The numbers
As stated by the listing on September 2, 2026.
- Asking price
- $399,999
- SDE
- $321,550
- Gross revenue
- $1,538,519
- Multiple
- 1.24x
- Established
- 2022
- Employees
- 2
Why we like it
Paint is a maintenance obligation before it is a color choice. Exterior coatings exist to shed UV and moisture, and once they fail the wood or siding underneath starts absorbing water, so most homeowners association covenants set a repaint interval and can cite an owner whose trim has gone chalky past it. Cary sits inside one of the faster-building suburbs in the Raleigh-Durham metro, which means a steady supply of houses aging into their first repaint alongside new construction that needs trim and touch-up before closing. This company works both sides of that calendar, residential and commercial, though the office headcount of two is a small fraction of the crew that must actually be putting brushes and sprayers to walls to produce the stated revenue. Start with the labor model, because a business billing over a million and a half dollars a year off two W-2 employees is almost certainly running on subcontracted painters, and the question worth answering is whether those crews are loyal to the business or to whoever found them. A painting contractor grows by keeping estimators and crews booked through the wet months as well as the dry ones, and the second engine worth hunting for here is any recurring HOA or property-management repaint contract that renews without a new sales call, as opposed to the one-off residential job that has to be won again from nothing every time.
You probably need a licence to run this
North Carolina does not license painting as its own trade, but the state's general contractor license is required once a single construction project reaches $40,000, a threshold commercial repaint jobs or new-construction contracts can cross even if most residential work stays under it. Find out whether the business or the seller personally holds that license: if it is tied to the seller as the qualifying party, it does not automatically transfer, and a buyer without it would need to hire a licensed qualifier or hold off on larger contracts until licensed themselves.
What worries us
- Thin payroll, heavy subcontractingTwo employees cannot physically produce $1,538,519 in painting revenue, so the field work is almost certainly done by subcontracted crews sourced and managed by the seller; those relationships may not transfer cleanly to a new owner.
- Owner-driven sales and estimatingPainting contractors typically win work through the owner's standing relationships with realtors, builders, and HOA managers rather than a marketing funnel; if the seller is the face of the business, the pipeline can dry up fast after handover.
- Weather-driven seasonalityExterior work in North Carolina slows during winter cold snaps and extended wet stretches, so monthly cash flow is likely uneven even though the annual SDE the seller reports looks strong.
The callSuits a buyer ready to manage subcontracted crews and keep the seller's sales relationships alive, not someone expecting a fully staffed operation already running itself.
Our calculations
Our standard SBA 7(a) acquisition structure applied to the asking price. Assumptions below.
Sources
| SBA 7(a) loan | $378,463 |
| Seller standby note | $21,025 |
| Buyer cash at close | $21,026 |
| Total sources | $420,514 |
Uses
| Purchase price | $399,999 |
| Closing costs (est.) | $12,000 |
| SBA guaranty fee | $8,515 |
| Total project | $420,514 |
- Monthly payment
- $4,846
- Annual debt service
- $58,147
- DSCR
- 3.22xSTRONG
- Injection check
- Meets 10% ($42,051 against $42,051 required)
- Closing costs estimated at 3% of asking price
- Owner salary of $120,000, loaded
- Rate of Prime + 2.25% = 9.25%
- 10-year term, fully amortizing
- Injection split half cash, half seller standby note
How we would go about buying it
The order matters. Every step below is free until the last one, and each is a chance to walk away before it costs you anything.
- 1
Call the broker, not the bank
The listing is brokered, so the broker is the gate. Ask for the CIM and the last three years of tax returns, and expect to sign an NDA first. Do this before you talk to a lender: no lender will size a loan without the numbers, and the broker will not release them to a lender you have not engaged.
Open the listing - 2
Ask these before you spend anything
Specific to this business, from our read of the listing. The answers decide whether the numbers above survive contact.
- Of the $1,538,519 in stated revenue, how much labor is paid as W-2 wages to the two employees versus billed by subcontracted painting crews, and are those crews under written agreements that would carry over to a new owner?
- What share of revenue comes from new-construction/builder touch-up work versus HOA or property-management repaint contracts versus one-off residential jobs, and is any single builder, HOA manager, or commercial account more than a small slice of the total?
- Does the company or the seller personally hold a North Carolina general contractor license, and does any current or recent job reach the $40,000 threshold that would require one?
- Who writes estimates and closes new work today, and how much of the pipeline depends on the seller's personal relationships with realtors, builders, or HOA managers versus a repeatable process a new owner could step into?
- What is the signed and contracted backlog at close, and how far out is the crew schedule currently booked?
- 3
Take it to lenders who do this size
Talk to more than one. Rate is the least of it: the lender who has done fifty of these in North Carolina will close, and the one who has done two will waste your quarter. Below are the lenders whose typical deal size actually fits this one.
- 4
Structure the offer around the coverage
Our structure clears the floor at 3.22x, and a lender will run its own version with its own add-backs. If the earnings come back lower than stated, the price has to come down or the seller note has to grow. Model both before you make an offer.
Model it yourself
Who we would call
Active North Carolina acquisition lenders whose typical deal size fits this one.
- Live Oak Banking Company
68 loans in NCmedian $550,000median rate 9.25%~20 days to first disbursement
- Huntington National Bank
30 loans in NCmedian $450,000median rate 9.25%~32 days to first disbursement
- Fidelity Bank
20 loans in NCmedian $1,052,900median rate 9.75%~20 days to first disbursement
Loan counts and medians are that lender’s change-of-ownership loans in North Carolina, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3. Funding speed is the lender’s national median from approval to first disbursement. Names link to our data profile for each lender.
The fine print
The statements this write-up makes about the trade and its rules, as opposed to the figures, were checked against public sources on September 1, 2026. 5 claims were checked.
Run your own numbers
The deal analyzer models price, seller note, equity injection, and DSCR under current SBA terms, with every assumption adjustable.
Open the deal analyzerListing facts as stated by the listing on September 2, 2026, not independently verified. Structure, payment, DSCR, and injection figures are our own computation under the assumptions above, using the Prime rate as of September 28, 2026. Lender shortlist from the SBA 7(a) FOIA file, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3, as of June 30, 2026. Methodology. See an error? Email us and we will correct it.