A Dallas Roofing Company Sold at 4.0x SDE to a Family Office Buyer

Industry: Residential Roofing & Exterior Services
Location: Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas
Transaction Type: Full Asset Sale — Sell-Side Advisory
Status: Closed

Two co-founders who spent four decades building one of the most respected residential roofing companies in the Dallas–Fort Worth area decided it was time to exit.

What followed was a clean, well-structured transaction that attracted a well-capitalized family office buyer, resulted in a sale at 4.0x SDE, and gave both sellers a defined path to retirement.

The transaction closed at a $2.2M purchase price, inclusive of all furniture, inventory, and equipment.

This case study walks through the business, the situation, what made it attractive to buyers, how the deal came together, and what it took to bring it across the finish line.

The Situation

The company was founded in the Dallas area and had been operating continuously for several decades.

The company built an exceptionally steady operation over the years, generating between $4M and $5M in revenue every year on an almost entirely inbound basis, with almost no formal marketing or outbound sales infrastructure. During active hailstorm cycles, revenue had historically spiked to $8M–$10M due to insurance-driven replacement work.

By 2025, the business was generating $4.9M in total revenue and ~$560K in Adjusted EBITDA.

The seller was looking for the right buyer, not just any buyer. They wanted someone who would respect what they built and be capable of continuing it. They wanted the community they served for decades to continue receiving good quality work.

The challenge was positioning a business where the two founders were deeply embedded in operations and relationships, and helping a buyer understand why the business would not only survive their exit, but grow.

What Made the Business Attractive

This was not a turnaround story. This was a genuinely healthy, cash-flowing, owner-operated business with real structural advantages that rewarded a thoughtful buyer.

Decades of brand equity and inbound deal flow. The company grew to nearly $5M in annual revenue almost entirely on referrals and inbound calls. It invested $60,000–$100,000 per year in advertising but did zero door-knocking and minimal outbound marketing. That means a new owner who is willing to build a real commercial infrastructure, a sales team, digital marketing, a CRM, has enormous, immediately addressable upside sitting right in front of them.

Proven resilience across economic cycles. Revenue held steady at $4–5M per year consistently, with the exception of COVID-affected years. Only 5% of businesses survive beyond 30 years. This company had done it four times over. That track record is not accidental, it reflects quality of work, repeat customers, and a reputation that survived multiple recessions, market shifts, and leadership health challenges.

Exceptional ratings across every review platform. The company had five-star ratings based on hundreds of reviews on Google, Angi, and other platforms. In the residential trades, reputation is the product. This company had earned one of the best in the market.

A lean, flexible labor model. The majority of field workers operated as 1099 contractors. This is standard practice in Texas roofing and gives the business significant cost flexibility — costs rise and fall with revenue, and in high-demand periods, the workforce can be scaled to 50–60+ workers quickly. There is no bloated fixed payroll to carry in slow periods.

Clean financials with no debt and no receivables risk. The company carries zero debt and no open accounts receivable — it collects at or near the time of project completion. For any buyer or lender underwriting this acquisition, that is a materially lower-risk balance sheet than most businesses of this size.

Key office infrastructure stays in place. The office manager has been with the company for 25 years and handles all paperwork, bookkeeping, and administrative functions. She was willing to remain with the company under new ownership. This is not a peripheral role — it is the operational backbone that allows the field business to run smoothly.

One owner willing to stay on in a transition role. While one co-founder wanted an immediate exit, the other was willing to remain as a commission-only salesperson for an extended period, providing revenue continuity and relationship support through the ownership transition.

The Financials

The underlying financial performance was consistent across a multi-year period.

The 2024–2025 range — $525K–$557K in Adjusted EBITDA — represents the normalized, non-storm baseline the business produces reliably without any incremental sales or marketing effort.

COGS as a percentage of revenue has remained remarkably stable across the period, consistently in the 76–82% range. Gross margins have trended upward, reaching 23% in 2025. Operating expenses are well-controlled, running at approximately 18% of revenue.

The Deal Structure

The winning offer came from a family office, a father-and-son team with extensive experience founding, operating, and exiting businesses across multiple industries, including logistics, metal fabrication, and law. Their investment thesis focused specifically on stable, cash-flowing businesses owned by retirement-age founders looking for a clean transition.

Their purchased the business for 4.0x SDE, with payment in full at closing. The transaction was structured as an asset purchase, free and clear of all liens, encumbrances, and existing liabilities. The sellers retained the accounts receivable for work completed on or before closing and were responsible for paying off all current balance sheet liabilities.

The buyers also got a 5-year triple-net lease of the existing facility from the current owners, with two 5-year renewal options, providing the sellers with a long-term passive income stream from the real estate they owned.

Purchase Price: $2,200,000
Valuation Multiple: 4.0x SDE
Includes: All furniture, inventory, and equipment
Real Estate: Leased separately under a 5-year NNN lease

About the Buyer

The buyer’s identity was kept confidential pursuant to the transaction agreement.

