Selling Your Plumbing Shop to Private Equity: Why Owners Split

Private equity firms are calling plumbing shop owners with offers. Some owners take the check and say it was the right call. Others hang up and say these buyers are hurting the trade. Both camps are on the record, and both have a point.

So when the next buyer calls your shop, the real question is not just “what’s the price?” It’s who takes over your crew, your customers and your name. Here is what each side says, and what to do before you pick up that phone.

How often are these buyers calling?

A lot. Contractor magazine reported in March 2025 that nearly 800 plumbing, HVAC and electrical companies had been bought by private equity investors since 2022, citing Wall Street Journal and PitchBook data.

Bloomberg News told the story of Jay Cunningham in March 2026. He’s 64 and owns Superior Plumbing in the Atlanta area. He has had hundreds of inquiries from private equity firms. He thinks his business could be worth tens of millions of dollars. He keeps saying no. “I’ve resisted selling, because of the people that work for me,” he told Bloomberg. Several of those people are his adult children.

You may know the pattern even if your shop is smaller. On the answering lines we run for plumbing shops, a certain kind of call shows up between the leaks and the clogs. A polite caller, not a homeowner, asks for the owner by name. They say they “represent a group” that’s interested in the business. Then they ask when would be a good time to talk.

The case for selling

Somebody has to take over. Scott Adams, co-founder of Soul Street Group, put it plainly in Contractor magazine: “Baby boomers are retiring at record rates, and many of these plumbing and heating business owners don’t have kids in the trades.” And your second-in-command “can’t afford to pay eight or 10 million for a company.” For a lot of owners, the real choice is to sell or to close. With hiring getting harder across the trade, a ready buyer can look like the only way out.

Money to grow. Adams also said a plumber running four crews could add a fifth or sixth truck with the backing a private equity owner brings, money the owner didn’t have alone. If you’ve been stuck deciding when your shop is ready for another truck, that’s a real pull. Ken Haines, CEO of Wrench Group, a large home services company backed by private equity, said the investment let them “enhance our infrastructure, strengthen marketing efforts and pursue strategic acquisitions.”

A second payday. Roger Wakefield, the plumber and YouTube creator, wrote on his own site that he sold his plumbing company because “it supported the life I wanted next.” He also wrote that “it’s easier to make a smart exit decision when you’re not desperate.” He kept a small stake in the business. When it sold again later, that stake “turned into another check.” His advice: “if you sell to someone you believe will grow your company, keep a percentage.”

The case against selling

The upsell. John Bottala is CEO of Western Rooter & Plumbing in Arcadia, California. He told Plumber magazine in September 2026, “In the last several years, there has been a big private equity push in the home service space.” He describes “tech lead generated calls,” where “the service tech goes out to a call and then asks for more assistance,” and a sales push follows. His view is blunt: “In my opinion, they’re actually killing the industry. People are all consumers who just need to get the job done and not be upsold on everything.” His shop sends “seasoned techs who can do the job from start to finish.”

What happens to your people. Westie Magnuson, chief people officer at Cornel’s Plumbing, Heating & Air in Portland, Oregon, wrote in Cleaner magazine about what he sees after a buyout. Office jobs get cut and the rest of the staff carry more work. Customer service, HR and accounting move out of town. Health and retirement benefits change. Raises freeze. “Their entire reason for existence is to turn a profit,” he wrote. “The way they do that is to underpay for a company in hopes of making it perform ‘better’ (at least from a profit and loss perspective) and then turn around and sell it again.” He said every owner he spoke with told him they would not sell to private equity again.

The neighbor feel goes away. Patricia Harris, a construction attorney at Zetlin & De Chiara, told Contractor magazine: “There is going to be a culture shift, even for the smallest of businesses that get acquired. It’s no longer about driving down the street to your neighbor Joe’s house and fixing his plumbing.”

It’s been tried before. Contractor magazine points back to the 1990s, when Encompass Services, Blue Dot and EMCOR bought up trade shops. “Except for EMCOR, all those consolidators went belly up.” Part of the reason: family names disappeared, staffing and business practices changed, and customers lost the people they’d trusted for years.

What to do before the next call

You don’t have to pick a side today. But you should be ready, whether you plan to sell or never will.

• Get your house in order. Harris says to have your employment agreements, any litigation history and the licenses held by you and your crew squared away.
• Clean up your books. “If you do light audits of your company financials, you will get a premium for your company because you verify what you’ve done,” Adams said.
• Know what the license means. If the license is in your name, Brendan Hughson, an M&A advisor at Apogee Equity Partners, says you “should stay on for a period so the business can keep operating.” He also warned that moving operations to a central office “can cause uncertainty among employees, leading to them leaving.”
• Decide what you’d ask for. Your name on the trucks? Your crew kept on? A stake, like Wakefield kept? Write it down before anyone makes an offer.
• Price honestly either way. If you stay independent, fair pricing is your edge against the upsell shops. Here’s how to raise your rates without losing your regulars.

The part both sides agree on

Sellers, holdouts and critics all keep coming back to the same thing: customers and crew. A shop whose customers know it, and whose phone actually gets answered, is worth more to a buyer. It’s also stronger if you never sell.

That’s where Bella fits. Plumber Secretary’s answering service picks up every call around the clock, books real jobs, and remembers your returning customers. When a buyer’s rep calls, Bella takes the message so you can call back on your own time, not from under a sink. Plans run $95, $295 or $495 a month.

Want to hear it? Call Bella on the demo line at (669) 284-5564, or book a demo. Our main line is (707) 620-5284.