How to Prepare Your Property Management Company for Sale (12-Month Checklist)
The difference between a sale that closes at 1.2x revenue and the same business closing at 2.0x is almost never the market — it is the twelve months of preparation before a buyer ever sees the financials. Here is the sequence that actually moves the number.
Months 12–9: Clean the financials
Move to accrual accounting if you are still on cash. Buyers and their accountants will normalize either way, but cash-basis books make every conversation start with skepticism.
Separate trust accounts from operating accounts cleanly. Any commingling, even historical, becomes a deal point.
Document every owner add-back: personal vehicles, family payroll, one-time legal costs, the spouse's phone. If it is in the P&L and a buyer would not inherit it, it belongs in the add-back schedule. Average add-backs we see lift adjusted EBITDA by 15–25%.
Months 9–6: Fix the contracts
Audit every management agreement. Anything month-to-month, get re-signed as a one- or two-year term. Buyers pay for contractual revenue, not implied revenue.
Resolve any owner relationship above 10% of revenue. Either diversify the book or pre-frame the concentration risk with a transition plan the buyer can underwrite.
Document fee schedules, late fee policy, maintenance markup, and any handshake exceptions. Undocumented terms become discount requests at LOI.
Months 6–3: Operationalize the team
If you are the rainmaker, start handing leads to a junior team member with you copied. Buyers need to see that revenue continues without the owner answering the phone.
Write down your standard operating procedures. They do not need to be polished — a Notion or Google Doc covering onboarding, maintenance dispatch, and renewal workflow is enough.
Identify the one or two people you want to commit to stay post-close. Quiet conversations now, formal retention bonuses at close.
Months 3–0: Package and go to market
Pull a trailing-twelve-months P&L, the door roster (sanitized), the contract list with terms, and the add-back schedule. That is the confidential information memorandum buyers need to make a first offer.
Pick your advisor before you talk to buyers. The owners who reach out to one local competitor on their own routinely leave 20–30% on the table — the competitor knows there is no other bidder.
Decide your non-negotiables in writing: team retention, name preservation, transition length, post-close role. Putting these in front of buyers early filters out the wrong ones fast.
What not to do
Do not tell staff before LOI. The right framing comes after a buyer is selected and the transition plan is real.
Do not raise fees in the six months before sale just to inflate the multiple. Buyers see through it and price for the churn risk it creates.
Do not let a buyer push you into exclusivity before you have competing interest. Multiple bidders is the single biggest lever on price.