuySell's 2.83x because that sold-deal average sits inside it. The wider 2.5–4.5x band stays on the page as what those two advisors publish for a slightly different size cut.

The sources name what pushes a shop toward the top of its own range. Recurring maintenance agreements are the one with a number attached: CT Acquisitions says 30% or more of revenue pushes toward the top, and Value Alpha says 40% or more. M&Apedia cites service-plan mix without a cutoff. Owner dependence is the compressor CT Acquisitions names directly: an owner who is the lead tech, the estimator, and the brand gets pushed toward about 2.5x. That 2.5x is an HVAC comment in their report. The calculator does not stamp it onto pest control or plumbing. It moves toward the low end of whatever range is on screen, and it stops there.

Customer concentration, technician retention, and gross margin by service line are on the CT Acquisitions list, and none of them comes with a published cutoff. The concentration toggle is an equal-weight nudge inside the published range for that reason. It is not a model of retention or margin, because those figures are not in the notes. M&Apedia cites replacement-versus-repair mix for home services. WETYR says commercial landscaping prices above residential. WETYR says storm-cycle dependence weighs on roofing.

My take: the multiple is the buyer's number. The parts a marketing firm can actually work on are the ones in that list that are about demand and dependence. A book of maintenance agreements, a brand that gets the call when the owner is on a job, and a way of working that is written down instead of stored in one person's head. None of that guarantees a move from 2.5x to 4.5x. It is the short list the valuation sources themselves point at.

What are private-equity HVAC multiples?

Ad Astra's HVAC table, which it quotes as EBITDA multiples, is 3–4.5x under $1 million, 5–7x at $1–3 million, 7–10x at $3–10 million, and 10–18.5x+ at $10 million and up. The top of that last band is left open in the source. These are advisor estimates. They are not BizBuySell sold deals, and they are not the 2.83x average on main-street HVAC transactions.

Ad Astra also reports two 2026 platform-sized deals: Apex / Apollo at about 20x in May 2026, and Champions / Blackstone at about 18.5x in February 2026. Both figures are Ad Astra's, not a filing this page re-checked. A shop doing a few million of revenue is not in that buyer pool. Size is the bridge, and most home-service companies are on the SDE side of it.

Is the sale price what you take home?

A sale price is not what you take home. Debt, working capital, seller notes, earnouts, fees, and taxes come out. This calculator does not subtract them. Those amounts are not in the sources behind this page, so they are not estimated here.

A headline multiple is the price before that stack. Seller financing and an earnout can move cash across years. A working-capital target can raise or cut the check at closing. None of the sources here publish a typical debt payoff, a typical fee, or a tax rate for a home-service sale, so this page does not invent one. If the only number you remember is the high end of the range, you are remembering the price, not the wire.

What this estimate leaves out

Advisor ranges disagree, sometimes by a full turn of EBITDA, on a company that could fit more than one of their bands. WETYR's $2–10 million HVAC band is 4–7x. M&Apedia's $3 million-and-up HVAC band is 8.5–11x. A $5 million EBITDA HVAC company sits in both descriptions. The calculator uses one primary source so the math stays traceable: M&Apedia for the trades it covers, WETYR for commercial cleaning. Every other band that also covers the profit you typed is listed under the result and is not folded in.

BizBuySell figures are averages of self-reported sold deals over Q3 2021–Q2 2026. They are not a prediction, and the electrical row includes mechanical contracting. "Other home service" is only the all-service average, 2.61x SDE, because no low and high are published for that group. Commercial cleaning uses WETYR because M&Apedia does not publish it. Residential cleaning is a different business, and the notes say a maid-service multiple was not found.

The calculator's rules, in one place: SDE uses the small-shop advisor range (M&Apedia's sub-$1 million column, or WETYR's sub-$2 million column for cleaning). If BizBuySell's sold-deal average sits inside that range, the estimate starts there. Otherwise it starts at the midpoint. EBITDA of $1 million or more uses M&Apedia's $1–3 million or $3 million+ column, or WETYR's $2–10 million or $10 million+ column for cleaning. A dollar that lands on a boundary uses the higher band. Three optional drivers each score −1, 0, or +1 and slide the estimate inside the published ends. They never create a multiple the source did not print.

Educational estimate, not financial or valuation advice. Founders Resource sells marketing, not valuations and not brokerage. I sell the Growth Checkup and The Local Growth Plan. The ranges above are the sources' ranges anyway.

Figures on this page are as published in the notes dated November 4, 2026. BizBuySell multiples run through Q2 2026. The Insight Report figure is Q3 2026. WETYR is Q2 2026. Refresh the sold-deal averages when BizBuySell's next biannual update is out.

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Thinking about selling?

We work with trusted business brokers and can make a referral. This is an introduction, not a listing and not an opinion of value. The estimate above stays an educational range either way. No broker is named here, because the introduction depends on the trade and the timing.

Sources

• BizBuySell Valuation Multiples by Industry · Reported sold deals · Q3 2021–Q2 2026. Average SDE multiple, average revenue multiple, and median sale price on reported closed deals. Trailing five years, updated biannually. Not broken out by size.
• BizBuySell Insight Report, Q3 2026 · Reported sold deals · Q3 2026. Median sale price, cash flow, and revenue for service businesses. A marketplace median, not a multiple for one trade.
• IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse · Broker survey · Quarterly. Quarterly broker survey of multiples by deal-size band, from under $500,000 to $50 million. Not broken out by trade. This page does not reprint an IBBA multiple. The research notes name the survey and do not include a figure from it.
• M&Apedia Home Services M&A Multiples, 2026 · Advisor estimate · 2026. Advisor-reported ranges. The sub-$1 million EBITDA column is quoted as an SDE multiple. The $1–3 million and $3 million+ columns are EBITDA multiples.
• WETYR Q2 2026 multiples · Advisor estimate · Q2 2026. Advisor-reported ranges. The sub-$2 million EBITDA column is quoted as an SDE multiple. The $2–10 million and $10 million+ columns are EBITDA multiples.
• CT Acquisitions · Advisor estimate · 2026. HVAC advisor estimates. Under $500,000 is quoted on SDE. The higher bands are EBITDA multiples.
• Value Alpha · Advisor estimate · 2026. HVAC advisor estimates. The micro and $250,000–$1 million bands are SDE multiples. Value Alpha reports a median around 2.7–3.0x on the $250,000–$1 million SDE band. Higher bands are EBITDA multiples.
• Ad Astra Equity · Advisor estimate · 2026. HVAC advisor estimates quoted as EBITDA multiples, including the band under $1 million EBITDA. The $10 million+ band is published as 10–18.5x+.

Marketing for the trades, separate from these multiples: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, landscaping, pest control, and the marketing guide. Residential cleaning is its own page. The commercial cleaning multiple above does not apply to it.