Market Intel: four worlds
Status of the landscaping, roofing, security and TV/communications markets: who is growing, who is consolidating, what buyers pay, and the words they use.
Gathered October 2026 from public reports and news, with AI assistance. Nothing here has been positively verified by the desk. Price ranges are illustrative. Check any figure yourself before you rely on it.
Hot and consolidating
Landscaping buy-sell world
Private equity is buying commercial maintenance companies with steady contracts. Small residential crews sell for much less.
- US landscaping services: roughly $189 billion a year, highly fragmented.
- Private-equity buyers were behind roughly three out of four landscaping deals in 2025.
- Recurring maintenance contracts above about 60 to 75% of revenue add one to two "turns" (times earnings) to the price.
- Labor is the biggest risk: H-2B seasonal visas and wage inflation expected to continue through 2029.
What is growing
- Commercial grounds maintenance (HOAs, office parks, healthcare, senior living campuses)
- Irrigation, water management and tree care
- Companies with dense routes in one metro area
What is consolidating
- Mid-size commercial maintenance firms ($2M to $10M earnings) bought as add-ons by PE-backed platforms
- Owner-run firms with no second generation
- Design-build and one-time install firms are bought less often and for less
What buyers pay (illustrative)
| Size | Typical multiple |
|---|---|
| Under $500K SDE | 2.0 to 3.0 x SDE |
| $500K to $2M SDE (our sweet spot) | 2.75 to 4.5 x SDE / 3.5 to 5.0 x EBITDA |
| $2M to $10M EBITDA | 5 to 7 x EBITDA |
| $10M to $50M EBITDA | 7.5 to 10 x EBITDA |
| $50M+ EBITDA (platforms) | 8 to 12 x; platform exits 8 to 14 x |
Ranges from published 2025-2026 broker and advisor reports. Illustrative only. A real price depends on verified numbers.
Language to use
- Route density
- How many customers a crew serves per hour of driving. Dense routes mean higher profit and a higher price.
- Recurring revenue
- Money that repeats under contract every month or season, as opposed to one-time jobs.
- Enhancements
- Extra paid work sold to existing maintenance customers (mulch, flowers, upgrades).
- Add-on
- A smaller company bought and bolted onto a larger platform.
Ideas for the desk
- Target owners with $550K+ SDE and mostly commercial contracts: that is exactly what platforms want.
- Package two or three neighboring firms in one county into a route-dense group before offering it. The whole sells for more than the parts.
- Senior living and HOA grounds contracts are steady; they connect to your CPI community network.
Ask yourself: What share of this owner's revenue repeats every month without a new sale?
Sources: Published 2025-2026 reports and articles from CT Acquisitions, Axia Growth, DealSeam, Aspire and Breakwater.
Peak consolidation, Florida rules have changed
Roofing buy-sell world
Roofing is one of the most active PE roll-ups in the country. In Florida, insurance reform and condo safety laws reshape where the work is.
- About 105,000 US roofing firms. The two biggest hold only 4 to 6% of the market: lots of room to consolidate.
- PE-backed platforms grew sharply 2023 to 2024; at the 2025 peak about one deal closed every two days.
- Distribution is consolidating too: QXO bought Beacon (about $11B); Home Depot bought SRS (about $18B).
- Florida: homeowners-insurance lawsuits fell from about 79% of the US total (2020) to about 41% (2025) after reforms; insurers swung from losses to profit.
- HB 815 (2024) made false roof claims over $20,000 a felony and banned solicitation. Storm-chasing revenue is now discounted by buyers.
- Condo safety law (HB 913, 2025): buildings of three or more stories need structural reserve studies (SIRS); repairs must start within 365 days of a Phase Two report. Steady commercial re-roof work ahead.
- My Safe Florida Home grants up to $10,000 for hardening; the 2026 hardening sales-tax exemption runs to June 2029.
