Buying a plumbing business in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida

• Service and repair revenue from many homeowners and businesses, rather than reliance on one builder.
• Commercial customers, such as property managers, restaurants and associations, who call the company first and have for years.
• A phone number and reviews people trust. Most plumbing calls are urgent and go to whoever answers.
• Plumbers who can diagnose, price and sell the fix on their own, not only follow instructions.
• Equipment for the work that pays well: drain cameras, water jetters, leak detection tools.
• A licensed qualifier (the person whose license the company works under) who isn't the departing owner, or who will stay on after the sale.
• Job records and pricing in software, so you can see what each type of job earns.

• The license itself. Look up the qualifier at myfloridalicense.com: the license should be active and show this company's name.
• The split between service, repiping and new construction, and how the new construction share has moved with the housing market.
• Builder contracts: payment terms, retainage (money held back until the job is done) and how much builders owe the company now.
• Warranty claims and callbacks on repipes, slab leak repairs and water heater installs.
• Water damage claims. A failed repair can flood a home, so ask for the general liability claims history.
• Whether plumbers are employees or subcontractors, and how they're paid (hourly, commission, or per fixture on new construction).
• How much work comes from home warranty companies, which often pay set rates below retail.
• Fleet condition and the inventory on each truck.

• Whose license does the company work under, and are they willing to stay after a sale?
• How does your revenue split between service, repiping and new construction?
• Where do your service calls come from: repeat customers, referrals, online search, home warranty companies?
• Do you price jobs at a flat rate or by time and materials, and who sets the prices?
• Which commercial customers call you regularly, and is any of that work under contract?
• How many of your plumbers can run a service call alone, start to finish?
• What's the most expensive warranty or damage claim you've had in the last few years?

This region covers Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, Baker and Putnam counties: Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra Beach, Orange Park, Fleming Island, Green Cove Springs, Fernandina Beach, Yulee, Macclenny and Palatka. Jacksonville merged with most of Duval County in 1968, which makes it the largest city by land area in the lower 48 states.

The economy leans on logistics, the Navy and financial services. Logistics runs through JAXPORT, major rail lines and the meeting of Interstates 95 and 10. The Navy has Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport. Insurance and health care matter too. St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565, and Amelia Island draw steady tourism. Trucking and logistics firms, the building trades, medical practices and home services all fit this market.

Northeast Florida is less seasonal than South or Southwest Florida, with fewer winter residents and more year-round employers. Direct hurricane landfalls have been less common here than on other parts of the coast, but storms still bring flooding along the St. Johns River and the beaches, so check insurance costs and flood zones.

Military families bring skilled workers and working spouses into the labor pool, though they also move on when orders change. St. Johns, Clay and Nassau have added the most new homes, and companies serving those suburbs have grown with them. Georgia is close, and some companies here serve customers across the state line. Work in Georgia may need Georgia licenses, so ask how much revenue comes from there and who holds those licenses.