Buying a funeral home in Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay has 20 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, 75% 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 Tampa Bay 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
- $94,000 a year
- Price about
- $224,000
- Your cash
- $31,000
- Could pay you
- up to $53,000 a year
- Earns about
- $250,000 a year
- Price about
- $600,000
- Your cash
- $84,000
- Could pay you
- up to $142,000 a year
- Earns about
- $397,000 a year
- Price about
- $952,000
- Your cash
- $133,000
- Could pay you
- up to $225,000 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 | 5 |
| 20 to 29 years | 5 |
| 30 to 39 years | 4 |
| 40 years or more | 6 |
| Estimated yearly revenue | Companies |
|---|---|
| Under $1M | 6 |
| $1M to $2M | 2 |
| $4M to $8M | 1 |
| County | Companies |
|---|---|
| Hillsborough | 6 |
| Pinellas | 6 |
| Other counties | 8 |
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 Tampa Bay
The local economy
Tampa Bay, as we draw it, runs from Citrus County south through Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough, and east into Polk: Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Brandon, Wesley Chapel, Brooksville, Inverness, Lakeland and Winter Haven. Tampa is the business center, with Port Tampa Bay, Tampa International Airport, the University of South Florida and MacDill Air Force Base, home to the headquarters of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. Financial services, insurance and health care employ many people, and the Gulf beaches of Pinellas bring tourists and seasonal residents.
Polk County sits on Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando and has become a center for warehouses and distribution, alongside its older citrus and phosphate industries. To the north, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus are more suburban and rural, with many retirees. Home service companies, the building trades, medical practices and auto businesses all have a deep customer base across the region.
What's different about owning a company here
Hurricane Helene's storm surge in September 2024 and Hurricane Milton two weeks later both hit the region hard. Flood zones and insurance costs now matter in any deal near the water. Ask how the business came through those storms, what it claimed, and whether its building sits in a flood zone.
The labor market is deep by Florida standards, though skilled tradespeople can still be hard to find. New homes have pushed north and east into Pasco and eastern Hillsborough, and along Interstate 4 in Polk, bringing demand for services with them. Coastal Pinellas is more seasonal than inland Tampa or Lakeland. The bay itself shapes a service company's territory: crossing a bridge at rush hour can turn a short distance into a long drive, so look at where the customers actually are.