This is Carlos’s story.
How to sell a landscaping business at the right time, to the right buyer, for the right price is the question Carlos had been turning over for two years before he picked up the phone. When the right time came, he called CGK Business Sales. Carlos ran a $2.4M commercial landscape maintenance and design-build operation outside a major Texas metro: 28 employees at seasonal peak, 14 year-round, eight mowers, four trucks pulling trailers, and a book of business that ran 65% commercial maintenance contracts (HOAs, property management firms, an office complex or two) and 35% residential design-build projects. He was 54. His knees were gone. His back was gone. The H2B labor pipeline he depended on for two decades had grown harder to navigate every renewal cycle. He came to us in early 2024 because he was ready to be done and did not know who else to talk to about how to sell a landscaping business this size. This page is what happened next, and what could happen for you. Carlos is a composite, not a single real CGK seller, but the patterns and details are pulled from real landscaping engagements.
The night before Carlos called us.
Most owners who decide to sell a landscaping business have been thinking about it quietly for a year or two before they pick up the phone. Carlos was no different. He was 54. For 19 years he had been on jobs at first light, on phones at second-cup-of-coffee, and out late drafting design proposals personally because no one else in the company had ever closed a $90,000 backyard job the way he could. The business did $2.4 million in annual revenue, had 28 employees at seasonal peak and 14 year-round, ran eight mowers and four trucks pulling trailers, and split its book of business roughly 65/35 between commercial maintenance contracts and residential design-build.
Why owners decide to sell a landscaping business
His daughter was in nursing school. His son worked construction in Colorado and was not coming home to swing a string trimmer in Texas heat. His wife taught middle school and had been asking him quietly for two years when he was finally going to be done. His knees were gone from nineteen years of squatting on a foam pad to set sprinkler heads. His back was gone for the same reason. The H2B labor pipeline he had built his crews around had grown harder and more expensive to navigate every renewal cycle since 2022, and the next round of policy uncertainty was already making him queasy. He had been approached three times in the prior fourteen months: once by a regional commercial-maintenance roll-up that found him through a trade publication, once by a competing landscaper across town who said he would buy the book on a handshake, and once, almost as an aside at the end of a routine site walk, by a long-time HOA board member who had been on the board of his largest contract for twelve years and casually mentioned that if Carlos ever decided to sell, the board member would want to talk first.
That is the night he found CGK and submitted the form. We called him back at 8:42 the next morning.
The conversation we had on the first call.
The first call was 38 minutes. We did most of the listening.
Carlos talked about his foreman of twelve years, his lead designer who could close a $30,000 patio job but not yet a $90,000 backyard renovation, the H2B sponsorship paperwork that ate two weeks of his calendar every winter, and the fact that he had not taken a real summer break since his daughter started high school. He talked about the three commercial accounts that anchored his maintenance book, the office complex he had been mowing every Tuesday morning for fifteen years, and the design-build pipeline he ran personally because every proposal needed his eye. We asked about the business in the way you would ask if you were trying to understand it, not in the way you would ask if you were trying to win the engagement. What we were listening for was not just the financials. We were listening for whether Carlos was actually ready to sell, what he was working toward, and whether his expectations on price were grounded in what the market would actually support.
At the end of that call, we set up a working session: an in-person conversation where one of our Managing Directors would walk Carlos through our valuation model and tell him honestly what his business was likely to command. We did not promise him a written report. Written valuations involve substantially more work, and we charge for those when a seller actually needs one for estate planning, a partner buyout, a divorce, or another documentary purpose. The walkthrough was free because Carlos was clearly thinking seriously about selling, the way someone thinks about it before they actually do it. Whether that ends up being in a year, three years, or longer, we make the same call.
The valuation session was the following Tuesday at 7 a.m. at his yard, before the crews rolled out for the day’s first stops.
Carlos was not ready to sell a landscaping business yet. He went home and waited eight months.
