Plumbing Business - Commercial Construction Vs Home Services

March 27, 2025

by a searcher from New York University in New York, NY, USA

Hi Everyone,

I'm very new to the platform but am in the diligence phase of an acquisition of a plumbing business in the greater New York area. The business is about 75% commercial construction and 25% home services. Has anyone acquired a plumbing business with a similar concentration? Any unique challenges presented from being weighted more towards construction?

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Reply by a lender
from University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Hi ^redacted‌ - I might be able to help with financing this business. I help clients with their SBA loans and I have a lot of regional SBA lenders looking to fund home services businesses in the area. I recently helped a searcher fund a business at 7.99% fixed. I think customer concentration on the commercial and new residential construction is the main issues from banking perspective. I’d love to help you find the right SBA lender for this deal. We work with all the major SBA lenders. The bank pay us after your loan closes, so this is a 100% free service for you. Depending on the DSCR, I think this deal might qualify for pristine pricing (7.99% fixed). You can reach me here or directly at redacted You can also click here to schedule a meeting with me: https://cal.com/ishan-jetley-3d73m8/30min. Look forward to chatting!

Reply by a searcher
from The University of Chicago in Chicago, IL, USA

I'd strongly avoid commercial construction unless you have a background in it. You've got so many issues: scope of work changes, payment delays, scheduling with other trades, etc. I've looked at many home services and talked to people who work with GCs; it's very, very difficult. You'll get trapped in a rat wheel of taking a big project, then doing whatever you can get paid because you need that check. The GC know this and will take advantage of you. That's the construction game - most GCs are good because they manipulate their subs (that's you). Maybe you find the few good ones or this business has relationships with property managers for plumbing retrofits. The latter is a solid biz with good job sizes, but still has project risk and long payment cycles. I'd be very wary of working with GCs on new commercial. And Don't assume you can just change the mix - B2C and B2B are two different businesses. Second Henry's comment.

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