Landscaping Acquisitions

January 16, 2026

by a searcher from Elon University - Martha and Spencer Love School of Business in Denver, CO, USA

Does anyone have any recommendations or insights into structuring landscaping acquisitions? Interested in specific terms or key items used in LOIs to ensure protection post-close. Also, interested in any key diligence requests or resources we should be looking at specifically for landscaping.

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Reply by a lender
from Cornell University in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Hi Anon - nice to meet you. For SBA-backed landscaping acquisitions, structure matters. On the LOI side, seller earn-outs don’t work for the SBA. I’m also cautious about non-refundable escrow deposits. While not prohibited by SBA, they put buyer cash at risk before financing and licensing are fully approved. On diligence, licensing is the number one issue. For landscaping - especially hardscaping, irrigation, or pesticide application - lenders will ask who legally holds the license after closing. If the license stays with the seller, you need a clear continuity plan, such as a licensed employee on a multi-year employment agreement with retention bonuses, or a new licensed hire already under contract. If licensing continuity is clear, SBA deals in this space tend to move smoothly.We have a lot experience financing landscaping companies via the SBA. If you ever need help talking through a deal, I am happy to help. We work with all the major SBA lenders. The bank pay us after your loan closes, so this is a 100% free service for you. You can email me directly at redacted or schedule a meeting with me: https://cal.com/francodeguzman/30min. Look forward to chatting!

Reply by a professional-advisory
in Haifa, Israel

Thanks for the ping, Luke. While I usually focus on pure software, 'Blue Collar' acquisitions like Landscaping have a massive hidden risk: Field Service Management (FSM) Lock-in. If the target is running on a legacy on-prem system (or just Excel), your 'Day 1' risk is billing paralysis. You buy the customer list, but you can't invoice them. Ask for a 'Data Portability Test.' Can they export full customer history + routing schedules to CSV/JSON today? If not, you are looking at a manual data entry nightmare post-close.

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