How are you finding trades businesses before they hit brokers?

March 18, 2026

by a professional-accounting from Boise State University - College of Business and Economics in Boise, ID, USA

For those of you targeting trades businesses (plumbing, HVAC, roofing, electrical) — curious what your off-market sourcing process looks like. I've been building a data layer that cross-references Google Business Profiles, Secretary of State registration dates, and website tech audits to identify owner-operated businesses that show signs of being acquisition-ready — things like no digital marketing presence, aging web infrastructure, high review counts but no online lead capture. Basically trying to surface the 'analog king' — a cash-flowing business where the owner is still running it like it's 2006. Still early days and refining the methodology. Would be interested to hear how others in this community are approaching proprietary sourcing and whether signals like these are useful in your process.

Reply by a searcher
in Raleigh, NC, USA

I do a ton of off-market sourcing and have pretty steady flow.... and none of it is through direct outreach. Yes, we have email campaigns and we do about 1k cold calls a month, but none of those results come to us. I send those leads to advisors, brokers, M&A Attorneys, etc. I let them do all the dirty work and just let me know when the business is ready to sell and I get first dibs. This way, they also "owe" me since I am sending them free leads so I am one of their "back-pocker" buyers. Cold outreach leads are great but they require A LOT of time. Many times, they need to be educated. They ask about taxes and they him and haw. When you are busy, you don't have time to keep up with the ins and outs. My advice, let someone else do that and then trade that lead for ones that are actually ready to sell.

Reply by a searcher
from University of Washington in Bend, OR, USA

I did a fully broker lead search and found that when you make a relationship with brokers that believe you can acquire, they often share deals they think or know are coming to market before they publish them online. Typically they like to avoid posting them online because it causes a lot more work to review tire kickers.

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