How to Sell an HVAC Business in Texas (2026)

Owner-run HVAC shops in Texas sell for 2 to 3.5 times what the business pays the owner each year. Once someone else runs it, buyers price off profit at 5 to 13 times.

• Texas licenses the person, not the company. Anyone can own your shop, but a licensed contractor has to work there full time.
• If that person is you, your exit date matters. A job without a license holder on staff can’t be collected on.
• Texas takes nothing from your gain. The state constitution bans a tax on an individual’s capital gains.

Is Now a Good Time to Sell?

Yes. Buyers are active across Texas, and several of the recent deals were Texas shops bought close to home.

• Local buyers are busy. Paschal Air, Plumbing & Electric bought JAK Services of Keller in July 2025.
• National platforms are here too. Champions Group bought North Texas’s Lex Cooling in January 2026.
• The work doesn’t wait for the economy. Systems fail in every market, and replacement work keeps coming.

What HVAC Businesses Sell For in Texas

Under about $1M a year to you, buyers multiply what the business pays you. Above that, they multiply profit with a manager’s pay already taken out.

No named source publishes HVAC prices for Texas alone, so these are national figures. Ask anyone quoting a Texas-only number where it came from.

Check your own numbers and value an HVAC business.

What Moves Your Number

• Maintenance agreements. Get 40% of revenue under agreement and you move up half a turn to a full turn.
• Whether someone else runs it. That switch is the biggest single jump on this page.
• Whether your techs stay. Buyers ask for three years of tenure data, and turnover is what kills deals during the review.

For the full tier detail, see HVAC sale multiples and HVAC valuation by size.

Who Is Allowed to Own Your Shop

Anyone. Texas licenses the air conditioning and refrigeration contractor, who is a person, not the company.

Under Occupations Code 1302.252, a contracting company must employ a license holder full time in each permanent office.

• No ownership share is required. The license holder can be an owner or an employee.
• One license, one office. A contractor can assign their license to only one permanent office of one company.
• More offices, more license holders. A buyer with three permanent offices needs three full-time license holders.
• Compare New York City. It issues no HVAC license at all, while its plumbing firms need licensed plumbers holding 51%.

The Day the License Holder Leaves

This is the Texas rule that matters most on a sale, and it’s in the same section.

A company without a full-time license holder can’t collect a fee or enforce the contract. That applies to a contract signed and performed without one.

The company also has to tell the state licensing department within 30 calendar days when a license holder leaves, under its rules. That’s a deadline to report, not time to keep working.

• If you’re the license holder, line up the replacement before you stop. Not the week after closing.
• Keep the payroll records. The rules require records showing the license holder works full time, and buyers will ask.
• Check the class. Class B covers systems up to 25 tons of cooling. A bigger commercial book needs a Class A holder.

Why Buyers Hire a License Holder

A new contractor license needs at least 48 months of supervised experience within the last 72, under Occupations Code 1302.255. A buyer without one hires one.

Refrigerant is separate. Federal Section 608 certification belongs to each technician, not your company, and it leaves when they do.

So the diligence question is who on your payroll holds what, and whether they’re staying.

One State License, Every City

The contractor license is valid throughout Texas. A holder doesn’t need a city license to work in any Texas city, under Occupations Code 1302.251.

• Cities can’t charge a license holder a registration fee. That’s section 1302.304.
• Permits still run city by city. Expect to update them when the license holder changes.
• Compare New York. Trade licensing there is municipal, so a license in one place can mean nothing in the next.

The Back-Tax Certificate

Texas has no advance form like New York’s. Instead, Tax Code 111.020 makes the buyer hold back enough of the price to cover tax you owe.

The hold-back ends when you produce a receipt or a certificate saying nothing is due. Here’s how the Comptroller’s certificate works.

1. You and the buyer request it together, on Form 86-114. Both of you sign.
2. Request it before closing. After that it no longer protects the buyer.
3. It’s free. A clean account usually clears in about 10 business days.
4. An audit of your records can stretch that to 90 days.

Only the buyer is protected. You still owe anything that surfaces later, so clear it before you sign rather than after.

The Tax on Your Trucks

Selling all your operating equipment in one deal is exempt from sales tax. Vehicles aren’t covered, and the Comptroller says so plainly.

The buyer owes motor vehicle tax of 6.25% on each van and truck, under Tax Code 152.021. Expect a fleet buyer to price that in.

Unemployment Tax Travels With the Business

A buyer who takes over your business also takes on any unemployment tax you still owe the state, under Labor Code 204.086. No certificate covers it, so settle it first.

What You Will Owe in Taxes

Nothing to the state. Texas bans an income tax on individuals, and since November 2025 its constitution also bans a tax on an individual’s capital gains.

• Compare Pennsylvania’s flat 3.07%. On a $1 million gain, that’s $30,700 you keep in Texas.
• Compare New York City. A seller there pays about $107,260 in state and city tax on the same gain.
• Federal tax still applies. Expect 15% to 20% on the gain.
• Your trucks are different. Anything you already wrote off is taxed again at your regular federal rate, and a written-off fleet adds up.
• The company can still owe franchise tax. If it closes after an asset sale, a final report is due within 60 days.

For the structure detail, see asset sale versus stock sale tax for HVAC.

Who Buys Texas HVAC Businesses

• Champions Group bought Lex Cooling, Heating, Plumbing & Electrical of North Texas in January 2026. Lex keeps its name.
• Paschal bought JAK Services of Keller in July 2025. JAK was founded in 2003, and Paschal names two earlier Texas purchases.
• ResiXperts bought Hart HVAC and Electric of Fort Worth in October 2024, its first Texas deal.
• Public companies take the commercial end. Houston’s Comfort Systems USA agreed to buy Summit Industrial Construction, also of Houston, in January 2024.
• Individual buyers borrow. The SBA caps its main program at $5 million.

For the tradeoffs, see investor-backed versus strategic HVAC buyers.

An investor-backed offer arrives in three parts: cash, money held back, and a stake in their company. How each one works.

How Long It Takes

For the detail on each stage, see how long it takes to sell an HVAC business.

How to Get Your Shop Ready

• Write down who holds what. The contractor license and each federal refrigerant certification, by name, before you go to market.
• Plan the license handover. If the license is yours, agree who replaces you and when.
• Push maintenance agreements past 40% of revenue. It’s the biggest lever you control.
• Get three years of clean books with your personal spending separated out and documented.
• Get out of the middle. Put a manager in place and step back from the daily work.
• Clear your state tax and unemployment tax accounts before the certificate request goes in.

Are You Ready to Sell? Score Your Business

Should You Use a Broker, a Marketplace, or Sell Direct?

A buyer who knows you have no alternative has no reason to open with their best number.

Those numbers hold in Texas too. See every fee a broker charges, and what selling without a broker takes instead.

HVAC Broker Fee Calculator

Selling an HVAC Business in Dallas-Fort Worth

Most of the verified Texas deals happened here, and the buyers didn't travel far.

• Keller, Fort Worth and North Texas all sold between October 2024 and January 2026.
• The buyers announce from nearby. Paschal's release carries an Arlington dateline, and ResiXperts' a Weatherford one.
• Your license works in every city. A state license holder needs no city license anywhere in Texas.

Selling an HVAC Business in Houston and the Rest of Texas

Houston leans commercial, and it has a public buyer at home.

• Comfort Systems USA is based in Houston and buys commercial and industrial contractors.
• Big commercial books need Class A. Anything over 25 tons of cooling is out of a Class B holder's reach.
• The 0% applies statewide. The ban on taxing your gain is in the Texas constitution.

Frequently Asked Questions

Next Steps

1. Write down who holds the contractor license and each federal refrigerant certification.
2. Agree who replaces the license holder, and when, before you talk price.
3. Clean up three years of books, and request your Certificate of No Tax Due with your buyer before closing.
4. Grow your maintenance agreements and build the tech tenure record.
5. Pick your route. There are six routes that skip the commission, and four are free.
6. Send us your details for a free valuation. We match Texas HVAC businesses with vetted buyers before you commit.

Selling in another state? See our guides on how to sell an HVAC business in California, in New York, in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania.