The numbers
As stated by the listing on August 26, 2026.
- Asking price
- $384,999
- SDE
- $240,097
- Gross revenue
- $1,412,338
- Multiple
- 1.60x
- Established
- 2013
- Employees
- 4
Why we like it
Water damage compounds by the hour: EPA mold guidance puts the first 24 to 48 hours as the window before a soaked structure starts growing mold, and a drying job that waits becomes a full reconstruction job, which is why the call comes at 2am rather than during business hours and why a soaked customer has no time to shop around. Most of that call volume does not arrive from a homeowner's web search, it arrives from insurance adjusters and property managers who keep a short list of vendors they trust to show up, document the loss to their standard, and bill the carrier directly. Getting onto that list usually means holding IICRC-recognized certifications and a track record those adjusters have already tested. This Little Rock company has run that model for thirteen years with four employees, small enough that a handful of people carry the dispatch phone and the drying equipment between them. The first thing to understand is where the referral relationships actually sit, because a restoration business is only as good as its next assignment, and those assignments are handed out by people, not systems. If the seller is the one adjusters call by name, that pipeline has to transfer deliberately or it dries up with the sale. Done right, the business carries a second engine inside it: mitigation work often converts into reconstruction and rebuild contracts on the same loss, a second revenue stream stacked on the emergency call if the crew can handle both.
You probably need a licence to run this
Arkansas generally requires a license from the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board for construction and reconstruction contracts above a set dollar threshold, and restoration jobs that convert into rebuild work can cross that line. Separately, IICRC certifications (water, fire, mold) are the de facto credential insurance carriers look for to keep a vendor on their preferred list, though they are not a state license. The listing does not say whether the contractor's license or the IICRC certifications are held by the seller personally or by staff who intend to stay, which a buyer needs to nail down before assuming either transfers.
What worries us
- Owner-held referral relationshipsWith only four employees, the pipeline from insurance adjusters and property managers likely runs through the owner personally, and those calls do not automatically follow a bill of sale.
- Thin on-call staffingDisaster response runs on a 24/7 emergency rotation, and a four-person crew leaves little slack if a technician is out sick or quits during a storm event.
- Storm and seasonality exposureRestoration volume in Arkansas likely tracks severe weather (storms, hail, tornado activity), so a quiet weather year could pull revenue well below the seller's stated figures.
The callSuits a hands-on buyer ready to run 24/7 dispatch and personally rebuild the adjuster network, not someone seeking a passive or easily licensed-transferable operation.
Our calculations
Our standard SBA 7(a) acquisition structure applied to the asking price. Assumptions below.
Sources
| SBA 7(a) loan | $364,270 |
| Seller standby note | $20,238 |
| Buyer cash at close | $20,237 |
| Total sources | $404,745 |
Uses
| Purchase price | $384,999 |
| Closing costs (est.) | $11,550 |
| SBA guaranty fee | $8,196 |
| Total project | $404,745 |
- Monthly payment
- $4,664
- Annual debt service
- $55,966
- DSCR
- 1.89xSTRONG
- Injection check
- Meets 10% ($40,475 against $40,475 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.
- What share of revenue comes through insurance preferred vendor programs, and are those relationships tied to the seller's name or to the company as an entity?
- Who currently holds the IICRC certifications and any contractor's license, the seller or an employee expected to remain after close?
- What does the equipment list look like (extraction units, air movers, dehumidifiers, box trucks), including age and replacement condition, since this gear sees heavy cyclical use?
- Who takes the after-hours emergency call today, and what is the actual response-time commitment made to referral partners?
- What portion of jobs stay mitigation-only versus convert into reconstruction work billed separately?
- 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 Arkansas 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 1.89x, 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 Arkansas acquisition lenders whose typical deal size fits this one.
- First Financial Bank
13 loans in ARmedian $986,000median rate 8.15%~20 days to first disbursement
- Southern Bancorp Bank
10 loans in ARmedian $405,000median rate 8.00%
- Huntington National Bank
5 loans in ARmedian $463,000median rate 9.75%~32 days to first disbursement
Loan counts and medians are that lender’s change-of-ownership loans in Arkansas, 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 August 24, 2026. 3 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.
- Arkansas requires a license from the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board for construction and reconstruction contracts above a set dollar threshold.
- Mitigation work on an insurance claim often leads to a follow-on reconstruction or rebuild contract on the same loss.
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 August 26, 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.