Buying a farm, nursery or agricultural service business in Treasure Coast

• 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 Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties on the Atlantic coast and Okeechobee and Highlands counties inland: Stuart, Palm City, Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Sebastian, Okeechobee, Sebring and Avon Park. Port St. Lucie is the largest city and has grown quickly as a suburb within reach of Palm Beach County to the south.

The coast draws retirees and winter residents, and health care, construction, real estate, boating and sport fishing are big parts of the economy. The coast lies in the Indian River citrus district, named for the lagoon. Inland, Okeechobee and Highlands are cattle, dairy and citrus country around Lake Okeechobee and along the ridge near Sebring, with many retirees of their own. Home service companies, the building trades, marine businesses and medical practices find steady customers here.

The coast is seasonal, with winter residents filling restaurants, golf courses and service schedules, and summer is quieter. Hurricane Nicole came ashore near Vero Beach in November 2022, and the region has a long history of storms, so check insurance, flood zones and how a business came through recent ones.

Water quality in the St. Lucie River and the Indian River Lagoon is a recurring problem, and in a bad year it can hurt fishing, boating and tourism businesses. Inland, distances are longer and the labor pool thinner. A company in Sebring or Okeechobee may be one of very few of its kind nearby, which can mean loyal customers and little competition, but also few people to hire. Most new homes on the coast are going up in and around Port St. Lucie.