Selling an HVAC Business in Georgia: What to Know First
I'm Madison Clarke, and I live near Johns Creek. Trellis Equities is a small, family-backed search fund. We're looking for one HVAC or trades business to buy and keep for the long run. I've spent a lot of time learning how these sales work, and owners keep asking me the same few questions, so here are plain answers. I'm not a lawyer or an accountant, so treat this as a starting point for conversations with your own CPA and attorney, not as advice.
Start with what you want, not what it's worth
Most owners jump straight to the price. That matters, but it's usually easier to start by writing down a few honest answers:
- When would you like to be done working full-time? Next year, or in five years?
- Would you rather leave cleanly, or stay on for a while to help with the handoff?
- Who on your team do you most want looked after?
- Does it matter to you that the company name stays on the trucks?
Your answers will shape which buyers make sense for you and how the deal gets put together. A buyer who wants a quick clean break and an owner who wants to stay on part-time for two years will both be frustrated if nobody says so early.
Understand how your license fits into the business
This is the Georgia-specific part, and it's worth raising with your attorney early.
Conditioned air contractor licenses in Georgia are issued to individuals by the Division of Conditioned Air Contractors, part of the State Construction Industry Licensing Board. Georgia rewrote the licensing law for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, low voltage and utility contractors, and the new version took effect July 1, 2026. As I read the current statute, a company set up as a partnership, LLC or corporation can only do conditioned air contracting if a licensed person is "regularly connected" with it and actively working in the business full-time. If the company has more than one office doing HVAC work, each branch office needs at least one full-time licensed person stationed there. If the person the company's qualification rests on leaves, the company has to notify the division within seven days.
In plain terms, the license is issued to a person, not to the company, so it's worth working out early how the license side will be handled in a sale. One of the first questions is whose license the company operates under, and whether that person will stay. If it's your license and you plan to retire, you and the buyer will need a plan for who holds that role afterward. A licensed manager already on your team makes this much simpler. Please confirm the specifics for your situation with your attorney and the board. Don't rely on me for this.
Your technicians earn their EPA Section 608 certifications as individuals, and EPA says those credentials don't expire. Federal rules also generally limit refrigerant purchases to certified technicians or employers of certified technicians, so it helps to know who on your team holds which certification.
Get your numbers into a shape someone else can follow
You don't need perfect books to start a conversation. You do need books another person can follow. A buyer, their lender and their accountant will usually ask for a few years of tax returns and profit-and-loss statements, along with some sense of which expenses are personal and which are the business's. Your CPA is the right person to help pull this together. The SBA's guidance on selling also suggests getting a sense of value before you go to market, using common approaches that look at income, comparable sales or assets.
Think about what makes an HVAC company easy to hand over
Buyers tend to feel most comfortable when:
- Customers call the company, not you personally
- There's a list of maintenance agreement customers and a schedule that runs without you
- Someone besides the owner can price a job, dispatch a tech and handle an unhappy customer
- Equipment, vehicles and any leases are written down in one place
None of this has to be perfect. Each step just makes the transition safer for you and your team.
Keep it confidential until you're ready
Most owners don't want their crew, customers or competitors hearing about a sale too early. It's normal to ask a buyer to sign a confidentiality agreement before sharing anything sensitive, and a reasonable buyer won't object.
Talk to your advisors early
How a sale is structured (for example, whether a buyer purchases the company's assets or its stock) can change your taxes and your legal obligations. That's a question for your CPA and attorney, ideally well before you sign anything.
If you're starting to think about what comes next for your HVAC business, I'd be glad to have a quiet, no-pressure conversation. Here's a little more about me and what I'm looking for.