What is growing
- Commercial and condo re-roofing tied to SIRS and milestone inspections
- Service, maintenance and repair contracts (recurring)
- Hardening and wind-mitigation upgrades funded by grants
What is consolidating
- Residential replacement firms with a strong local brand
- Commercial roofers bought by Tecta America, Vertex Service Partners, Omnia Exterior Solutions, Best Choice Roofing and similar platforms
- Firms dependent on one founder or on storm/insurance work are repriced down or passed over
What buyers pay (illustrative)
| Size | Typical multiple |
|---|---|
| Under $1M SDE | 2.5 to 4.0 x SDE |
| $1M to $3M | 2.75 to 6.0 x |
| $3M to $10M EBITDA | 5 to 7 x EBITDA |
| $10M to $25M EBITDA | 6.5 to 9 x EBITDA |
| $25M+ EBITDA | 9 to 13 x EBITDA |
Ranges from published 2025-2026 reports. Illustrative only. Founder dependency is the top reason a price gets cut.
Language to use
- Qualifier
- The licensed person whose state license the company operates under. If the qualifier leaves, the company may lose its license.
- Key-person risk
- The business depends on one person (usually the founder). Buyers pay less or require them to stay.
- SIRS
- Structural Integrity Reserve Study: required for Florida condo buildings of three or more stories.
- Milestone inspection
- Required structural inspection of older Florida condo buildings.
- ACV / RCV
- Actual Cash Value (depreciated) vs Replacement Cost Value insurance coverage. More Florida policies now pay ACV on older roofs.
- AOB
- Assignment of Benefits: the old practice of signing insurance claims over to contractors, now largely eliminated in Florida.
Ideas for the desk
- Lead with Qualifier Preservation: aging single-qualifier owners need a plan to keep the license alive.
- Favor roofers with commercial, condo and service revenue over storm-claim revenue.
- Condo boards facing SIRS repairs need trusted contractors; keep that referral work separate from any insurance matters.
Ask yourself: If this owner retired tomorrow, whose license would the company run on?
Sources: Published 2025-2026 industry reports, Florida legislation (HB 815, HB 913, HB 393, HB 7031) and news coverage.
Growing and consolidating fast
Security world for senior centers, HOAs and condos
Alarm, camera and access-control companies are being bought for their monthly monitoring contracts. Senior communities are a growing niche.
- 2025: 242 disclosed security and fire/life-safety deals, up about 24% from 2024. Almost half were PE add-ons.
- Most active buyers: Pye-Barker (dozens of acquisitions in 2025), Everon (formerly ADT Commercial), Convergint, Pavion, Securitas Technology, Sciens, Security 101.
- Devices for seniors (emergency pendants, fall detection, monitoring): about $650M in 2024, forecast about $1B by 2034 (about 6.5% a year).
- About 75% of adults 55+ want to age in place. The average senior housing building is about 24 years old: lots of systems to upgrade.
What is growing
- Access control, cameras and gate systems for HOAs and condos
- Fire and life-safety inspection and monitoring (required by code, very sticky)
- Senior safety: emergency call, fall detection, wandering alerts
What is consolidating
- Local alarm dealers with monitoring contracts (RMR)
- Fire alarm and sprinkler inspection firms
- Integrators who install cameras and access control for communities
What buyers pay (illustrative)
| Size | Typical multiple |
|---|---|
| Residential monitoring contracts | about 26 to 36 x monthly recurring revenue (RMR) |
| Commercial monitoring contracts | about 32 to 42 x RMR |
| Integrators under $2M EBITDA | 3.5 to 5.5 x EBITDA |
| Integrators $2M to $5M | 6 to 8 x EBITDA |
| Integrators $5M to $10M | 8 to 11 x EBITDA |
Low cancellation (under 5% a year) pushes RMR prices higher; above about 18% a book is hard to sell. Buyers usually hold back 5 to 15% of the price for 12 to 24 months. Illustrative only.
Language to use
- RMR
- Recurring Monthly Revenue: the monthly monitoring fees. Security companies are priced as a multiple of it.
- Attrition
- The share of customers who cancel each year. Lower attrition, higher price.
- Holdback
- Part of the price held back for a period to protect the buyer if customers cancel.
- Integrator
- A company that designs and installs systems (cameras, access control) rather than mainly monitoring them.
Ideas for the desk
- Your HOA and senior-community relationships are the door that security buyers want.
- Owner-run local alarm dealers in Southwest Florida are classic acquisition targets; the same seller-intent signals apply (age, single owner, no next generation).
