whats your company worth?

I have an opportunity to buy out another inspector. Hes been around for 20years and his phone rings everyday. I dont need more work, nor was i looking, but it seems like a good investment. Without going into too much detail, whats the value of 7 inspections a week estimated?

What are you buying? Just market hard and grab the market share at your pace. You wouldn’t be purchasing anything of value. It would be like buying a real estate office. What do you really have.? We are really just speculating on the future. My humble opinion is you are simply placing money in someone’s pocket and get almost no value in return. Unless, your goal is altruistic…I wouldn’t do it.

Basically the brand and phone number. Im already established, but his line rings quite a bit

How much will it ring when they find out the inspector left?

I agree

What your asking has a million different variables.

People usually need the inspection yesterday and are easy to book when they call.

He had 5 inspection requests this week, no value?

None

Not for me, and not for most people.

So there is no value in your business line ringing with people requesting home inspections?

Anyone who pays for my business at this point is an idiot, and I’m doing way more than that guy.

^ This.

If the company is named John Smith Home Inspections, and the website is a picture of John Smith, and all his clients are repeat clients (or repeat referrals), and then you answer the phone and you are not John Smith, how much value did you really buy?

Nothing once he is done inspecting the phone will start ringing somewhere else

There is one for sale down here for $125k! :shock:Has been for some time too;-)

That sounds like Russell H.

Think of this.

He’s been in business for 20 years and pulling 5 inspections. Maybe he’s the Michael Jordan of inspectors and makes $1200 per inspection. Awesome. That’s probably not you but his callers are expecting it.

Or

He’s been at it 20 years and only got 5 average priced inspections. No one in their right mind buys a company that took 20 years to sell five of their product in one week.

Either way, the calls will stop.

I’d buy his tools for cheap for next my inspector. That’s about it.

Offer to take over the phone line and see how it develops… Pool cleaners sell for ten x gross revenue. His good will alone might be worth considering if his reputation is gold.
Name might be worth changing in advance as well…

There are a couple of guys out here that bought our competitors for their phone number and website basically. They told me that they lost half the volume, but it was cheaper to get half the volume than to try to pay for advertising to get the calls. It may be worth your time for the right price

Also, most multi inspector firms only sell for 50% of their yearly gross. A one man show is not worth as much

Hey Dennis,

It depends. I would entertain the idea for sure, like you said. For me:

  • How close is his service area to yours?
  • Would he be willing to show you some of his business model and stats from the last 4 years?
  • What is the average inspection fee?
  • What types of inspections?
  • Very important to me, where are those calls generated from?

Last one is very important. Price depends on how the ratio is divided. If he is getting 50% + of calls generated from his website and advertising that would be good. Like you said, realtor or referral calls you, explain Joe sold the business to you. You have a qualified lead right there wanting an inspection. Sell your services to them. Yes you will have a percentage that is only looking for Joe or the calls may drop in volume. But even if you generated from this purchase lets say 100 inspections next year @ $400 average that’s 40,000. I would offer him $5,000 -10,000.

Or you can work out a deal where you have tracking system in place. Monitor what inspections you obtained from his business, pay him a percentage each month for 12 months. So if you generated 4,000 per month revenue from his business, offer 20%.

If it makes sense that your ROI is x amount, I’d do it. There may be tax incentives or deductions available as well.