The numbers
As stated by the listing on October 13, 2026.
- Asking price
- $550,000
- SDE
- $265,000
- Gross revenue
- $1,200,000
- Multiple
- 2.08x
- Established
- 2009
- Employees
- 4
Why we like it
Phoenix summers push backyard life into a narrow window, so homeowners here spend heavily to make that window count: shade structures, outdoor kitchens, water features and pergolas built to be used from October through April rather than year round. Arizona's groundwater rules and local turf restrictions push the same owners away from grass and toward designed hardscape and desert planting, which is exactly the kind of work that needs a drawn plan before anyone pours concrete. Gilbert is still one of the fastest growing suburbs in the East Valley, so a steady supply of new houses arrive with builder basic gravel and a starter sprinkler system, and those owners become design clients within a year or two of moving in. This company sells both halves of that job, design and build, with four employees running the construction side under the owner. Because the design fee is paid before the build contract is signed, the real question is not this year's revenue but the signed backlog sitting behind it: how many design fees have already converted into build deposits, and how many design clients walked away before building anything. If the design side is healthy on its own, it is effectively a lead generation engine the company already owns, feeding the build side work it would otherwise have to go find.
You probably need a licence to run this
Arizona requires a Registrar of Contractors license for most construction work, and landscape and hardscape building such as walls, pergolas, and water features typically falls under a specific contracting classification. That license is held by a qualifying party, a named individual who passed the exam and met the experience requirement, and it does not have to be the owner personally. Find out who the current qualifying party is and whether they are an employee willing to stay on after the sale. If the owner is the qualifying party and plans to leave, the buyer either needs to become licensed themselves or line up a qualifying employee before closing, since the business cannot legally contract above the minor-job threshold without one.
What worries us
- License and qualifying party dependenceIf the current owner is personally the qualifying party on the Arizona contractor's license, the business loses its legal ability to contract once the owner leaves unless a replacement qualifying party is already in place, and getting a new person licensed takes time.
- Project based revenue with no recurring baseDesign-build work is sold job by job rather than under a recurring service contract, so this year's revenue figure says little about next year's; the real cushion is the signed backlog and deposits on hand, not the trailing twelve months.
- A build calendar compressed by heatConcrete, masonry, and planting work slows or stops during the hottest summer months, so crews and cash flow are uneven across the year even though the four employees need steady work to stay.
The callSuits a buyer comfortable chasing project backlog and a possible license transition, not one who wants steady recurring service revenue.
Our calculations
Our standard SBA 7(a) acquisition structure applied to the asking price. Assumptions below.
Sources
| SBA 7(a) loan | $520,388 |
| Seller standby note | $28,911 |
| Buyer cash at close | $28,910 |
| Total sources | $578,209 |
Uses
| Purchase price | $550,000 |
| Closing costs (est.) | $16,500 |
| SBA guaranty fee | $11,709 |
| Total project | $578,209 |
- Monthly payment
- $6,663
- Annual debt service
- $79,952
- DSCR
- 1.63xSTRONG
- Injection check
- Meets 10% ($57,821 against $57,821 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.
- Who is the qualifying party on the company's Arizona contractor's license today, and will they remain with the business after the sale or does the buyer need to secure their own license first?
- What is the current signed backlog of build contracts and deposits held for work not yet completed, separate from stated trailing revenue?
- What share of revenue comes from design fees alone versus signed build contracts, and what percentage of design clients historically do not proceed to the build phase?
- How is revenue split between new-construction backyards for recently built homes and remodels of existing yards, and is there any recurring maintenance revenue at all?
- What permits are currently pending with the Town of Gilbert or other local jurisdictions for backlog jobs, and what is the typical lead time for approval on walls, pergolas, or water features?
- 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 Arizona 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 1.63x, 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 Arizona acquisition lenders whose typical deal size fits this one.
- Live Oak Banking Company
31 loans in AZmedian $720,000median rate 8.50%~20 days to first disbursement
- Midwest Regional Bank
24 loans in AZmedian $986,000median rate 10.25%~30 days to first disbursement
- Zions Bank, A Division of
15 loans in AZmedian $668,300median rate 7.25%~7 days to first disbursement
Loan counts and medians are that lender’s change-of-ownership loans in Arizona, 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 October 8, 2026. 5 claims were checked.
Worth verifying yourself
These are industry statements we could not confirm against an authoritative public source. They are not contradicted by anything we found, but treat them as leads to check rather than settled facts.
- New homes in the Phoenix metro area are commonly delivered with minimal 'builder basic' landscaping, such as gravel and a starter sprinkler system, that owners later upgrade.
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 October 13, 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.