How to Buy a Lawn Care or Landscaping Company in 2026
by Raises.com
This article is general information, not legal, tax, securities or investment advice. Laws, rates and programs change, and the details here may no longer be current. Confirm anything you plan to act on with your own counsel and accountant.
Buy a landscaping company by splitting its revenue into recurring maintenance contracts and one-off installs, because a lender lends against the first and discounts the second. Then fund the off-season with a working capital reserve. Count the crews and the equipment honestly, and finish the investor structure before a lender sees the deal.
Neither client file in this post is a landscaping company. Cody Sechelski used Raises.com® for the capital structure and lender sourcing behind the first company in his Gulf Coast trades platform, a family-run HVAC business in Texas. Hunter Ballew worked with Raises.com® on the capital strategy for Roofing.com. Both are trades. They are the nearest thing in our files to a landscaper.
1. Split the revenue into maintenance and installs
A landscaping company sells two different things, and a lender values them differently. Maintenance is the weekly mowing, pruning and cleanup billed on a schedule to homeowners, homeowners associations and property managers, and it repeats next year when the customer stays. Installs are patios, plantings and irrigation, each one won as its own job. A lender counts on the first.
Ask for revenue by customer and by type. If one property manager carries several sites, that is one customer and one decision, whatever the site count says, because one phone call can end all of them. Read the cancellation clause in each contract. Many commercial grounds contracts can be ended on short notice, so they recur by habit more than by obligation.
2. Read the contracts before the customer list
A maintenance contract only helps you if it survives the sale. In an asset purchase, a contract that requires consent to assign needs the customer's yes before closing. Some are signed in the owner's own name. Those may not belong to the company at all. A stock purchase keeps the contracts with the company, though a change-of-control clause can still let a customer walk.
The relationship is the other half. Property managers renew with the person they know, and in a small landscaping company that person is usually the seller who answers the phone. Cody Sechelski's test for a deal that closes includes a business that survives the key-man test. Ask which accounts the seller runs personally. Then ask who takes them over.
3. Fund the seasonal cash cycle
Where winters are cold, a landscaping company earns most of its money in the growing season while insurance, equipment payments, salaries and the shop lease run all year. Snow removal fills the gap in some markets. The spring ramp is the expensive stretch. Crews get hired and fuel and materials get bought before receivables catch up.
The purchase agreement has to reflect that cycle. Its working capital target sets the receivables and payables the seller leaves behind at closing, and for a seasonal company the right level changes with the month you close. Close in late winter and you inherit thin receivables just before the ramp. Reserve for it in the sources and uses.
4. Count the crews and the equipment
The crews are the business on most days. Ask who the foremen are, how long they have been there and whether they stay after the sale, and plan a retention payment for the ones the routes depend on. Some crews include H-2B seasonal workers. If yours do, have immigration counsel confirm before closing what happens to those petitions under a new owner.
Equipment is where a seller can flatter the numbers. A seller who stopped replacing mowers, trucks and trailers shows higher earnings, and the buyer pays for that twice, once in the price and again in the replacements. Ask for a fleet list with each unit's age, hours, title and any lien. A lender advances only part of what used equipment would fetch. Put the replacements in the model.
5. Build the stack: SBA debt, the seller and investors
An SBA 7(a) loan fits a landscaping company the buyer will run, up to the program's $5 million cap. Seller participation, through a seller note or rolled equity, closes part of the gap and keeps the seller tied to the transition, which matters when the property manager relationships sit with them. Investor equity in an SPV covers the rest. Equipment loans can finance new units on their own.
Expect the debt to take longer than the seller hopes. Cody's capital was won in a tournament across multiple capital firms, with goalposts that moved for months, before a final lender quoted three weeks and took two. His seller was patient, because the structure and the story held. Time your close so the spring ramp does not land in the middle of it.
6. Write the framework and the story investors read
The Roofing.com case study credits two pieces of work behind Hunter Ballew's capital strategy: the legal frameworks and the narrative. A landscaping raise needs both. The framework is the SPV, the operating agreement and an exemption chosen before the first investor conversation. Rule 506(b) allows up to 35 non-accredited investors but no advertising, while Rule 506(c) allows advertising as long as every investor is accredited and you verify it.
The narrative is the deal in plain words. For a landscaper it is the maintenance base under contract, the plan for winter, the foremen who are staying and the seller's role after closing. Investors read that before the model. File Form D within 15 days of the first sale.
Maintenance contracts vs installs: how a lender reads them
| Lender question | Recurring maintenance | Installs and design-build |
|---|---|---|
| How does the revenue arrive? | Billed per visit or monthly through the season | One project at a time |
| What will the lender count on? | Contracts likely to renew under a new owner | The signed backlog, little beyond it |
| What keeps it going? | Crews running the same routes | Estimating and selling the next job |
| What does it do to cash? | Steady billing in season | Materials bought up front, then deposits and progress payments |
| What can end it? | A cancellation notice or a lost relationship | No new jobs signed |
Frequently asked questions
Can I use an SBA loan to buy a landscaping company?
Yes, a landscaping company you will run can qualify for an SBA 7(a) loan up to the $5 million program cap. The lender will look for your own management experience. Seller participation and investor equity usually fill the rest.
Do maintenance contracts transfer when I buy the company?
In an asset purchase, any contract that requires consent to assign needs the customer's approval first. In a stock purchase they stay with the company. Read every contract, change-of-control clauses included, before you sign the LOI.
What makes a landscaping company easier to finance?
Maintenance revenue under contracts that survive the sale, spread across many customers. A lender also wants foremen who stay and a fleet with life left in it.
Does the month I close matter?
Yes, because it sets how much working capital you need. Closing before the spring ramp means funding hiring, fuel and materials before receivables build, so size the reserve for that stretch.
What equipment records should I ask the seller for?
A fleet list with each unit's age, hours, title and any lien, plus the repair and replacement history. Gaps in replacement are a cost you will carry after closing.
Raises.com® builds the structure behind a landscaping acquisition: the PPM, the subscription and operating agreements, CFA financial proformas and the data room. The raise is then legally and financially sound before the first investor reads it. See how acquisition capital gets structured at https://raises.com/buy-a-business, or book a strategy call at https://raises.com/call.
General information, not legal, tax, securities or investment advice. Laws, rates and programs change, and the details here may no longer be current. Confirm anything you plan to act on with your own counsel and accountant.