Buying or selling a landscaping business: what buyers pay, who is buying, how to sell

If you are buying or selling a landscaping business, the price comes down to three things. How much of the revenue repeats every month, how big the earnings are, and how much of the work runs without the owner. This guide is the starting point for both sides. It gives the numbers, names the kinds of buyer, and links to the detailed guides on selling, buying, valuation and who is buying.

What is a landscaping business worth right now?

Most landscaping companies sell for a multiple of earnings, and the multiple rises with size. The International Business Brokers Association's Q4 2025 Market Pulse reports these averages for closed deals across all industries.

Source: IBBA and M&A Source, Market Pulse Q4 2025. SDE is the owner's profit plus their pay and perks. EBITDA takes a manager's salary out first.

Our own data adds the asking side. In our October 2026 asking-multiples report, our agents read 2,915 listings on 15+ marketplaces, and 42 were landscaping companies. The 21 that gave both a price and SDE asked a median 3.0x SDE. These are asking prices, not closed deals. The full picture is in landscaping business valuation multiples.

Maintenance contracts or design-build: which business is it?

Landscaping is two businesses that often share one truck yard. Buyers price them very differently.

Maintenance is mowing, pruning, mulch, irrigation checks and seasonal colour, sold on a yearly or monthly contract. The same customers pay again next month. Commercial maintenance (office parks, homeowner associations, apartments) is what the big platforms buy.

Design-build and installation is one-off project work: new plantings, patios, walls, outdoor kitchens. It can be very profitable, but each job has to be sold again. Buyers treat it like construction revenue.

The largest public company in the trade shows the split. BrightView's fiscal 2025 results report $1,891.3 million of maintenance revenue and $789.1 million of development revenue, out of $2,672.8 million in total. Roughly seven dollars in ten came from maintenance.

How do the seasons change the business?

Grass stops growing in winter in most of the country, and so does a lot of revenue. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' handbook page on grounds maintenance workers says some of the work is seasonal, busiest in spring, summer and fall, and that some workers do snow removal in winter. It counts 1,299,200 jobs in 2025 at a median pay of $40,080.

Seasons matter in a sale in three ways. Monthly cash flow swings, so a buyer needs working capital for the slow months. Snow removal can fill winter but depends on the weather. And many firms rely on seasonal crews, often hired through the H-2B visa program. USCIS says H-2B is capped at 66,000 visas a year, and the cap for the first half of fiscal 2027 was already reached in September 2026. A company that depends on visas a buyer cannot be sure of is a riskier company.

How big are most landscaping businesses that change hands?

Most are small. In our October 2026 report, the 41 landscaping listings with a disclosed price asked a median $900,000. The middle half sat between $500,000 and $1,600,000. These are mostly owner-run firms with a few crews, and IBBA prices that size on SDE.

At the other end are regional and national platforms with dozens of branches, each built by buying local firms. The step between those two worlds is a company with a general manager, account managers and a book of commercial contracts. That is the size where private equity starts calling.

Who is buying landscaping businesses?

Three kinds of buyer, sorted by size.

Individual buyers with an SBA loan. Under about $2M, the buyer is usually a person who will run the company. The SBA's 7(a) program lends up to $5 million. The usual deal is an SBA loan, a seller note and the buyer's own cash.

Private equity platforms. A platform buys a strong regional company, then adds local firms around it, often keeping their names. Several commercial landscaping platforms bought companies in 2025 and 2026.

Public and larger strategic buyers. BrightView is the public name in the trade. Larger private firms also buy to enter a new city.

The named platforms, with a source for each, are in who is buying landscaping businesses.

What moves the multiple up or down?

The same few things show up in every landscaping deal.

Size also matters on its own. IBBA's survey found lower-middle-market deals drew 3.61 offers each in 2025, against 2.38 for main street. More buyers means more price tension.

How do you sell or buy one?

Selling. Prepare for one to two years if the owner is the business, then plan on several months of process. Move revenue toward contracts, get a manager in place and clean the books. Talk to a CPA and a lawyer about taxes before you sign a letter of intent. The full steps are in how to sell a landscaping business, or see how we help owners sell.

Buying. Write your buy box first: price, location, maintenance or design-build, and whether you will run it. Then check the contracts, the crews, the equipment and the seasonal cash flow before you pay for a loan application. The full guide is how to buy a landscaping business, and buyers who want deal flow can start at our buy-side page.

Moran Pober has advised buyers and sellers of small and mid-sized businesses since 2016, and home services such as landscaping are among the sectors we see most.