Buying or selling an HVAC business: what buyers pay, who is buying, how to sell

If you are buying or selling an HVAC business, the price comes down to three things. The size of the earnings, who the likely buyer is, and how much of the business runs without the owner. This guide is the starting point for both sides. It gives the numbers, names the buyers, and links to the detailed guides on selling, buying, valuation and who is buying.

What is an HVAC business worth right now?

Most HVAC companies sell for a multiple of earnings, and the multiple rises with deal 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, so it is a smaller number on a higher multiple.

Our own data adds the asking side. In our October 2026 asking-multiples report, built from 2,915 listings our agents read on 15+ marketplaces, 40 listings were HVAC companies. The 35 with a disclosed price asked a median $1,200,000. The middle half sat between $587,500 and $2,375,000. Too few HVAC listings disclosed earnings to give an HVAC-only earnings multiple, so we do not. The wider home services group asked a median 3.21x SDE on 27 listings.

The full table, a worked example and what moves a company within its band are in HVAC business valuation multiples.

How big are most HVAC businesses that change hands?

Most HVAC deals are small. The asking prices above say so: half of the HVAC listings we read were priced under $1.2 million, and three quarters under $2.4 million. These are one-location shops with a handful of trucks, and IBBA prices them on SDE.

The trade behind them is large and growing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook counts 440,900 HVACR mechanic and installer jobs in 2025, projects 11% growth from 2025 to 2035, and puts median pay at $61,010 a year. A buyer is buying a share of that workforce, and the hardest thing to replace in any HVAC company is the technicians.

Who is buying HVAC businesses?

Three kinds of buyer, sorted by deal size.

Individual buyers with an SBA loan. Under about $2M, the buyer is usually a person who will run the company, often a technician or a manager from a bigger firm. The SBA's 7(a) program lends up to $5 million, per SBA.gov, and the usual deal is an SBA loan plus a seller note plus the buyer's own cash. The SBA's lending rules, SOP 50 10, moved to version 8.1 on 1 October 2026, so ask a lender what the current equity and underwriting rules mean for your deal.

Private equity platforms. A platform buys one HVAC company, then adds smaller ones nearby and keeps each local name. The biggest is Apex Service Partners, which Apollo's May 2026 press release describes as 75 local brands in 46 states with more than 13,000 employees and over $3 billion in annual revenue. Our report on Apollo's minority stake in Apex covers that deal. Sila Services, backed by Goldman Sachs Alternatives since November 2024, runs over 30 brands across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, per the Goldman Sachs announcement. Newer platforms buy in small towns too: see TruTemp's purchase of two North Carolina HVAC companies in October 2026.

Public companies. Comfort Systems USA is a public HVAC and electrical contractor. Its October 2025 results release reported revenue of $2.45 billion for the third quarter of 2025 alone, and two contractor acquisitions closed on 1 October 2025. Buyers like this want commercial and mechanical companies with real management, usually well above $5M in price. Manufacturers buy too: Carrier paid €12 billion for Viessmann Climate Solutions, a heat pump maker, in a deal that closed in January 2024.

The full list, with a source for each buyer, is in who is buying HVAC businesses.

What moves the price up or down?

Within each size band the spread is wide. The middle half of home services sellers in our report asked anywhere from 2.62x to 4.00x SDE. These things decide where an HVAC company lands.

Size itself is a factor. IBBA's survey found lower-middle-market sellers got 3.61 offers per deal in 2025, against 2.38 for main street. More offers means more price tension, which is one reason bigger companies get bigger multiples.

How do you sell an HVAC business?

Selling well takes one to two years of preparation and then four to nine months of process, in our experience. The steps are simple to list. Get a valuation on both SDE and EBITDA. Fix the owner-dependency and record-keeping problems above. Prepare a short information package. Take the company to the right buyer pool quietly, and run buyers in parallel so you get more than one offer. Then hold the deal together through diligence and the lender.

Taxes decide how much of the price you keep. An asset sale and a stock sale are taxed differently, and a seller note changes the timing. Talk to a CPA and a lawyer before you sign a letter of intent, not after.

The step-by-step version, with documents, timeline and fees, is in how to sell an HVAC business. If you would rather talk it through, see how we help owners sell.

How do you buy an HVAC business?

Start with your buy box: price range, location, residential or commercial, and whether you will run it yourself. Then source widely. Marketplace listings are the visible market; off-market deals come from advisors, suppliers and brokers who know which owners are tired.

On any target, check four things first. Who holds the mechanical licence and whether they stay. How much revenue is recurring maintenance work versus one-off installs. Whether the tax returns agree with the profit and loss statement. And how old the fleet is. A lender will check all four, so you should check them before you pay for a loan application.

Financing is usually an SBA 7(a) loan, a seller note and your own cash. Have the lender in the conversation before the offer, not after. The detailed guide is how to buy an HVAC business, and buyers who want deal flow and an advisor on their side can start at our buy-side page.

Moran Pober has advised buyers and sellers of small and mid-sized businesses since 2016 and built and sold Rollups.com. HVAC is one of the sectors we see most on both sides of the table.