Buying a farm, nursery or agricultural service business in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida

• A grower or production manager who knows the crop and plans to stay. In a nursery, much of the know-how lives with that person.
• Repeat buyers spread across landscapers, builders and retailers, not one big account.
• Inventory that is counted, healthy and in the sizes and varieties that sell in your area now.
• Reliable water: wells, pumps and irrigation in good repair, and a water use permit that covers what the business actually pumps.
• A clean record with state plant inspectors: no stop-sale orders or quarantines.
• Shade houses, greenhouses, tractors and trucks that weren't patched together after the last storm.
• Records good enough to show which crops or services actually make money.

• Land. Is it included, leased or a separate deal? For a leased farm or nursery, the lease's length and renewal terms can matter more than anything else.
• Inventory. Count and grade it with someone who knows plants. Buyers and sellers disagree most over what plants in the ground are worth, and pests or disease can lead to a stop-sale order.
• Weather. Ask about hurricane and freeze damage, what was lost and what insurance or disaster programs paid.
• Labor. How the business finds and pays seasonal workers, whether it uses a labor contractor or the federal H-2A visa program, and whether it follows housing and wage rules.
• Water and environment. Compare what the permit allows with what's actually pumped, and look at fuel tanks, chemical storage and old dump spots. An environmental site assessment is common when land is part of the sale.
• The building cycle. Nursery demand rises and falls with home and commercial construction.

• Which plants or crops make you the most money, and which do you grow mostly out of habit?
• Who are your biggest buyers, and how long have they been buying from you?
• How did the place come through the last few hurricanes or freezes, and what did you change afterward?
• Who grows the crop day to day, and would they stay on after a sale?
• In a dry spring, how much water do you pump compared with what your permit allows?
• When did the state plant inspector last come out, and did they find anything?
• How do you find enough workers at your busiest time of year?
• What would come with the business: the land, the equipment, the plants in the ground and in containers?

This region covers Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, Baker and Putnam counties: Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra Beach, Orange Park, Fleming Island, Green Cove Springs, Fernandina Beach, Yulee, Macclenny and Palatka. Jacksonville merged with most of Duval County in 1968, which makes it the largest city by land area in the lower 48 states.

The economy leans on logistics, the Navy and financial services. Logistics runs through JAXPORT, major rail lines and the meeting of Interstates 95 and 10. The Navy has Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport. Insurance and health care matter too. St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565, and Amelia Island draw steady tourism. Trucking and logistics firms, the building trades, medical practices and home services all fit this market.

Northeast Florida is less seasonal than South or Southwest Florida, with fewer winter residents and more year-round employers. Direct hurricane landfalls have been less common here than on other parts of the coast, but storms still bring flooding along the St. Johns River and the beaches, so check insurance costs and flood zones.

Military families bring skilled workers and working spouses into the labor pool, though they also move on when orders change. St. Johns, Clay and Nassau have added the most new homes, and companies serving those suburbs have grown with them. Georgia is close, and some companies here serve customers across the state line. Work in Georgia may need Georgia licenses, so ask how much revenue comes from there and who holds those licenses.