Buying a hardware, building supply or garden store in Treasure Coast

• Counter staff who can tell a customer how to fix a running toilet or wire a switch. That advice is why people pay a little more than at a big box store.
• Inventory that sells steadily, with little dead stock, and computer counts that match the shelves.
• Contractor accounts spread across many builders and trades, plus steady walk-in homeowners.
• Service income from keys, paint, rentals and repairs.
• Contractors who pay on time, with few old unpaid balances.
• A convenient spot for a neighborhood or for job sites, with parking and room for trucks to load.
• For garden centers, someone who keeps the plants healthy, so few are thrown away.

• Inventory at closing. Have it counted independently at cost, leaving out damaged, discontinued and obsolete stock. It's often a big part of the price.
• Co-op or dealer agreements. Will the membership carry over? What equity stake or minimum purchases does it require? And if it doesn't, what happens to the sign?
• Contractor accounts. Get a list of what each contractor owes and for how long, decide whether you buy those balances or the seller collects them, and see how sales held up when local building slowed.
• Storm years. A hurricane can lift one year's sales well above normal, so look at several years.
• Equipment. Check the age of forklifts, delivery trucks, paint machines and any rental fleet.
• The seller's unpaid taxes. Buying more than half of a business or its assets can make you liable for the seller's unpaid sales tax and other Department of Revenue taxes, up to the price you paid or the value of what you bought, whichever is greater (section 213.758). To protect yourself, get a certificate of compliance from the department before closing. You may also hold back part of the price and pay it to the state within 30 days. Let your attorney handle this.

• Which departments and customers bring in the most profit, and how has that changed over the years?
• How much of your stock hasn't sold in the past year, and what do you do with it?
• Who are your biggest contractor accounts, and how quickly do they pay?
• How do sales in a hurricane year compare with a normal year?
• Which of your counter staff do customers ask for by name, and are they planning to stay?
• Are you in a buying cooperative, and what would I need to do to keep the membership?
• If you were staying another ten years, what would you add: rentals, delivery or a bigger garden section?

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.