The valuation session showed Carlos that his business was worth meaningfully less than he had been hoping. Two issues were dragging the number down. The first was Carlos himself. He WAS the design-build sales engine. Every proposal over $20,000 went through him personally. The long-tenured commercial customers all picked up the phone for him by first name. To a sophisticated buyer, that looked like key-person risk on the highest-margin part of the book. The second was the H2B labor sponsorship file. Carlos had been managing it himself for nineteen years, the paperwork was inconsistent year over year, and two of the largest commercial maintenance agreements were on month-to-month renewals rather than annual auto-renew language.
We told Carlos honestly: he could go to market now and accept the discount, or he could spend six to twelve months elevating his lead designer into a real design-build sales role, cleaning up the H2B file, getting his commercial maintenance agreements onto annual auto-renew paper, and tightening the financials so they would tell a clean story under buyer scrutiny. We said the second path would likely command a meaningfully better number from a wider range of buyers, including the kind of high-net-worth individual buyer who would never look at a key-person-risky business but would pay full price for a well-organized one.
This is the part most brokers skip. Most brokers would have signed Carlos that day, taken him to market, and made the commission whether or not the deal was the best one for him. We told him to wait, even though it meant we did not get paid for eight months and might never get paid at all if he changed his mind.
Carlos went home and waited. He spent the next eight months promoting his lead designer into a true design-build sales lead, then bringing on a junior designer underneath that role. He hired a part-time HR consultant to clean up the H2B sponsorship file year by year. He renegotiated the largest commercial maintenance agreements onto annual auto-renew terms with thirty-day cancellation language. He read up on what active acquirers were paying for landscape businesses through resources like the National Association of Landscape Professionals. He called us back in late summer 2024 and said he was ready to sell a landscaping business that was finally in the shape it needed to be in.
What we did when Carlos came back.
What it takes to sell a landscaping business properly
When an owner is ready to sell a landscaping business with CGK, the speed surprises them. We took Carlos’s business to market in two weeks once he got us his updated financials, commercial maintenance contract portfolio, residential design-build pipeline, equipment inventory and replacement schedule, and crew roster with H2B status. The blind teaser went out to 78 buyers we had pre-qualified across five buyer types this time: regional commercial-maintenance roll-up platforms (some PE-backed, some independent), strategic acquirers from adjacent home-services categories, search funders looking for a stable cash-flow operating business in their first acquisition, high-net-worth individual buyers using SBA 7(a) financing with prior ties to landscaping or home services, and adjacent commercial real-estate operators who saw vertical integration in their property portfolios.
Fifty-four of those buyers signed NDAs and received the full Confidential Information Memorandum. Thirty-six entered our structured data room. Twenty-two submitted Indications of Interest. Eleven advanced to Letters of Intent. We narrowed to six for management presentations. Three re-submitted refined LOIs after the management meetings.
Carlos decided between two of the top LOIs. They were materially different. One was a higher headline price from a regional commercial-maintenance roll-up backed by a Texas-focused private equity fund, with a conventional escrow structure and an earnout tied to commercial contract retention over three years. The other was a slightly lower headline price from a high-net-worth individual buyer using an SBA 7(a) loan, with 90 percent cash at close, no escrow, and a 10 percent seller note paid back over five years. The HNWI buyer was a former HOA board member who had sat on the board of Carlos’s largest commercial customer for twelve years and had personally watched Carlos perform every Tuesday morning for a decade. We walked Carlos through what each would actually deliver to him under realistic and pessimistic scenarios. The HNWI deal was the better one. Carlos already knew and respected the buyer, the cash position day one was substantially stronger, and the structural cleanliness saved him from a three-year earnout babysitting situation. He took it.
Through the whole process, the same CGK Managing Director who had taken Carlos’s first call eight months earlier was the person walking him through every conversation.
What the deal actually looked like.
How the deal looks when you sell a landscaping business with CGK
Carlos’s deal closed roughly five months after we restarted the engagement. The buyer was a high-net-worth individual: a senior executive at a regional home-services company who had also sat on the HOA board of Carlos’s largest commercial maintenance contract for twelve years. He had built personal capital across a 25-year career, had recently exited his executive role, and wanted to operate a business he understood from the customer side. He financed the acquisition with personal equity and an SBA 7(a) loan. The deal was structured as an asset sale, as SBA 7(a) financing typically requires.
