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

Buying or selling a restoration business comes down to one question: how much of the work comes back every month without the owner chasing it. Buyers pay most for steady water, fire and mold jobs from many referral sources, paid on time, and run by a team. This page is for owners thinking about a sale and buyers looking at their first restoration company. By the end you will know who is buying, what they pay for, and how to prepare.

What do buyers pay for in a restoration business?

A restoration company cleans up and repairs property after water, fire, smoke, mold or storm damage. Most of the money comes through insurance claims. The homeowner or property manager calls, the crew does the emergency work, and the insurer pays the bill.

Buyers split that revenue into parts and price each part differently:

• Mitigation. The emergency work: water extraction, drying, smoke clean-up, mold removal. Fast jobs, paid fairly quickly.
• Reconstruction. Rebuilding walls, floors and kitchens after mitigation. Bigger tickets, longer jobs, more project risk.
• Contents. Packing, cleaning and storing what was inside the property.
• Storm or catastrophe work. Big spikes after hurricanes, floods and hail. Good years, but hard to repeat.

The part buyers like best is the everyday work: burst pipes, small fires and leaks that happen every week in any market. It comes back every year. Storm revenue is welcome, but most buyers will not pay a full multiple on a year that was lifted by one hurricane.

Who is buying restoration businesses?

Four kinds of buyers show up in this sector.

FirstService. The Toronto-listed property services group is the clearest public buyer. Its filing with the SEC says it agreed in 2019 to buy 95% of Global Restoration Holdings for $505 million. That company owned Interstate Restoration and FirstOnSite. Since then it has kept adding smaller firms. In January 2024 FirstService said it completed three restoration tuck-under acquisitions, terms not disclosed. Its CEO said they reflect its focus on "key markets which are susceptible to weather-related property and large loss claims." In April 2024 its First Onsite unit also bought All Restoration Solutions in the Southeast.

BELFOR. BELFOR calls itself a global leader in damage restoration and buys regional firms, such as First Call Restoration in San Antonio in 2016. Its franchise arm, BELFOR Franchise Group, says on its history page that it acquired 1-800 WATER DAMAGE in 2016.

BluSky. Partners Group and Kohlberg & Company said they jointly acquired BluSky, a commercial restoration firm with more than 900 employees. BluSky has kept merging with regional firms. After it merged with Liberty Restoration in Utah, it said the combined company would operate 65 offices in 27 states.

Individual buyers. Smaller residential firms often sell to one person who will run the business. In the IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse survey for Q4 2025, individual buyers dominated the Main Street market in 2025, and private equity made about one fifth of those deals. That survey covers all sectors, not only restoration. If you are weighing these buyer types, read strategic vs financial buyer.

What size are restoration deals?

Restoration deals run from a one-van residential firm to the large-loss groups above. The public numbers come mostly from the top end, like the FirstService deal. Most smaller deals do not disclose a price at all.

For small and mid-sized businesses in general, the IBBA Market Pulse reports median multiples by deal size each quarter. Under $2 million of value it measures them on SDE (owner's earnings). From $2 million to $50 million it uses EBITDA. Check the latest report for your size band. In its Q4 2025 survey, sellers got an average of 76% to 89% of the price in cash at close.

We do not quote a restoration-only multiple on this page. We take sector numbers only from our own asking-price data or a named public source. Where a sector has fewer than 15 listings in our data, we do not give a number. An honest value for your company starts with its own books.

What moves the price of a restoration business up or down?

These are the things buyers look at hardest in diligence.

1. Share of everyday work vs storm work. Show revenue by year with and without storm events. A buyer will do it anyway.

1. Referral sources. Insurance programs, third-party administrators, plumbers, property managers and agents. One program sending most of the jobs is a risk. Our guide to customer concentration shows how buyers measure it.

1. Receivables. Insurance jobs can be slow to pay. Old, disputed invoices lower the cash a buyer will count. Clean up aging before a sale.

1. Mitigation vs rebuild mix. Many buyers like mitigation work because jobs are short and cash comes in faster. Rebuild work brings project risk and warranty claims.

1. Owner dependence. If the owner writes every estimate and holds every adjuster relationship, a buyer is buying a job. A trained estimator and project manager change that.

1. Certifications and licences. Buyers will ask which technicians hold IICRC certifications. Some states license mold work or general contracting separately. Check your state's rules and ask a lawyer.

1. Clean books. Job costing by job, separate storm accounts, and add-backs that hold up. See adjusted EBITDA.

How do you sell a restoration business?

Start a year or two early if you can. Most of what raises the price takes time to show in the numbers.

1. Split your revenue. Mitigation, rebuild, contents, storm. Three years, by month.

1. List your referral sources and how much each one sends.

1. Fix receivables. Collect or write off old claims.

1. Build the team. Put an estimator and an operations lead in place who can run jobs without you.

1. Document the program agreements. Buyers will ask whether each insurance or TPA program carries over to a new owner.

1. Talk to a CPA and a lawyer about an asset sale vs a stock sale and the tax on each.

1. Run a quiet, competitive process. Approach strategics, platforms and individual buyers at the same time, under NDA.

Running costs matter too. Installing AI agents for after-hours calls, job notes and claim paperwork can cut cost before a sale. That is part of what we do at Acquisitions.com. If you are an owner thinking about a sale, book a free first call.

How do you buy a restoration business?

Most first-time buyers finance a purchase with an SBA loan, a seller note and investor money, combined. The SBA's 7(a) program lends up to $5 million and is the usual starting point. Lenders will look closely at receivables and storm years, so ask for monthly numbers.

Check four things before you sign a letter of intent:

• Revenue without storm events, by year.
• Who sends the jobs, and whether those programs stay after the sale.
• Receivables aging and how long insurers take to pay.
• Who does the estimating, and whether that person stays.

Our team at Acquisitions.com helps buyers find, check and finance deals. We scan 15+ business-for-sale marketplaces every day and work off-market deals through advisors and brokers. Buyers who work with us typically close in 60 to 120 days from engagement. Start at /buy or read how to buy a business. Brokers and advisors who want to work this sector under our name can join here.