Buying a plumbing business in Treasure Coast

• 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 Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties on the Atlantic coast and Okeechobee and Highlands counties inland: Stuart, Palm City, Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Sebastian, Okeechobee, Sebring and Avon Park. Port St. Lucie is the largest city and has grown quickly as a suburb within reach of Palm Beach County to the south.

The coast draws retirees and winter residents, and health care, construction, real estate, boating and sport fishing are big parts of the economy. The coast lies in the Indian River citrus district, named for the lagoon. Inland, Okeechobee and Highlands are cattle, dairy and citrus country around Lake Okeechobee and along the ridge near Sebring, with many retirees of their own. Home service companies, the building trades, marine businesses and medical practices find steady customers here.

The coast is seasonal, with winter residents filling restaurants, golf courses and service schedules, and summer is quieter. Hurricane Nicole came ashore near Vero Beach in November 2022, and the region has a long history of storms, so check insurance, flood zones and how a business came through recent ones.

Water quality in the St. Lucie River and the Indian River Lagoon is a recurring problem, and in a bad year it can hurt fishing, boating and tourism businesses. Inland, distances are longer and the labor pool thinner. A company in Sebring or Okeechobee may be one of very few of its kind nearby, which can mean loyal customers and little competition, but also few people to hire. Most new homes on the coast are going up in and around Port St. Lucie.