Issue 005 — SBA-range SMB Market, Week of May 11

Preheader: 32 listings reviewed, eight duplicates from prior issues, one within-batch duplicate, two borderline cases out of SBA-range, and one listing asking 0.36x SDE. The new "listing endurance" tracker is introduced. One business in this sample has now appeared in four separate weekly issues.

Thirty-two listings in the $1M–$5M cash flow range were reviewed from BizBuySell for the week of May 5–11, 2026. The headline number is the largest weekly intake in five issues, but the proportion that survives to the valid US sample is the smallest by share. After applying the standard filters, the valid US sample is n=18, producing a median of 4.50x with a range from 0.36x to 7.30x.

The filters this week:

The median of 4.50x represents a recovery from Issue 004's 3.82x. Sample composition rather than directional market movement is again the appropriate read on single-week changes. The five-week rolling median across Issues 001-005 is 4.23x, the more reliable indicator of current SBA-range transaction levels.

Three findings warrant attention this week. First, the duplicate-listings rate has climbed materially. Eight of the 32 reviewed listings appeared in prior weekly samples, a 25% prior-issue repeat rate. Including the within-batch duplicate, the total duplication rate is 28%. One listing has now appeared in three consecutive issues (Tire & Auto Repair, Westchester County NY) and one in four separate weekly issues (Adult Venue, Nevada). The listing-endurance tracker promised for Issue 006 is introduced below.

Second, the lowest multiple in the sample is 0.36x SDE (Plumbing & HVAC Repair, Omaha, asking $463,500 against $1.298M SDE). This is the lowest single multiple in five issues and is several standard deviations from the sample median. The anomaly is large enough to require separate analysis rather than treatment as a normal observation.

Third, real-estate-inclusive listings reached 39% of the valid sample this week (seven of 18 listings), continuing the five-week climb (13%, 13%, 25%, 27%, 39%). The pattern is now sustained enough to be treated as structural market behavior rather than sample variance.

The asking-price disclosure rate remained at 100% across the valid sample. The category-withholding rate (broker listings that decline to disclose the business category) ticked up to one listing this week ("Recession Resistant Service Business," Mecklenburg County NC), the same listing flagged in Issue 005's initial review.

B2B Services produced the largest single-category sample this week at n=7, with a median of 5.38x. The range is wide (3.93x to 7.30x) and reflects the heterogeneity inside the B2B Services bucket. Specialty engineering services (Telecom Engineering at 3.93x EBITDA, IT Infrastructure at 6.32x), pure information services (Admissions Consulting at 5.38x), transportation logistics (Trucking at 4.42x), and hospitality services (Corporate Housing at 6.00x) all sit within the B2B classification but have substantially different operating models, asset profiles, and durability characteristics. As samples accumulate, B2B Services will benefit from sub-segmentation similar to what was attempted with Construction in Issue 004.

Home services produced five listings this week, three of them in plumbing (Plumbing & Heating Suffolk NY at 6.05x, High End Plumbing Utah at 4.44x, Plumbing & HVAC Repair Omaha at 0.36x). Excluding the Omaha anomaly, the Home services median is 5.25x. The three-listing plumbing sub-cluster is the first time a single sub-segment within Home services has accumulated meaningful sample within one week, and the dispersion within the sub-segment (4.44x to 6.05x, excluding the anomaly) suggests that plumbing operations vary materially by customer mix (residential vs. commercial, new construction vs. service/repair).

Manufacturing produced two listings (Precision Machining OH at 5.32x, Commercial Printer NY at 6.41x). The two-listing median of 5.87x is the highest category median this week. Both listings include real estate; the Printer listing's 6.41x multiple is elevated by its 45-year operating history and 98% client retention claim.

Construction returned to the sample at n=1 (Site Prep / Underground Utilities, Indianapolis IN, 4.50x) after Issue 004's anomalous 54% concentration. This week's near-absence further confirms that Issue 004's Construction concentration was sample-composition rather than category trend.

