Selling a Plumbing Business in Florida: License, Price, and Tax

Selling a plumbing business in Florida comes down to three things: a plan for who holds the plumbing license after you, proof of how much of your work repeats, and a broker who can get more than one buyer interested. Florida’s licensing law makes the first one urgent. The second one sets your price.

If you’re still deciding whether to sell, read how to know when it’s time first. If you’ve decided, this is the order to work in.

Your license doesn’t go with the business

A Florida certified plumbing contractor license is held by a person. Your company can pull permits and do plumbing work because you serve as its licensed “qualifying agent.” The buyer doesn’t get your license when they buy the company.

When a qualifier leaves, Florida law gives the business 60 days to hire a new one. In the meantime, the business cannot engage in contracting unless the licensing board issues a temporary certificate (Fla. Stat. 489.119). For a shop that lives on daily service calls, that’s a serious risk, and buyers will ask about it in the first meeting.

You can solve this three ways. The buyer brings their own licensed qualifier. One of your people already holds a contractor license and steps in. Or you stay on as qualifier for a period after closing, in which case get your pay, hours, and how long in the purchase agreement, since the qualifier answers for the work done under that license.

Service work sells for more than builder work

This is the biggest lever on a Florida plumbing sale, and owners often miss it. Buyers split your revenue into buckets and price each one differently.

Type of work	How buyers see it	Why
Residential service and repair	Highest value	Customers call back. Jobs are small, frequent, and spread across many households.
Maintenance plans and memberships	Highest value	Paid in advance and renews. Proof that customers stay.
Water heater and repipe jobs	Good value	Often come out of service calls, so they follow the service base.
Commercial service contracts	Good value if spread out	Valued less if one or two accounts are a big share.
New construction for builders	Lowest value	Can stop when a builder slows down or switches subs. Often slow to pay.

Florida’s building market has made a lot of plumbing shops busy with new construction. That revenue is real, but if one builder is a third of your sales, a buyer sees a business that could lose a third of its revenue in one phone call. If you have a year or two before you sell, shifting the mix toward service is worth the effort. Our guide to plumbing maintenance plans shows how to build that base.

Who’s buying plumbing businesses in Florida

Large home services groups have been buying Florida shops that do both plumbing and air conditioning. In February 2024, Wrench Group added Lindstrom Air Conditioning & Plumbing, a 1975 company with offices in Pompano Beach and Port St. Lucie that serves more than 100,000 homeowners in Southeast Florida (Contractor). Deals like that tell you buyers want residential service brands with a big customer list.

Not every plumbing business fits a big group. Smaller shops more often sell to individual buyers using SBA loans, or to a nearby competitor who wants your customers and your plumbers. Each buyer type pays and structures the deal differently. Our piece on strategic and financial buyers explains the difference.

What to have ready before a buyer looks

Buyers check the same things in almost every plumbing deal. Have these ready and diligence goes faster, with fewer surprises that cut the price.

• Three years of clean books. Tax returns that match your statements, with service, new construction, and commercial revenue shown separately.
• Customer data. How many customers, how many came back, and your largest accounts as a share of sales.
• License plan. Who will qualify the business after closing, in writing.
• Your crew. Each plumber’s tenure, pay, and license level. Good plumbers are hard to replace, so a stable crew raises your value.
• Trucks and tools. A list with age, condition, and what’s financed.
• How the shop runs. Who prices jobs, who dispatches, and who handles callbacks when you’re not there.

The last one matters more than most owners expect. A shop where the owner prices every job is worth less than one where a service manager does it. Here’s how to reduce how much the business depends on you.

What your plumbing business is worth

Most small plumbing businesses are priced as a multiple of seller’s discretionary earnings, which is your profit plus your own pay and perks. Larger shops with a manager in place are priced on EBITDA, at higher multiples. The mix of work in the table above is what moves you up or down the range.

Our plumbing business valuation guide covers the methods and ranges. Get a real number before you talk to any buyer, so you know a fair offer when you see one. You can find more on pricing in our Business Value guides.

The Florida tax picture

Florida has no personal income tax. For most owners who sell through an S corporation, an LLC, or as a sole owner, that means federal tax on the gain and no state tax on top. That’s one reason Florida owners often net more than owners in other states selling at the same price.

C corporations are the exception. They pay Florida corporate income tax at 5.5% (Florida Department of Revenue), and you’re taxed again when the money comes out. Asset sale or stock sale changes the math too. Our guide to taxes when you sell a business covers the basics, but get a CPA involved early.

Hiring a broker in Florida

A Florida business broker has to hold a state real estate license, because state law treats selling a business for a fee as brokerage (Fla. Stat. 475.01). Look up any broker on the state license search before you meet. Then ask how many plumbing businesses they’ve sold in Florida and how they find buyers beyond posting a listing.

Our guide on how to sell your plumbing business in Florida with the right broker has the full list of questions and the step-by-step sale process. Or let The Owner’s Shortlist find a business broker in Florida who sells plumbing companies for you. We introduce you to one broker who fits your business, and it’s free for owners.

You only sell your business once, so it’s worth hearing from someone who has done it many times. Get matched with the best broker to sell your plumbing business in Florida and start with a straight answer about what it’s worth.