Franchised Commercial Landscape Company, 25-Year Houston Operator with 3 Territories

$3.6M

Revenue

$600K

SDE

5.0x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a franchised commercial landscaping company built over 25 years, operating three territories across the greater Houston metro. The core business is recurring commercial maintenance, roughly 75% to 80% of revenue, layered with irrigation, enhancements, spray and fertilization, and specialty add-on services. The owner started with one territory, a single mower, and neighborhood flyers in 1999 and grew it into a base of approximately 200 to 250 maintenance contracts served by about 40 W2 employees and eight crews.

The operation runs from two yards with an in-house mechanic and 27 owned vehicles and trailers, backed by experienced field leadership and crew leaders who carry much of the day-to-day operating load. That structure matters for a buyer: this is not a one-man show, and the recurring commercial base creates predictable revenue plus a natural upsell path into higher-margin enhancement work. The customer portfolio reportedly includes several large national brands, which lends credibility and stickiness.

The business sits inside a national franchise system the broker describes as best-in-class for training and support, so a new owner inherits both an operating playbook and brand recognition. 2025 revenue was about $3.5M with roughly $587K adjusted EBITDA, and 2026 is pacing toward $3.6M and around $869K EBITDA. Real estate is owned but not included in the $2,985,000 asking price and can be leased or purchased separately for $650,000.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is solid for a service business: 75% to 80% of revenue is recurring commercial maintenance across 200 to 250 contracts, which smooths cash flow and reduces the feast-or-famine cycle of one-off jobs. The recurring base also creates a warm channel for irrigation, fertilization, and enhancement upsells that carry better margins.
The moat is customer inertia plus a real operating team. Commercial property managers rarely re-bid a reliable landscape vendor, and this company has an experienced W2 crew of 40, field leadership, and an in-house mechanic, so the owner is not the single point of failure. Owned equipment, 27 vehicles and trailers, raises the cost of a competitor entering an account.
Houston is one of the largest and fastest-growing metros in the country, and commercial development keeps expanding the addressable base. The three-territory footprint sits in the best areas of the metro, so organic growth can come from simply keeping crews busy in a market that keeps adding buildings.
This is an operator-friendly acquisition with structural support. The franchise provides training, systems, and a recognized national brand, the seller offers 90 to 180 days of transition plus a negotiable seller note, and existing crew leaders already carry much of the operating responsibility. A buyer can step in without reinventing the wheel.

How to improve it

Attack the enhancement and irrigation upsell inside the existing book first. With 200 to 250 contracts already in hand, a structured quarterly walkthrough and proposal cadence on each property can lift ticket size on accounts you already service, which drops almost entirely to the bottom line since the crews are already onsite.
Tighten crew productivity and route density. Eight crews across three territories is where the money is won or lost, so implement GPS routing, job-costing per property, and labor-hour targets to squeeze more mowing stops into each day and cut windshield time.
Institutionalize the recurring revenue with multi-year contracts and annual escalators. Convert month-to-month or annual agreements into two to three year terms with built-in CPI price bumps, which raises retention, protects margin against wage inflation, and materially increases the resale multiple.
Build a real commercial sales function. Growth in a metro this size is a sales problem, not a demand problem, so add a dedicated outside rep compensated on new recurring contracts and target property management firms and national brands adjacent to your existing marquee accounts.
Review the real estate decision on day one. The property is offered outside the asking price at $650,000, so model lease versus buy carefully; owning the yards can lock in occupancy cost and add a financeable hard asset, but only if the price and rent comps support it.
Audit and optimize the equipment replacement cycle. With 27 owned vehicles and an in-house mechanic, standardize preventive maintenance and stagger fleet replacement to avoid a lumpy capex year, and consider whether financing new equipment beats large cash outlays.

Diligence notes

Reconcile the EBITDA jump before underwriting to it. 2025 adjusted EBITDA was ~$587K but 2026 is pacing to ~$869K on flat revenue, so demand the underlying detail on what drove a nearly 50% margin expansion. Confirm whether it is durable operating leverage or aggressive add-backs and normalization.
Scrutinize the franchise agreement terms in full. Royalty rate, transfer approval, remaining term, renewal conditions, territory rights, and any required capital investments all affect real cash flow and transferability. The broker praises the franchise, but the contract governs your economics, so read it before you rely on the support narrative.
Pull the contract file and measure true recurring quality. Verify the 200 to 250 contract count, term lengths, cancellation notice provisions, and customer concentration, since a few large national brand accounts could represent outsized revenue risk if any churn. Confirm actual retention over the last three years.
Assess management and labor dependency. The thesis relies on crew leaders and field leadership carrying operations, so confirm who is truly indispensable, their tenure, comp, and whether any leave with the owner. Landscaping is labor-intensive and Houston labor markets are tight, so review turnover and wage trends.
Verify FF&E and fleet condition against the $1.1M stated value. Inspect the 27 vehicles and trailers and mowing equipment for age, hours, and deferred maintenance, because a fleet at the end of its life turns into a hidden capex bill that erodes the return in year one and two.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →