Buying or selling a moving company comes down to jobs that are booked, crews that will show up for a new name, and insurance a successor can bind. What trades is transferable cash flow after a real dispatcher and crew wage, trucks a lender can title, and a claims file that matches the loss run. A local household mover, a commercial office mover, and a long-distance agent are different companies. Price a summer Saturday as if it were a year-round corporate account and you will use the wrong multiple.
The short answer: an owner-operated mover, where you are still the estimator, the driver, or the only dispatcher, often trades around 2x–3.5x Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE) after a real wage for those hours. A company with a dispatcher already on the board, written estimates, and more than one demand source can move toward 2.5x–4.5x SDE. A managed fleet can be read on adjusted EBITDA. Insurance, claims, and whether the crews are employees or helpers you call the night before move the check as much as last year's revenue. Those ranges are directional. They are not a quote.
This guide is for moving companies. It sits on our moving company sale page and next to the trucking guide. A freight carrier hauls someone else's goods on a lane. A mover handles a household or an office, with valuation coverage and a crew inside the house. A courier with a van is a courier business. Do not blend them.
Companies that sell well have a job file, a second estimator, titles on the trucks, and a loss run a buyer can read. Companies that sell poorly are a personality with a box truck, cash deposits that never hit the bank, and helpers you have been treating as contractors without saying so.
This article is not legal, DOT, tax, or insurance advice. Household-goods authority, valuation coverage, and what an estimate must say change by state and by whether the move crosses a state line. Confirm them with qualified counsel before you sign a letter of intent.
Start with a confidential business valuation.
Why a Moving Company Is Different
A mover sells a date, a crew, and a promise the furniture arrives. Several facts change the price:
- The summer is not the year. Local household moves pile into a few months. Buyers will not annualize June. Commercial moves can fill weekdays. Split them.
- You may be the estimate. If every job still needs you in the house, that is key-person risk. A transferable company has a dispatcher and an estimator who have already covered a week.
- Claims are a liability already sold. A scratch, a lost box, and a delay may still be open. The revenue was last month. The payout may be ahead. Schedule them.
- Trucks and authority are the permission. Titles, liens, a DOT or state household-goods number, and an insurance filing have to survive a new name. A truck in your personal name is not fleet.
- Labor is the margin. A crew you underpay on the books, or a helper you call as a contractor while you direct the day, will be repriced. Say the wage yourself.
Local moves are a radius and a crew. Long-distance work may be your own authority or an agency agreement with a van line. The agency agreement is often not yours to sell. Read it before you price the interstate book.
What Buyers Underwrite
The job file
The job file is estimates, deposits, and dates for the next season. A hold with no deposit is pipeline. A signed estimate and a payment schedule are backlog. Buyers will reconcile deposits to the bank. Money you collected for a move you still have to run is not profit you keep and also count as future revenue.
Crews and dispatch
Crews and dispatch are who answers the phone and who carries the sofa. Buyers want the wage, the workers' comp class, and whether the people are employees. A reclassification reserve changes the price. It should not be a surprise in week four. Seasonal labor has a cost to find again. Put that cost in the peak-month math.
Trucks, warehouses, and claims
Trucks, warehouses, and claims are the collateral and the tail. Titles, miles, liens, and a warehouse you own versus a lease. Valuation coverage you sold to the customer has to match the policy. The loss run and the open claims belong with the titles. A buyer who learns about a bad move from the insurer will hold back cash.
Van-line and military or government work
Van-line and military or government work transfer only if the agreement says they do. An agency, a GSA schedule, or a base contract can be most of the year and none of the asset if the prime will not novate. Ask before you list.
What Is Actually Recurring
Household moves are not a subscription. Buyers still separate a booked season from a one-time spike.
Commercial accounts — an office tenant, a property manager, a university — can rebook when the rate is in writing and someone besides you already walks the job. One property manager at a quarter of revenue is concentration. Real-estate referral fees belong in the file. A buyer who learns the margin from an agent, instead of from you, will treat the rest of the year as soft.
Storage can be recurring if the contracts and the lien rights are clean. It is a different business from the move. Price it apart if the revenue is material. What a buyer will pay for is the test in recurring revenue a buyer will fund: a file they can reconcile, a customer who is not only loyal to you, and authority that survives a new name.
A Florida winter of inbound households and a northern June of outbound families are different calendars. Two years of jobs by type — local, commercial, long-distance — are the national file.
How Buyers Value a Moving Company
Start with a real valuation.
Seller's discretionary earnings
Seller's discretionary earnings still clears most owner-operated movers. Owner pay and true one-offs come back. A market wage for estimating, driving, and dispatching you still do does not. Fuel, claims you paid from the operating account, and a helper wage you skipped in the add-backs come out.
