$1.4M
$510K
1.7x
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Established, highly profitable commercial landscape-maintenance company in the high-growth Tampa Bay/ Central Florida region — a rare recurring-revenue operation built on contracted HOA, community-association, and commercial accounts. Durable, predictable cash flow that doesn’t have to be re-won each season. Best of all, the owner runs the business, not the mowers: experienced bilingual crew leaders manage the field, making this a genuinely transferable operation. A well-maintained equipment fleet is included, and the deal is structured all-cash and priced to qualify for SBA financing with strong debt-service coverage. Opportunities with recurring contracted revenue and this kind of margin don’t sit long.
Why we like it
- Earnings quality is the standout: $509,874 of cash flow on $1.38M of revenue is a 37 percent margin, which is exceptional for landscaping where 15 to 20 percent is more typical. The contracted HOA and community-association base means this cash flow recurs monthly rather than being re-won each season, which materially lowers revenue risk.
- The moat is the contract book and the crew-leader structure. HOA and community-association maintenance contracts are sticky because switching vendors creates friction with residents and boards, and incumbents tend to renew. The bilingual crew leaders managing the field reduce key-man risk and make the business an asset rather than a job for the new owner.
- Tampa Bay and Central Florida are among the fastest-growing metros in the country, with continuous residential and commercial development feeding new HOA and association accounts. Florida's year-round growing season means twelve months of billable service rather than the seasonal gaps that hurt Northern landscape operators.
- The price is the kicker. At 1.71x cash flow, this is well below the 2.5x to 3.5x range typical for recurring-revenue services businesses with management in place. The all-cash, SBA-qualifying structure means a buyer can control over $500K of annual cash flow with roughly $90K to $130K of equity, an enormous return on invested capital if the numbers hold.
How to improve it
- Audit the contract portfolio and push price increases on any account that has not seen one in 18-plus months. Landscape contracts often lag inflation, and a 5 to 10 percent rate adjustment across a sticky HOA base drops almost entirely to the bottom line with minimal churn risk.
- Layer in higher-margin enhancement services like mulch installs, seasonal flower rotations, irrigation repair, tree trimming, and pest/fertilization programs. These are upsells to existing accounts that require no new customer acquisition and typically carry 40 to 60 percent margins.
- Build a systematic bid pipeline targeting newly constructed HOA communities and commercial properties across the high-growth Tampa Bay corridor. The market is expanding fast, so a dedicated estimator working off a CRM can add contracted revenue without changing the cost structure much.
- Install route-density optimization software to cluster accounts geographically and cut windshield time and fuel cost. In a crew-leader-driven operation, squeezing more stops per crew per day is the cleanest path to expanding the already-strong margin.
- Formalize crew-leader retention with performance bonuses tied to contract renewal and customer satisfaction. The transferability of this business hinges on those bilingual leaders staying, so locking them in protects the entire investment thesis.
- Implement a fleet maintenance and replacement schedule with reserve budgeting. The included equipment is the productive backbone, and unplanned breakdowns kill route reliability, so disciplined capex planning protects both margin and contract performance.
Diligence notes
- Pull the full contract list with start dates, terms, renewal language, and account tenure. Recurring revenue is only as good as the contracts behind it, so verify that these are genuine multi-month agreements with auto-renewal rather than informal month-to-month arrangements that could lapse post-sale.
- Scrutinize the $509,874 cash flow figure line by line and confirm what add-backs are included. A 37 percent margin is high for this industry, so reconcile it against tax returns and bank statements to ensure owner compensation, equipment financing, and one-time items are treated correctly.
- Assess customer concentration across the HOA, association, and commercial accounts. If one or two large communities represent an outsized share of revenue, the loss of a single contract could meaningfully impair debt-service coverage under the SBA structure.
- Evaluate the crew leaders directly: tenure, compensation, immigration/work authorization status, and likelihood of staying post-close. The entire transferability claim rests on these people, so a key-employee flight risk needs to be quantified before close.
- Verify the condition, age, and ownership status of the included equipment fleet. Confirm it is owned free and clear versus leased or financed, and get a realistic estimate of near-term replacement capex that could eat into the headline cash flow.
- Confirm the years in business and operating history, which the listing leaves blank. Contract stickiness and renewal data are far more credible with a multi-year track record, so establish how long these accounts have actually been retained.