The headline price was slightly below the competing roll-up offer but the structure was meaningfully better. About 90 percent of the purchase price came as cash at closing, funded by the SBA loan plus the buyer’s personal equity. The remaining 10 percent was a seller note paid back over five years at a competitive interest rate, secured by the business assets. We successfully negotiated the escrow holdback to zero in exchange for tighter representations and warranties insurance, which is unusual for deals at this size and a real win for Carlos’s day-one liquidity. Wire hit on a Friday afternoon in November.
Carlos stayed on as a paid advisor to the buyer for three months after closing, which let him introduce his foreman, his lead designer, his commercial customers, and his H2B sponsorship paperwork to the new owner on his terms. After that, he was done.
What happened to Carlos’s people.
Carlos cared more about his foreman, his lead designer, his H2B-sponsored field crews, and his long-tenured commercial customers than he cared about almost any other variable in the deal. The HNWI buyer’s twelve-year prior relationship with the largest commercial customer made this part easier than it would have been with an institutional buyer. The buyer already knew and respected the field crews. He had watched Carlos’s foreman direct work on his property a hundred times.
The buyer kept all 28 employees, honored the existing pay structure, and committed to maintaining the H2B sponsorship paperwork year over year. Carlos’s foreman was promoted to Operations Manager with a meaningful comp bump, taking over day-to-day yard operations. Carlos’s lead designer, who had stepped into the design-build sales role during the eight-month wait, kept that role and earned a quarterly bonus structure tied to design-build margin. Long-time commercial customers retained 100 percent through the transition, partly because the buyer was already one of them, partly because Carlos personally introduced him to the rest, and partly because the buyer continued the same Tuesday-morning service standard Carlos had been delivering for a decade.
Carlos’s daughter, in the middle of nursing school clinicals, sent a card and a long voicemail. His son flew home from Colorado for a weekend to celebrate. His wife, the middle-school teacher, pulled the Spain itinerary out of the kitchen drawer where it had been waiting for two years. They flew to Madrid in March.
What Carlos told us afterward.
Why owners who sell a landscaping business with CGK keep coming back
About three months after closing, Carlos called the Managing Director who had run his deal. He said two things that the Managing Director still tells new sellers about.
The first was that the eight-month wait between his first call and his actual engagement was the most valuable part of the whole relationship. He said: “If you had taken me to market when I first called, I would have signed with the first roll-up that put a number on paper. Telling me to wait eight months, and telling me exactly what to fix in the meantime, is what made the difference between an okay outcome and a great one. I would have left almost a quarter of the proceeds on the table by going early.”
The second was about the structure of the deal. He said: “I almost took the higher headline price from the roll-up because the top-line number looked better. What you walked me through, the actual cash in my pocket on closing day versus three years out, including what an SBA-financed deal could deliver in cleanliness and certainty versus an institutional deal with an earnout, is the conversation my CPA and my lawyer both said they had never seen another broker have.”
This is what we mean when we say we sit with you in the decision, not just the transaction. Carlos is one composite story, but the pattern is real. The owners we work with who decide to sell a landscaping business usually find their way to us through versions of Carlos’s situation, and the relationships start with a long listening session and a free walkthrough, not a pitch.
Ready to sell a landscaping business? Where are you in Carlos’s story?
If you are starting to think about how to sell a landscaping business, we should talk. There is no commitment and no pressure. The first conversation is free. The valuation walkthrough that follows is free when you are seriously thinking about selling, whether that is in a year, five years, or longer. We only charge for formal written valuations, and only when you actually need one for estate planning, a partner buyout, or another documentary purpose. Submit the form and a senior CGK Managing Director will reach out within one business day.
If you are Carlos at month 1: just exploring
You are not sure if you want to sell yet. Your knees are telling you something, your wife is asking when you are going to be done, you are curious about what your commercial maintenance book might be worth, or you have just been approached by a roll-up that called from a trade publication. Most of our best engagements start here. Submit the form and we will schedule a working session. You walk away with a real number and a clear sense of what to do next, with no obligation to do anything.
