Selling a Landscaping Services Business

Most landscaping businesses sell for a multiple of the owner’s annual profit, and the multiple moves based on risk and repeatability. Companies with a dependable maintenance book, tight routes, and foremen who stick around usually command higher prices. Install-heavy businesses can still sell well, but buyers discount them when estimating, change orders, and callbacks feel uncontrolled. For a quick range, try Rejigg’s free valuation calculator.

No. You can sell your landscaping company without a broker and avoid paying 5–10% of the sale price in fees. You need a clean listing package, a safe way to share sensitive documents, and access to serious buyers who understand renewals, route density, labor, and fleet risk. Rejigg gives you pre-vetted buyers, digital NDAs, a secure data room, and deal tracking. Sellers can list and manage the process for free on the Rejigg platform.

Most owners should plan for a few months from kickoff to closing, and the calendar matters in landscaping. If you go to market right before HOA renewal season or spring ramp-up, buyers often wait for renewal and staffing clarity. Deals move fastest when your financials, equipment list, contracts, and transition plan are ready from day one. Rejigg helps by keeping diligence in a built-in data room and tracking buyer conversations and offers in one dashboard. See the preparation guide.

Seller’s discretionary earnings is profit with owner-specific expenses added back so a buyer can see what the business generates before paying a new owner. In landscaping, common add-backs include personal vehicles, owner health insurance, one-time equipment repairs, and non-recurring legal bills. Buyers still check whether those costs stay gone after closing, especially around trucks, fuel, and insurance. Rejigg’s valuation calculator helps you lay out add-backs clearly.

Seasonality changes the buyer’s risk window. If you close right before spring ramp-up, buyers often want more transition support because staffing, routing, and service quality get stressed all at once. If you have winter revenue like snow, buyers will ask how much is under contract and how predictable the margins are in a light-snow year. A month-by-month revenue and gross margin view, with notes on major weather events, answers a lot of questions fast. Rejigg’s transition planning guide helps you plan around the calendar.

Many landscaping buyers use an SBA 7(a) loan, which is a bank loan that the government partially guarantees. The bank wants clean financials, enough cash flow to cover payments, and a business that runs without the seller doing everything. Expect questions about customer concentration, contracts and renewals, and whether trucks and equipment are owned, financed, or leased. You can model payments before negotiating price and down payment with Rejigg’s SBA loan calculator.

Working capital is the cash cushion the business needs to cover day-to-day timing gaps, like payroll hitting every week while commercial customers pay in 30–60 days. Landscaping swings a lot here, especially with HOA and property manager billing cycles. Buyers often ask for a “normal” level of working capital to be left in the business at closing so they do not start with a cash crunch. Rejigg’s negotiation guide explains how this usually gets negotiated.

Most small landscaping deals are asset sales, where the buyer purchases the equipment, contracts, and goodwill, and leaves your old legal entity behind. Sellers often like this because it reduces the chance you stay tied to old liabilities. Buyers like it because it is clearer what is included, especially around fleet, yard leases, and employee handoffs. Taxes and paperwork can vary, so it is worth getting professional advice. Rejigg keeps titles, leases, contracts, and requests organized in one due diligence checklist workflow.

Equipment value usually comes down to three things: what is included, what condition it is in, and what replacement spending a buyer should expect in year one. Buyers will ask for hours, maintenance records, and any bottleneck pieces, like the one dump truck or skid steer that every install job relies on. Financed equipment also needs a clear payoff plan at closing. A clean fleet list with ownership status helps avoid last-minute renegotiation. Rejigg’s data room is a straightforward place to share fleet lists and loan statements securely.

Expect to share financial statements and tax returns, an equipment list with ownership details, customer and contract summaries, insurance and claims history, a basic org chart, and your yard or shop lease. Landscaping buyers also ask for operating context, like renewal timing, crew structure, and how routes are built, because that is where surprises usually live. The simplest approach is one controlled place to share documents so nothing gets forwarded around. Rejigg includes a built-in secure data room.

A common transition is 4–12 weeks, and timing can stretch longer if you close right before spring ramp-up or right before HOA and property manager renewals. Buyers usually want client introductions, vendor handoffs, and time for routing and escalation questions while the new team settles in. The strongest transition plans are tied to the calendar, with specific ride-alongs and meeting dates. Rejigg helps you document and track the transition plan in the transition planning guide.

Seller financing means the buyer pays part of the purchase price over time, usually with interest. It can widen the buyer pool and sometimes improve price, but it also keeps you financially tied to how the routes, crews, and fleet perform after closing. Many owners use it selectively, paired with a strong down payment and clear default terms. In landscaping, it is worth pressure-testing renewal risk and foreman retention before you agree to carry paper. Rejigg’s offer dashboard lets you compare down payment, seller note size, and timelines in deal negotiation.

An earnout means part of the price gets paid later if the business hits agreed targets, often over the next season. In landscaping, earnouts come up when a buyer is nervous about renewals, weather volatility, or whether key crews will stay. They can work if the measurement is simple and the buyer cannot easily manipulate results by cutting marketing, changing pricing, or starving the business of labor. Get the definition and reporting cadence in writing. Rejigg helps you compare earnout language across offers in the negotiation guide.

Most buyers will ask for a non-compete, meaning you agree not to start or join a competing landscaping company in your area for a set period. Buyers ask for this because they are paying for your routes and relationships and do not want you taking them back next spring. The details should match reality, like your actual service area and services you provide today. Length and geography are often negotiable. Rejigg keeps non-compete terms visible across offers with its comparison dashboard.

Confidentiality matters in landscaping because rumors can trigger crew departures and spark rebids at the worst time. A clean process starts with pre-vetted buyers and signed NDAs, then uses staged sharing so only serious buyers see sensitive information. Share a high-level overview early, then release customer lists, employee details, and specific contracts later during diligence. Rejigg supports this with buyer vetting, digital NDAs, and a permissioned data room where you control who sees what and when. More detail is in finding the right buyer.

Start 6–12 months before you want to close, if you can. That gives you time to clean up expense categories, summarize renewal history, reduce owner dependence in routing and escalations, and build a fleet list that does not create surprises. It also lets you choose timing around spring ramp-up and HOA renewal windows instead of getting forced into a stressful calendar. Rejigg’s prepare-to-sell guide is a practical checklist, and you can schedule a consultation to sanity-check your plan.

The most common deal killers are surprises that change how risky the business feels to a buyer. Examples include financials that do not tie out, a “recurring” maintenance book that is up for rebid next month, one foreman holding routes together, and fleet replacements that hit right after closing. Another common issue is weak documentation for extras and billing, which makes margins hard to trust. You do not need perfection, but you do need consistent answers with proof. Rejigg helps by structuring diligence in a data room and tracking questions so issues surface early.

Compare offers based on total price, cash at closing, and how much is conditional, like seller financing or an earnout tied to next season. In landscaping, also compare the transition ask, because a buyer closing right before peak season may expect more hands-on support. Timeline and certainty matter too, especially if you are heading into renewals. Rejigg’s deal tracking dashboard shows offers side-by-side, including enterprise value, seller note, earnout terms, and timing. See negotiate a deal.