Buying a funeral home in South Florida
South Florida has 39 established funeral homes by our count: companies in business at least 15 years that still file with the state every year and aren't part of a larger group. Of those, 72% have been in business 20 years or more. Most will never be listed for sale, and many of their owners have never been asked.
What it takes to own one
Funeral homes in South Florida come in every size. Here's what owning one could look like at three levels, from a solid company to one of the leaders, with a small business loan covering most of the price.
- Earns about
- $103,000 a year
- Price about
- $247,000
- Your cash
- $35,000
- Could pay you
- up to $58,000 a year
- Earns about
- $157,000 a year
- Price about
- $377,000
- Your cash
- $53,000
- Could pay you
- up to $89,000 a year
- Earns about
- $579,000 a year
- Price about
- $1.4 million
- Your cash
- $194,000
- Could pay you
- up to $328,000 a year
Earnings are owner earnings: profit plus what the owner pays themselves, before loan payments and taxes. They and the prices are our estimates from public records, not the owners' figures, and we value companies like these at about 2.4 times a year's owner earnings. Your cash covers the down payment and closing costs, and what the business could pay you is what's left after the loan payments and the cushion lenders require. The more cash you bring, the further up you can go.
Age, size and location
Revenue is our estimate from public records, grouped into wide ranges.
| In business | Companies |
|---|---|
| Under 20 years | 11 |
| 20 to 29 years | 18 |
| 30 to 39 years | 7 |
| 40 years or more | 3 |
| Estimated yearly revenue | Companies |
|---|---|
| Under $1M | 15 |
| $1M to $2M | 1 |
| $2M to $4M | 2 |
| $4M to $8M | 2 |
| County | Companies |
|---|---|
| Miami-Dade | 20 |
| Broward | 9 |
| Palm Beach | 9 |
| Other counties | 1 |
| Town | Companies |
|---|---|
| Miami | 10 |
What the best funeral homes have in common
- A steady number of calls per year in a community where the home is well known. Families often return to the home that served their parents.
- A strong preneed book (contracts sold in advance), properly held in trust or insured, priced to cover future costs. Today's preneed sales are tomorrow's calls.
- A funeral director in charge who is staying, plus licensed staff who can step in.
- Staff families trust: the director who sat with them is often the reason they come back.
- Facilities in good repair, with room for visitation, and a well-run crematory if it has one.
- Services and prices that suit local demand, including cremation options.
- A clean record with state regulators.
- Good relationships with hospitals, hospices, churches and cemeteries.
What to check before you buy
- Calls per year for five years, by type (burial, cremation, direct cremation), and average revenue per call.
- The preneed book: how many contracts, what they promise, how each is funded, and how the trust balance compares with today's cost of delivering those services. A shortfall is a liability you inherit.
- Trust statements, insurance policy assignments and DFS examination reports.
- Every funeral director's and embalmer's license, and the plans of the director in charge.
- Crematory equipment, permits and maintenance records.
- Building condition, vehicles and any environmental issues.
- Complaints and lawsuits, and whether price lists and paperwork follow the FTC Funeral Rule.
- Which community relationships rest on the owner personally.
- Insurance-funded preneed policies: which insurer issued them, and whether they're assigned to the funeral home.
Questions to ask the owner
- How many calls do you handle a year, and how has that changed?
- How many preneed contracts are outstanding, and how are they funded?
- Who's your funeral director in charge, and do they plan to stay?
- Do you own a crematory, or contract with one?
- How do today's prices compare with what your preneed contracts promised?
- How do new families find you, and what do they say?
- How many of your community relationships run through you personally?
To learn what these companies do, which licenses they need and how ownership works, read our full guide to buying a funeral home in Florida.
Owning a company in South Florida
The local economy
South Florida covers Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties: Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, and the Florida Keys down to Key West. It's the state's largest metro area and its most international. PortMiami, Port Everglades and Miami International Airport tie the region to Latin America and the Caribbean, which supports a deep base of wholesalers, freight forwarders and logistics firms, many of them near the airport. Tourism and cruises, finance and wealth management, health care, real estate and construction carry much of the rest. Palm Beach County adds wealthy seasonal residents and, out west near Lake Okeechobee, sugarcane and vegetable farms. In the Keys, nearly everything turns on visitors, fishing and boating.
Companies that serve homes, condo buildings and other businesses do well here: the building trades, property services, insurance agencies, medical and dental practices, and professional firms.
What's different about owning a company here
Costs run high: commercial rent, wages and, above all, property and windstorm insurance. Price the insurance before you make an offer, not after. Miami-Dade and Broward make up the Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, with stricter rules for roofs, windows and structures. That raises building costs, and it also gives steady work to the contractors who know those rules well.
Much of the workforce and many customers speak Spanish as well as English, and a company that works well in both languages has an edge. The winter season matters more in Palm Beach County and the Keys than in Miami. In the Keys, the cost of housing makes hiring and keeping staff one of the hardest parts of running a company. Ask any seller there how they find workers and where those workers live.