How to Sell an Electrical Business Without a Broker (2026)
A broker takes 8% to 12% under $1 million. On a $630,000 shop that is $50,000 to $76,000 of your money.
- The buyers who pay most are a list of about ten firms. You can name them, which is most of what a broker sells.
- No broker can fix your license. It is the one thing that decides whether a deal closes at all.
- The tail clause bites harder in this trade, because a short buyer list is easy to write into a contract.
- Start Here: the License Problem
- What a Broker Costs on an Electrical Sale
- The Buyers Are Already Named
- What the Broker Did, and How You Replace It
- The Tail Clause Matters More in Electrical
- Two Things That Move Your Price
- When a Broker Is Worth Paying
- Get Your Electrical Numbers Straight First
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Next Steps
Start Here: the License Problem
Deal with this before you think about fees. It is the thing that stops electrical sales, and no broker can solve it for you.
- Pennsylvania has no state license. Towns run their own, and each one belongs to a named person.
- New Jersey goes further. The business permit cannot be assigned or transferred at all, so the buyer applies for their own.
- One licensed person can only qualify one New Jersey company. A platform that already owns a shop here needs a second.
- Fix it first. Get somebody else on staff qualified, and your price and your buyer pool both go up.
The state detail sits in selling in Pennsylvania and selling in New Jersey.
What a Broker Costs on an Electrical Sale
These prices come from the worked examples in our valuation guide, not from round numbers. A lawyer to paper the same deal costs a fraction of it.
| Your shop | Rough sale price | What the broker takes | A lawyer instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| You are on the tools | $630,000 | $50,000 to $76,000 | $5,000 to $15,000 |
| A foreman runs the crews | $1.6 million | $96,000 to $128,000 | $15,000 to $35,000 |
| Real management team | $4.55 million | $273,000 to $364,000 | $25,000 to $50,000 |
There is also a floor. Most brokers set a minimum fee of $15,000 to $50,000, and on a small sale the minimum beats the percentage. See what business brokers charge for the full breakdown.
The Buyers Are Already Named
This is the argument. In electrical, the firms paying the top multiples are a short list with acquisition teams whose job is finding shops like yours.
| Buyer | What they are | What they want |
|---|---|---|
| Apex Service Partners, Wrench Group, Sila Services | Investor-backed multi-trade platforms | Service plans, residential density |
| Redwood Services, Southern Home Services | Home-services roll-ups | Shops that already do more than one trade |
| IES Holdings, MYR Group, EMCOR, Quanta | Public companies | Larger commercial and industrial firms |
| Legence | Backed by a large investment firm | Building systems and mechanical work |
Money is behind them. Legence paid $325 million in cash plus $50 million deferred for one contractor in January 2026.
Below that tier, individual buyers borrow through the government-backed loan program, which caps at $5 million. Local competitors make up the rest.
Reaching several of them is the whole point. In early 2026 deals in the $2M to $5M band drew 3.2 offers each, against 1.9 at the smallest end.
What the Broker Did, and How You Replace It
| The job | How you cover it | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Finding buyers | The list above, plus a matching service | Nothing |
| Packaging the numbers | Your accountant, three clean years | $2,000 to $6,000 |
| Papering the deal | A deal lawyer, not your usual one | $5,000 to $50,000 |
| Keeping it confidential | Confidentiality agreements before any numbers | Included above |
| Running the license question | You, a year early. No broker does this | Time, not money |
The Tail Clause Matters More in Electrical
A tail clause says you still owe the fee if you sell to a buyer the broker introduced. It runs six to twelve months after the agreement ends.
In most trades that covers a slice of the market. In electrical it can cover nearly all of it, because the list of real buyers is ten names long.
- Ask for the covered buyers to be listed by name. This is the single most valuable change to the contract.
- Carve out anyone you already know. If you have talked to a platform yourself, say so before you sign.
- Push the exclusive period down. Six months with a renewal beats twelve locked in.
Two Things That Move Your Price
Service agreements
Getting 20% of revenue onto plans is worth close to a full turn on your multiple. It is money that arrives whether the phone rings or not.
Commercial backlog
Commercial and industrial contracts give a buyer work they can forecast. A residential-only book of the same size prices below one with both.
Ranges by size are in electrical sale multiples and valuation by revenue size. Comparable figures appear in published 2026 deal data.
When a Broker Is Worth Paying
Sometimes they earn it. Be honest about which of these is you.
- Your books are a mess and nobody has cleaned them up in years.
- You cannot name ten plausible buyers, even after reading the table above.
- You have no time, and a sale run badly costs more than the fee.
- The deal is complicated: partners who disagree, property in the mix, or a union pension question nobody has priced.
Get Your Electrical Numbers Straight First
- Three clean years of books, with personal spending taken out and receipts kept for every add-back.
- Every open job priced and staged, so a half-finished commercial run does not turn into an argument.
- Service agreements counted, with the transfer terms written down.
- A second licensed person, in the towns or the state that carry your revenue.
- A pension withdrawal estimate if your crews are union, because it takes weeks to get.
Then work out a number with the valuation guide and calculator before anyone quotes you a fee.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, and it is easier in this trade than most. The firms paying the highest multiples are a list of about ten with acquisition teams whose job is finding shops like yours. A broker’s main product is that list.
Eight to 12% under $1 million, 6% to 8% from $1 million to $5 million, and 5% to 6% above that. A minimum fee of $15,000 to $50,000 applies on top and overrides the percentage on small deals.
A deal lawyer runs $5,000 to $50,000 depending on size, and an accountant $2,000 to $6,000 to prepare three clean years. On a $630,000 sale that is a fraction of a $50,000 commission.
Because the buyer list is short. A tail says you owe the fee if you sell to anyone the broker introduced, for six to twelve months after the agreement ends. With only ten real buyers, a broad tail can cover the whole market.
No, and this is the part people get wrong. In Pennsylvania the license belongs to a person and towns run their own. In New Jersey the business permit cannot be transferred at all. Getting someone else qualified is your job, and it takes a year or more.
Get a confidentiality agreement signed before you share any numbers, and stage what you release. You control who sees what and when, which is more control than a public listing gives you.
If your books are a mess, you cannot name ten plausible buyers, or you genuinely have no time. Partners who disagree and unpriced union pension liabilities are also good reasons to have someone experienced running it.
Next Steps
- Start someone else on the licensing path this month. Everything else here is faster than that.
- Write down the ten buyers from the table who fit your size and your trade mix.
- Pull three years of books and take your personal spending out of them.
- If a broker sends you an agreement, compare every other route before you sign the tail clause.
- Get a free valuation and buyer introductions. No fee, no exclusive, no obligation to sell.