Hi ^redacted‌ - nice to meet you. Here are the basics lenders and buyers focus on for HVAC. Look at revenue mix between maintenance, installs, and changeouts. Maintenance contracts matter because they stabilize cash flow. Check customer concentration, technician tenure, licensing, and seasonality. Also compare SDE on tax returns versus the CIM since lenders underwrite off tax returns only. Check your state and local county laws about their requirements for licenses. Licensing is critical in SBA deals. If you don’t personally hold the required license to keep the business operating, the lender will require one of three solutions: the seller must guarantee the loan for at least two years (via partial buyout), or a licensed employee must commit to a multi-year employment agreement (sometimes with a small equity stake), or you must hire a new licensed employee. We have a lot of experience financing HVAC and home-service companies via the SBA. If you ever need help talking through a deal, I am happy to help. We work with all the major SBA lenders. The bank pays us after your loan closes, so this is a 100% free service for you. You can email me directly at redacted or schedule a meeting with me: redacted. Look forward to chatting!

One add: in HVAC (and maybe this is just in Canada), don’t overlook unionization. Mandatory wage escalators for unionized employees combined with limited labour flexibility can quickly decimate margins. I’ve seen otherwise “healthy” HVAC businesses become economically unviable within 2 years once future union wage math is fully modeled. Again, maybe just a Canada thing but hope this helps.