Adjusted EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA is for a company that already runs peak season with a dispatcher on the payroll and already sells jobs without you on the walk-through. Insurance cost and authority move the multiple as much as the earnings. A one-truck operation priced like a multi-terminal agent will be walked back.
The warehouse, if you own it, is usually a separate price. SBA 504 can finance that real estate and long-lived equipment. It does not finance the goodwill of a dispatch board.
Who Buys, and How the Purchase Gets Financed
Operators buy a book of dates so they can stop building a summer from zero. They can run a crew. They still need authority in their name, insurance they can bind, and a wage that assumes they are not you.
Other movers buy a territory or a commercial lane. They underwrite claims and whether your dispatcher stays. They walk when the trucks are not titled to the company or the van line will not consent.
Most local movers are Main Street. Price them that way until a dispatcher and a second demand source say otherwise.
SBA 7(a) can be part of the acquisition when the job file supports debt service and the insurance path is real. The 7(a) cap is $5 million. Lenders want titles, a loss run, and a use of proceeds that includes the trucks. Read working with an SBA lender and the 2026 SBA financing guide.
Seller financing is common when you are still the estimator or one season is most of the year. Earn-outs show up when next summer's book is soft. An earn-out that only pays if you keep estimating is a job.
Diligence and the Year Before You List
Customers should not hear about a sale from a listing site in the middle of a booked Saturday. The same rules are in how to sell your company confidentially. Prepare with our due diligence guide and the 12–36 month roadmap. Crews are also a people problem, covered in the service-business guide.
Use the year. Put a dispatcher on the payroll through a peak. Match deposits to jobs. Title the trucks to the company. Split local, commercial, and long-distance. Start the insurance and authority conversation before you set a close date. A June treated as the run rate, cash deposits, and an open claim quietly reprice the file.
What a Buyer Will Ask on the First Call
They will ask which jobs are under deposit, who dispatches if you are on a truck, whether crews are employees, and what the insurance will cost in their name. Bring the loss run, the titles, and the next season's job list.
The first offer should name the trucks and should not assume every referral renews. Ask which jobs the buyer must still run, whether the deposit stays in the company, and who covers the board for the first thirty days. A buyer who needs you on every estimate is buying a job. Titles with liens have to be in the use of proceeds. A close that funds goodwill and then discovers the trucks are financed is how the wire gets short.
A downtown office mover and a suburban household crew can both sell. The authority and the season differ. The file does not: jobs, insurance, titles, and a person besides you who already covers the board.
Referral fees to agents, storage liens, and valuation coverage you sold above the released value belong on the same page as the loss run. A buyer will ask what you promised the shipper and what the policy actually pays. If those numbers differ, the gap is a reserve. Helpers you call the night before a Saturday are a wage you should state, including the cost of finding them again in June. Workers' comp class codes that do not match the work in the house will be re-quoted. Put the audit in the folder. A military or government lane that will not novate should come out of the run rate before you accept a price that includes it. The first thirty days after close are a dispatch problem. Name who covers them, and pay that time as transition rather than as an earn-out on jobs you no longer control. Put the name in writing.
Talk With Bridge Point
If you are preparing to sell a moving company — or you are a buyer who can bind the insurance and run the crew — Bridge Point Business Brokers can help you value the book and keep the process confidential. Start with a valuation or contact us at (352) 515-0226.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is a moving company valued in 2026?
An owner-operated mover often trades around 2x–3.5x Seller's Discretionary Earnings after a real dispatcher and crew wage. A company with a dispatcher, written estimates, and more than one demand source can move toward 2.5x–4.5x SDE. These ranges are directional only — not a quote.
Are deposits profit?
No. Deposits for moves you still have to run are a liability. They have to match the bank, and the purchase agreement has to say who performs the job and who holds the money.
Does a van-line agency transfer?
Only if the agreement allows it and the van line consents. An interstate book that is really an agency is not the same asset as your own authority. Read it before you price it.
How do buyers treat claims and insurance?
They read the loss run and re-quote the policy in their name. Open claims are reserved. A premium you hoped would stay the same often does not.
Will SBA finance a moving company?
SBA 7(a) can be part of the deal when the job file supports debt service and insurance can be bound. The 7(a) cap is $5 million. SBA 504 can finance a warehouse and long-lived trucks. It does not finance goodwill.
What quietly reprices a moving company?
An owner who still estimates every job, a summer annualized as the year, trucks not titled to the company, helpers treated as contractors, and an open claim left out of the file.
How can an owner increase value before a sale?
Put a dispatcher on the board, match deposits to jobs, title the trucks, split local from commercial and long-distance, start the insurance conversation, and obtain a professional valuation 12–36 months before you go to market.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Bridge Point Business Brokers helps business owners nationwide plan and execute successful exits. Schedule a confidential, no-obligation consultation today.