Buying a plumbing and HVAC company in South Florida

• Real cross-selling: a meaningful share of customers who have used both trades, not two businesses that happen to share an office.
• Technicians trained to spot work for the other trade, such as an HVAC technician who notices a failing water heater in the same garage.
• Membership or maintenance plans that cover both trades and that customers renew.
• A capable lead for each trade, since few people are experts in both.
• Licensed qualifiers for both trades (the license holders the company works under), ideally not the departing owner, or a clear plan to replace them.
• Dispatch, pricing and job costing in one software system, so you can see margins by trade.
• Revenue mostly from service and replacement, not from one or two builders.
• One brand customers recognize for both trades, rather than two names they don't connect.

• Which licenses the company actually holds. Look up each qualifier on the DBPR's license search at myfloridalicense.com. A shop that advertises both trades may hold one license and subcontract the other.
• Revenue and gross margin by trade. Combined shops often have one strong side carrying a weaker one.
• The seasons: how well plumbing work fills the cooler months after the summer air conditioning rush.
• Membership plan terms, what's promised in each trade, and whether the promised visits actually happen.
• Warranty obligations on system replacements and repipes.
• Pay, turnover and key people in each trade, and whether any could leave with customers.
• Truck inventory, tools and the age of the fleet on both sides.

• Who qualifies each trade, and what are their plans after a sale?
• How much of your revenue is plumbing and how much is HVAC, and how has that mix changed?
• How many customers have used both trades in the last two years?
• Do your maintenance plans cover both trades, and how many renewed last year?
• Who runs each side day to day?
• Do you subcontract any work in either trade?
• What are your busiest and slowest months, and how do you keep both crews busy?

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.