Buying an HVAC company in South Florida

• A large, growing list of maintenance agreement customers who renew every year: the closest thing the trade has to recurring revenue.
• Most revenue from service and replacements for homes and small businesses, rather than new construction for one or two builders.
• Technicians who stay. A company that keeps experienced people is getting training, pay and culture right.
• Someone besides the owner who can sell replacements and run the day's service calls.
• A licensed qualifier who will stay after the sale, or a clear plan to replace them before closing.
• Records in field service software: past calls, equipment at each address, warranty registrations.
• Trucks and tools that don't all need replacing in the next two years.

• The license itself. Look up the qualifier at myfloridalicense.com: the license should be active, in the right category and in this company's name.
• How many maintenance agreements are active, how many renewed last year, and whether the promised visits actually happen.
• The mix of service, replacement and new construction, by month. Summers are busy; look at January.
• Who sells replacements. If it's the owner, those sales may dip when they leave.
• Warranty costs: the labor warranties the company has promised, and how often it goes back to fix its own installations.
• Technician pay and turnover, and whether the best people have agreed to stay.
• How replacements are financed. If customers borrow through the company's lender, read that agreement and its fees.
• Federal refrigerant rules have been changing. Ask how the company handled the move to newer refrigerants and what older equipment sits in inventory.
• Truck age and condition, and any vehicle leases.

• How many customers are on maintenance agreements, and how has that changed in three years?
• Whose license does the company work under, and would they stay after a sale?
• Roughly how does your work split between replacements, repairs and new construction?
• Who sells replacements now, and how do leads get to them?
• What does a slow month look like, and how do you keep the techs busy?
• How long have your senior technicians been with you, and how are they paid?
• What warranty do you give on installation labor, and how often do you go back?
• Are any supplier rebates or dealer programs tied to you personally?

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.

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.