The RE-inclusive median this week was 4.44x, statistically identical to the no-RE median of 4.50x. With n=7 in the RE-inclusive subgroup, the comparison remains too small to draw structural conclusions, but the convergence between RE-inclusive and no-RE medians this week is notable for the absence of the property premium observable in earlier weeks.

Six of seven RE-inclusive listings disclosed property valuation, continuing the disclosure-quality improvement noted in Issue 004 (one of six disclosed) and Issue 005's first pass (five of six disclosed). The Manufactured Housing Dealership remains the disclosure exception.

The five-week trajectory of RE-inclusive sample share (13%, 13%, 25%, 27%, 39%) has flattened slightly from the initial reading but remains directionally upward. RE-inclusive separate reporting will continue weekly.

Eight of 32 reviewed listings appeared in prior weekly samples this week. One additional listing (Telecom Spam Mitigation) appeared twice within this week's batch with identical financials but different listing sources, suggesting either broker dual-listing or platform-aggregator duplication that the buyer should verify before engagement.

The duplicates from prior issues, with appearance history:

The Adult Venue Nevada listing is the leading endurance observation in the five-issue history. The same listing at the same $10.099M asking price has now appeared in Issues 002, 003, and 005 (no observation in Issue 004 may reflect either sample randomness or a brief withdrawal from the platform). The listing's reservation price has not moved across observations. The seller's "Motivated, All Reasonable Offers Considered" language has remained constant across all appearances.

The Tire & Auto Repair Westchester NY listing is the second-longest endurance observation at three consecutive issues (003, 004, 005) at the same $10.5M asking against $2.005M SDE.

Starting Issue 006, this publication is introducing a formal listing-endurance tracker that records each new listing's first appearance and every subsequent reappearance. The tracker will accumulate observations across weeks and will, by Issue 010-015, produce a defensible dataset on average listing duration, price-reduction behavior, and the gap between original asking and eventual clearing prices in the SBA-range market.

The three readings of the duplicate pattern remain those identified in earlier issues. Listing-to-close cycles in the SBA-range market may simply exceed weekly sample cadence (90-180 day typical close timeline against weekly observation). Buyer interest may be softening at current asking levels, leaving listings unfilled. Sellers may be reluctant to reduce price even as time passes without offers. The endurance tracker will, over time, distinguish among these readings by measuring the rate at which long-duration listings either reduce price or eventually transact.

Two listings this week fell outside the operating boundaries of the SBA-range sample but warrant separate reporting for transparency.

Primary Care Practice, Denton TX (Listing #22). Asking $2.7M against reported revenue of $1.59M and normalized EBITDA of $700K-$800K (broker disclosure: "44% EBITDA"). The cash flow disclosure is ambiguous (listed as "$500K – $2.5M"), which is itself a flag. Taking the normalized EBITDA midpoint of $750K, the multiple is 3.60x EBITDA. The business sits below the SBA-range floor used for this sample ($1M cash flow), but only modestly. Notable in its own right: the listing is the first Healthcare listing in five issues to disclose specific patient panel metrics (1,759 active patients, 35 patients per day, 50% Medicare Advantage mix). Healthcare sub-segmentation across the cumulative five-week sample now stands at n=3 (Issue 004 Implant Dental, Issue 004 Med Spa, this week's Primary Care), enabling tentative sub-segment observations as samples continue to accumulate.

Multi Unit Gas Station Portfolio, San Diego CA (Listing #27). Asking $28.5M against revenue of $23M and disclosed earnings ($2.5M cash flow stated, $2.9M EBIT reported separately). The asking price and revenue scale exceed the SBA-range size band typical for this publication's sample. The implied multiple at $28.5M against $2.9M EBIT is 9.83x, which would be the highest multiple in the five-issue sample if included. The listing includes four gas stations with real property, placing it in the lower middle market rather than SBA-range. Buyers in the SBA-range typically cannot finance a $28.5M deal under SBA 7(a) loan limits. The listing is excluded from sample median calculations for this reason.

Both borderline cases will continue to be reported separately when they appear. The Primary Care Practice in particular is close enough to the SBA-range floor that future similar listings may be included in main sample analysis with explicit annotation.