- A bundled "community safety" offer (gates, cameras, emergency call) is easier to sell to a board than separate vendors.
Ask yourself: How many of this company's customers pay every month, and how many cancel each year?
Sources: Published 2025-2026 security-industry M&A reports, market-research forecasts and senior-living surveys.
Shifting from satellite dishes to streaming and bulk deals
TV and communications (DirecTV-type) world for senior centers, HOAs and condos
Communities are moving from dishes and cable to bulk streaming and fiber. Federal rules on bulk billing stayed in place, so community-wide deals remain legal.
- January 2025: the FCC withdrew a proposed ban on bulk billing. Community-wide TV and internet agreements remain legal; exclusive access contracts are still prohibited.
- Some states cap markups on bulk services (Colorado, Oregon); California has a bill pending. Florida has no such cap today (verify before relying on it).
- DirecTV (now controlled by TPG) is pushing "Bulk Streaming" for condos, apartments and senior living: no dishes, a small streaming device per TV, three package tiers.
- The DirecTV and Dish merger was called off in November 2024; Dish's parent restructured in March 2026, so a deal could come back.
What is growing
- Bulk fiber internet with streaming TV included in HOA fees
- Managed Wi-Fi across the whole community, including common areas
- Simple, senior-friendly TV packages with local channels and support
What is consolidating
- Small private-cable and satellite dealers serving condos and senior communities (bought by larger bulk-service operators)
- Satellite TV itself, as subscribers move to streaming
What buyers pay (illustrative)
| Size | Typical multiple |
|---|---|
| Bulk-service contracts | Valued on contracted monthly revenue and years left on contracts; varies widely |
Less public pricing data exists here. Treat any multiple as a starting question, not an answer.
Language to use
- Bulk billing
- Every unit in the community pays for TV or internet through the HOA fee, at a group rate.
- MDU / MTE
- Multiple Dwelling Unit / Multiple Tenant Environment: condos, apartments, senior living.
- Right-of-entry
- The agreement letting a provider wire and serve the property.
- Door fee
- A payment from the provider to the community for each unit, at signing.
- Head-end
- The central equipment room that feeds TV signal to the whole building.
- Bulk Streaming
- DirecTV's community TV product delivered over the internet instead of a dish.
Ideas for the desk
- When a community's bulk contract nears renewal, boards want an independent adviser. That is a natural CPI service, separate from any sale.
- Small local TV and Wi-Fi dealers with long community contracts are acquisition targets for bulk operators.
- Seniors value simple remotes, local channels and in-person help. Ask about support, not only price.
Ask yourself: When does this community's TV or internet contract end, and who negotiated it?
Sources: FCC actions (January 2025), state legislation, DirecTV and EchoStar announcements and trade press.
Deal glossary
- SDE
- Seller's Discretionary Earnings: profit plus the owner's pay and perks. Used to price smaller businesses.
- EBITDA
- Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Used to price larger businesses after a paid manager replaces the owner.
- Multiple
- Price divided by earnings. "4x SDE" means four years of SDE.
- Platform
- The first, larger company a private-equity firm buys in an industry, to build on.
- Add-on (tuck-in)
- A smaller company bought and folded into a platform.
- Roll-up
- Buying many small companies and combining them into one big one.
- Multiple arbitrage
- Buying small companies at low multiples and selling the combined company at a higher multiple.
- Recap (recapitalization)
- The owner sells most of the company but keeps a share and stays involved.
- Rollover equity
- The part of the price the seller takes as ownership in the new, larger company instead of cash.
- Earn-out
- Part of the price paid later only if the business hits agreed targets.
- Holdback / escrow
- Part of the price held for a time to cover surprises after closing.
- QoE
- Quality of Earnings report: an accountant's check that the earnings are real.
- Key-person risk
- The business depends on one person.
- Recurring revenue
- Income that repeats under contract.
- Fragmented market
- Thousands of small firms and no dominant leader: ripe for consolidation.
- Off-market deal
- A sale arranged privately, without a public listing.
AI and technology disclosure: AI and automated tools were used to research and prepare this page. Make your own assessment and decisions and do your own verification. Nothing here is represented as verified.