Home services
What Is My Locksmith or Repair Business Worth?
The short answer
Locksmith, appliance repair and glass businesses generally sell for around 2.5 to 4 times seller's discretionary earnings. The range is modest because most of these companies are owner-operated and much of the work is one-off emergency service that arrives through search results rather than through relationships. What lifts a business toward the top of the range is commercial and property-management accounts on recurring terms, insurance or warranty work that repeats, technicians who can run calls without the owner, and a licence and reputation that transfer cleanly to a new owner.
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How these businesses are valued
Buyers price on seller's discretionary earnings: profit plus the owner's pay, benefits, personal expenses run through the business and any one-off costs. That figure represents what one working owner takes out of the business in a normal year, which is the right measure for a company of this size.
The multiple then reflects how much of that earning power survives the owner leaving. This is the crux for locksmiths and repair trades, because in many of these businesses the owner is also the best technician, the estimator and the person customers ask for by name.
If the owner runs calls, a buyer deducts the cost of a technician to replace them before applying any multiple. Two businesses with the same reported profit can therefore be worth quite different amounts depending on how many billable hours the owner personally provides.
Commercial accounts are what separate the good from the average
Residential emergency work — a lockout at midnight, a fridge that stopped overnight, a broken shopfront window — pays well per job but arrives unpredictably and rarely repeats with the same customer. It is real revenue, but a buyer cannot forecast it beyond what history suggests.
Commercial accounts behave differently. Property management companies, apartment complexes, schools, hospitals, retail chains and municipalities generate repeated work from the same customer, often under a preferred-vendor arrangement or a master service agreement. A locksmith holding the master key system for a portfolio of buildings has something genuinely defensible.
Buyers will ask for revenue split between residential and commercial, and for a list of commercial accounts with annual spend and how long each has been a customer. Every point of that mix shifted toward commercial helps the multiple.
Insurance, warranty and manufacturer relationships
In appliance repair, authorised warranty work from manufacturers, and dispatch work from home warranty companies, provide steady volume. It is usually lower-margin than direct retail work, but it fills the schedule and buyers value the predictability — provided the authorisations transfer or can be re-obtained by the new owner.
In glass, insurance work is the equivalent. Auto glass in particular runs heavily through insurer networks and third-party administrators, and being in those networks is a real asset. Buyers will check the terms, the rates and whether your position depends on any individual relationship.
Ask the awkward question early with each of these: is the arrangement with the business or with you? If a manufacturer authorisation is tied to a named individual's certification and that individual is you, a buyer needs a plan for it and will price the uncertainty.
Technicians, licences and the recruiting problem
Skilled technicians are hard to find in every one of these trades, and buyers know it. A team of experienced technicians who have been with the company for years is one of the most valuable things you are selling — arguably more valuable than the vans.
Buyers will ask about tenure, pay relative to local competitors, how work is dispatched, and whether technicians hold their own licences or certifications. In several states locksmithing is licensed at the individual or company level, and glass and appliance work may require registrations or manufacturer certifications. Confirm what transfers and what has to be reapplied for.
Background checks matter in locksmithing specifically. A buyer inheriting technicians with access to master key systems and customer properties will look at your hiring, bonding and insurance practices, and a documented process reassures them.
Where the leads come from
For most companies in these trades the answer is search. Ranking well locally, holding a strong review profile and appearing in the map results is what generates the phone calls, so buyers treat that presence as an asset and check it themselves before making an offer.
Two things worry them. First, whether the listings, domain, phone number and review profile actually transfer — a business built on a personal mobile number and a review profile in the owner's name is harder to hand over. Second, whether paid advertising is propping up volume in a way that makes the margins thinner than they look.
Make the transferable assets explicit in your preparation: business phone numbers, domain, listing ownership, review profiles, any advertising accounts. These are cheap to sort out beforehand and awkward to fix during a deal.
Vans, tools, inventory and the balance sheet
These are not capital-heavy businesses compared to route or rental companies, but the fleet and stock still count. Service vans, key-cutting and programming equipment, glass-cutting and installation gear, diagnostic tools and parts inventory all get listed and condition-checked.
Key blanks, transponder stock, appliance parts and glass inventory are usually added at cost, with obsolete or unsaleable stock excluded. Take the time to clear dead stock before you go to market rather than arguing about it in diligence.
Older vans are a quiet deduction. A buyer replacing three vehicles in the first year is spending money that current earnings do not account for, and they will adjust the price to reflect it.
Preparing for the sale
Three years of financials with add-backs identified line by line. A revenue breakdown by residential, commercial, warranty and insurance work. A list of commercial accounts with annual spend and tenure. A technician roster with tenure, pay and certifications.
Add the asset schedule for vans, tools and inventory, your licences and registrations, insurance and bonding certificates, and a note on which marketing assets transfer.
The most valuable preparation, though, is operational: getting yourself out of the van. Every month you spend as dispatcher and manager rather than as the technician makes the earnings more defensible and the business easier for someone else to run — which is exactly what the multiple is measuring.
A worked example
Consider a hypothetical locksmith company with $840K of revenue, four technicians, and 55% of work coming from property management and commercial accounts. Seller's discretionary earnings after paying a dispatcher and with the owner no longer running calls are $185K. At 3.25 times that is roughly $600K, with vans and saleable inventory included. The same revenue with the owner running two-thirds of the calls himself would show higher paper profit but a much lower price, once a buyer deducts the technician they must hire.
Multiple ranges reviewed September 2026. They are a guide, not a quote or a formal appraisal — see how the process works.
Common questions
What multiple do locksmith and repair businesses sell for?
Typically 2.5 to 4 times seller's discretionary earnings. Commercial account mix and how independent the business is of the owner decide where in that range you land.
Does my licence transfer to a buyer?
Usually not automatically. Requirements vary by state and trade, and some licences are tied to an individual. Check the rules early because they affect who can buy your business.
How much do commercial accounts increase value?
Substantially. Recurring work from property managers, institutions and chains is forecastable revenue, and buyers pay more for it than for unpredictable emergency calls.
Do my online reviews and listings transfer?
The business listings and domain normally can, if they are registered to the business rather than to you personally. Sort out ownership of phone numbers, listings and review profiles before going to market.
Is parts inventory added to the price?
Saleable stock is usually added at cost. Obsolete or slow-moving inventory is typically excluded or heavily discounted.
What if I am the main technician?
Expect a buyer to deduct the full cost of replacing you from earnings before applying a multiple. Hiring and training a lead technician before selling is the most effective way to protect the price.
Who buys these businesses?
Mostly individual buyers with trade backgrounds, and increasingly local home-services groups assembling several trades under one roof.