If you are Carlos at month 8: ready to go
You have done the work to clean up the business. The financials are tight. Your lead designer can close design-build jobs without you. Your H2B paperwork is on a real cycle. Your commercial maintenance contracts are on annual auto-renew paper. Maybe a long-time customer has hinted that they would be interested if you ever decided to sell. You want to run a real process. Submit the form and we will be in touch within a business day to talk about timing, scope, and what your first 30 days as a CGK seller would look like.
If you are not sure where you are
Most owners are not sure. Submit the form and start with the conversation. We will figure out together where you are. We are equally happy to tell you to wait twelve months as we are to take you to market in two weeks.
Or call us directly at (888) 858-7191.
Start your own story
A senior CGK Managing Director will respond within one business day. Strictly confidential. For owners of landscaping businesses doing $1.5M+ in annual revenue. The first conversation and the valuation walkthrough that follows are free for any seller seriously thinking about selling, on any horizon.
Confidential. No obligation. Direct routing to a named CGK business broker, not a junior screener.
One of these eight people would lead your engagement.
When you decide to sell a landscaping business with CGK, one named senior Managing Director stays with you from the first call through the wire transfer, just like Carlos’s Managing Director stayed with him for eight months and then for the engagement that followed. Our Managing Directors come from Wall Street investment banks, hedge funds, Fortune 500 corporate finance, and operating-business leadership. Cornell MBA. U Chicago Booth MBA. CFA. CMT. Naval Academy. Goldman Sachs. Merrill Lynch. Deutsche Bank. AIG. T. Rowe Price.
What sellers say after they sell a landscaping business (and other businesses) with CGK
I could not be happier with the experience I had selling my business with CGK. Greg did a detailed analysis of my business and helped me price and position it right for the market. After receiving multiple offers at full asking price, the rest of the process went very smoothly, and we closed in less than two months.
Hanna M.Selling my business was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’m incredibly grateful to have had Wes by my side throughout the process. He brought perspective, pushed when necessary, and always had my best interests in mind. His experience and strategic approach allowed me to maximize the sale price while minimizing long-term risk and obligations. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose him as my broker.
Adam NevilleDerik located multiple interested strategic buyers that produced more than one serious offer. The negotiations were tough but Greg and Derik’s experience helped us overcome. We got a great result for our employees and for the owners. We would recommend them without reservation.
Bob TaylorWe sold a business that was 47 years old and being run by second generation within a year of working with Wes. CGK has a system that attracts serious prospects to review opportunities. Wes was able to make the overwhelming feeling of selling easy and to a certain extent enjoyable. I never felt alone or in the dark throughout the entire process.
Jennifer WilliamsWe decided to sell our company in 2025. Talked to another M&A company in the Houston area. We felt very comfortable with Greg and Matthew at CGK. Could not have made a better choice. From day 1 till final closing and even after 30+ days, they have been here helping us with documents and support during the transition. Thanks can not be said enough.
Rickey ThomasInside the Blueprint, on Bloomberg TV and Fox Business News.
Carlos’s wife is the one who first sent him a clip of CGK on Bloomberg. She had been listening to a podcast about how to sell a landscaping business on her commute home from school and the episode mentioned CGK by name; she sent him the link before he had decided to do anything. CGK Business Sales is featured on Inside the Blueprint, the syndicated business television series. Our episode aired on Bloomberg TV and Fox Business News. Watch the segment, then start a confidential conversation.
The CGK office Carlos called was in his local Texas market. Yours might be one of these.
When you sell a landscaping business with CGK, whichever office you reach, you get the entire firm. Carlos worked with a CGK Managing Director based out of his local Texas market, but his deal benefited from a buyer pool we sourced firm-wide, including the high-net-worth individual buyer who ultimately won. Click any city to learn about our local presence and the named Managing Director leading that market.
Other Questions Carlos and Other Landscaping Sellers Ask Us
Practical answers to what comes up before, during, and after the kind of engagement Carlos went through, when you sell a landscaping business with CGK.