Sell your painting business.

Residential repaint versus commercial bid work

A painting company is a crew, a contractor license where your state requires one, and a book of work that is either signed or just hoped for. Buyers split interior residential, exterior seasonal, and commercial or HOA bid work. A property-manager punch-list program is a different asset than a shop that lives on spring Google ads and the owner’s Saturday estimates. Lead-safe RRP for pre-1978 housing, workers’ comp class codes, and whether the material house will assign the account all show up before anyone talks about a number.

Cabinet spraying, wallpaper, and deck staining do not get folded into the same story as wall paint. If those lines need a different skill or a different insurance endorsement, say so. Mixed scopes confuse diligence when everything is dumped into one sales total.

Who holds the license and who is still on the ladder

If you are the qualifying individual on the license, the buyer needs a path to keep that ticket or the company cannot legally take the next job in states that care. Bonding is lighter than general contracting. Lead claims and workers’ comp are not. Buyers ask who estimates, who runs punch, and whether a foreman can start a house without you. Owner-technician risk is the usual haircut: last year’s profit assumed you were a free painter and a free salesperson.

Warranty callbacks and a spray rig with no service log become credits. A written production rate—rooms per crew-day, not folklore—is what makes the calendar transferable.

Signed backlog is not a stack of estimates

Deposits and executed contracts are backlog. A pile of bids and a “busy spring” is pipeline. Buyers will not treat them as the same thing. Exterior work has a weather window; a dry August does not get annualized. Put the license, insurance declarations, and crew list in one folder, and decide who stays after close. Bridge Point will not list a one-painter shop as if three crews were already hired.