Buying a fire and security company in Panhandle and North Florida

• Monitoring and inspection contracts that make up a large share of revenue, with few cancellations. Buyers pay most for this part.
• Inspection findings turned into repair jobs, quoted and done before the customer calls someone else.
• Commercial customers spread across many buildings and property managers, so losing one doesn't hurt much.
• Technicians with the right state credentials and the industry certifications that inspections require.
• Monitoring contracts that can pass to a new owner, with a reliable monitoring center behind them.
• Careful estimates on project work, and little reliance on one general contractor.
• Inspection and service records in software, showing every building's schedule and history.

• Monitoring accounts and inspection contracts in detail: value, terms and cancellations over three years.
• Whether the contracts can be transferred to you. That may depend on whether you buy the company itself or only its assets.
• The monitoring center agreement: cost per account, and who owns the customer relationship.
• Deficiencies (problems found during inspections) not yet repaired, and any liability if a system failed.
• Claims or lawsuits after fires or break-ins.
• Who holds each license and certificate, and whether they'll stay.
• Background checks and training records for every alarm employee, since gaps are a licensing problem for the company.
• Older alarm panels that report over phone lines or cellular networks that carriers have shut down.

• How much of your revenue comes from monitoring and inspections, and how has that grown?
• How many monitoring accounts and inspection contracts do you have, and on what terms?
• Who monitors your accounts, and could that agreement pass to a new owner?
• Whose licenses and certificates does the company work under?
• How many problems from recent inspections are still waiting on repairs?
• How much of your work is new systems bid through general contractors?
• Have you ever been sued after a system didn't work as expected?

This is our largest region by area. It runs from Pensacola east through Milton, Fort Walton Beach, Destin, Panama City and Tallahassee, and down into North Central Florida around Gainesville, Lake City and Live Oak, with many rural counties along the way. We also include Hardee County, around Wauchula.

The economy has several anchors. The military is a big one, with Naval Air Station Pensacola, Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlburt Field and Tyndall Air Force Base. Tallahassee is the state capital and home to Florida State University and Florida A&M University, and Gainesville has the University of Florida. The beaches from Pensacola to Panama City Beach, including Walton County's coast, draw summer visitors. Inland, timber, farming and small manufacturing matter, and towns like Apalachicola and Cedar Key make their living on the water. Contractors, defense and government service firms, restaurants, lodging and farm businesses all have markets here.

Plan for distance first. Pensacola is closer to New Orleans than to Gainesville, so most companies serve one local area, and you should know exactly where the customers are. Most of the Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River runs on Central time, an hour behind Tallahassee.

The beach season peaks in summer, the opposite of South Florida, while Gainesville and Tallahassee slow down when students leave. Hurricanes have hit hard: Michael came ashore near Mexico Beach as a Category 5 in 2018, and Idalia in 2023 and Helene in 2024 struck the Big Bend coast. Military base budgets and state government spending matter to many companies. Near the Alabama and Georgia lines, ask how much revenue comes from across the border, where other states' licenses may apply. Rural counties have small labor pools, so a company's key employees matter even more here.