What can be said is that the buyer was a family office with meaningful operating experience in multiple industries and a stated mandate to acquire stable, owner-operated businesses with predictable cash flow and owner-retirement dynamics. Their prior operating background — including scaling a logistics business from a small fleet to a large fleet, and participating in the growth of an industrial manufacturing business from $35M to $125M in EBITDA — meant they were not intimidated by operational complexity.

Their financing came from balance sheet capital supplemented by lender relationships, giving them the ability to move with speed and certainty. The sellers received the full amount with no financing contingencies dangling.

What the Transaction Required

A business like this does not simply sell itself. Getting a decades-old, founder-operated company across the finish line at full value requires specific preparation.

Addback normalization across five years of P&L. The 2021–2025 financial statements reflected multiple years of owner-specific expenses embedded in payroll, vehicles, insurance, and taxes. Each item had to be identified, documented, and explained to buyers in a way that would hold up under their diligence and QoE review. Buyers in this space are experienced, they have seen every attempt to inflate EBITDA, and they discount addbacks that aren’t defensible. Every addback in this package was tied to a specific, documented rationale.

Founder dependency narrative management. The single most common objection to buying a founder-led service business is: “What happens when the founders leave?” That question needed a real answer. The office manager of 25 years, the commission-based sales team, the loyal 1099 crews, the inbound call volume that didn’t depend on either founder showing up, all of this was documented and presented proactively to buyers. 

Real estate structuring. The facility was owned by the sellers. Rather than forcing a buyer to simultaneously acquire a business and a commercial property, the deal was structured with the real estate remaining in seller hands under a long-term NNN lease. This simplified the acquisition balance sheet, reduced the buyer’s upfront capital requirement, and gave the sellers a clean income stream post-close.

Positioning a no-marketing business for a marketing-minded buyer. The company’s lack of outbound sales and marketing infrastructure is simultaneously its biggest risk and its biggest opportunity. The right buyer sees $60–$100K in annual ad spend against $4.5–$5M in revenue and immediately recognizes the untapped potential. The wrong buyer sees founder-dependent revenue and walks. The process was structured to attract buyers with operational and commercial ambition, people who wanted a platform, not just a passive income stream.

The Outcome

The business sold at $2,200,000, representing a 4.0x multiple on 2025 SDE of ~$560K. The purchase included all equipment, inventory, and fixtures. Real estate was carved out into a long-term NNN lease, providing the sellers with ongoing cash flow and the buyer with operational stability.

Why This Deal Worked

The deal worked because the business was real. Forty years of operating history, hundreds of verified reviews, a 25-year office manager, a loyal field crew, zero debt, and steady earnings, none of that is manufactured. When it was packaged and presented clearly, the right buyers recognized the value.

But recognized value and captured value are different things.

The addbacks had to be clean and defensible. The founder-dependency concern had to be answered before buyers asked. The real estate had to be structured properly so it didn’t complicate the transaction. The buyer profile had to be right, a family office with operating experience and balance sheet capital, not a first-time buyer depending on SBA approval.

Every one of those elements required preparation and process. That preparation is what separated a deal that closed at 4.0x from one that stalled, got retraded, or fell apart in diligence.

The Lesson for Business Owners

A business that has generated $4–5M in revenue every year for forty years, with hundreds of five-star reviews and no debt, will always attract buyers.

But attracting buyers and closing at full value are two completely different things.

The buyers who will pay the most are the ones who can see through messy financials, validate addbacks independently, and underwrite founder dependency risk. They will find every weakness. The question is whether those weaknesses have been disclosed, documented, and properly contextualized — or whether they surface mid-diligence and become renegotiation ammunition.

This transaction closed. It closed at a strong multiple. And two founders who gave four decades to building something exceptional walked away with the outcome they deserved.

That is what good advisory work looks like, and it is the standard the Captyx team brings to every engagement.

Why Work With Captyx

Captyx helps business owners prepare, position, value, and sell their companies with clarity and confidence.

Whether you’re running a roofing company that generates $5M a year on referrals alone, or a complex industrial business with multi-component deal structures, the Captyx team and the experienced advisors in the Captyx network have the tools to get you to close at the value you’ve built.

They know how to normalize owner-addbacks in a way that holds up under scrutiny.
They know how to address founder-dependency risk before buyers raise it.
They know how to structure real estate separately to simplify transactions.
They know how to find buyers with real capital and real conviction.
They know how to close.

If you’re a business owner thinking about a sale, whether that’s next year or five years from now, the right time to start the conversation is before you need to.

Schedule a meeting with the Captyx team.

About Captyx

Captyx is a cross-industry mergers and acquisitions advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, family offices, financial buyers, search funds, investors, and strategic acquirers across the United States.

The Captyx team has built, bought, scaled, valued, prepared, and sold businesses across a wide range of industries. Captyx works with business owners to maximize value before and during a sale through valuation, go-to-market preparation, buyer strategy, negotiation support, and transaction advisory.

Learn more at captyx.com or on the Captyx About Us page.