The Omaha plumbing and HVAC repair listing (Listing #24) asks $463,500 against $1,298,416 disclosed SDE on $6.4M revenue. The implied multiple is 0.36x, the lowest single multiple in five issues by a wide margin. The Issue 004 sub-1x observations (Legal Practice IA at 0.88x, Wood Casework FL at 0.98x) were both within range of 1x. The Omaha listing is approximately one-third of those prior anomalies.

Three possible explanations.

The first is broker pricing error, possibly transposition (intended $4.63M asking entered as $463,500) or units confusion. A $4.63M asking against $1.298M SDE would produce a 3.57x multiple, in line with category norms for plumbing service operations. Broker errors of this magnitude are uncommon but not unheard of, particularly on listings imported from older internal systems or from operators selling without professional brokerage support.

The second is severely distressed seller circumstance. A $463,500 asking on a profitable operating business is approximately the value of a moderately-equipped service van and inventory. The seller may be in personal financial distress, health-related forced exit, or facing operational issues (regulatory, litigation, key-employee departure) that the cover sheet does not disclose. Listings priced at fire-sale levels typically reflect facts that the listing does not communicate but that emerge during diligence.

The third is documentation issues with the underlying financials. A $6.4M revenue plumbing/HVAC business in Omaha is not implausible, and the 20.3% SDE margin is consistent with the category. But the asking price is so far disconnected from the cash flow that the buyer's first task is verifying that the cash flow figure is real. Tax returns, bank statements, and customer invoicing records would establish whether the $1.298M SDE actually exists or whether the broker received incorrect information from the seller.

A buyer interested in the listing should treat the headline numbers as unverified until tax returns and operational records confirm them. If the cash flow figure is verified and the asking price is in fact $463,500, the listing is either a genuine fire sale (rare but real opportunity) or hides material business issues. If the asking price is in fact a transposition error and the correct asking is closer to $4.63M, the listing is in line with category norms and warrants standard diligence.

The 0.36x figure will be retained in this week's sample for transparency but should not be read as representative of SBA-range pricing. Future sub-1x observations will be tracked as a separate category to determine whether they cluster by industry, broker, or other identifiable pattern.

Ranked by asking multiple, ascending, excluding the Omaha anomaly. Sample median 4.50x.

Asking $3.9M on $1.3M SDE with real estate included (owned, valuation not disclosed). Implied blended multiple 3.00x, 33% below the sample median.

Manufactured housing dealerships transact at 2-4x SDE due to inventory carrying costs and tied-vendor financing arrangements with manufacturer affiliates. The 3.00x asking sits in the middle of the category range. Diligence priority: inventory financing arrangements and floor plan transferability. The 27.4% SDE margin is at the upper end of normal for the category but plausible given the high-traffic location disclosure.

Asking $4.5M on $1.284M SDE. Implied multiple 3.50x, 22% below the sample median.

The listing remains notable for its category-withholding pattern. No industry disclosure, no operational profile, no business description beyond the "recession resistant" framing. The 40.3% SDE margin on $3.189M revenue is elevated for an unspecified service business. The diligence priority remains identifying what the business actually does before any other analysis. Sellers and brokers who withhold category information on listings typically do so because the category itself would be discount-priced (waste collection, parking enforcement, debt collection, payday lending) or because the business is too specialized for the broker to describe accurately.

Asking $6.0M on $1.526M EBITDA with real estate included ($263K in asking price). Implied multiple 3.93x EBITDA, 13% below the sample median.

A 25-year operating history serving Class I freight railroads and Tier 1 wireless carriers in a barrier-protected niche. The listing discloses revenue growth from $1.2M (2023) to $2.3M (2024) to $4.8M (2025), exceptional and requiring verification. If the growth trajectory is real, the 3.93x multiple sits below where this business should transact and may reflect either seller motivation, broker mispricing, or sample-composition placement at this multiple.

Asking $3.99M on $1.001M SDE. Implied multiple 3.99x, 11% below the sample median.

A 20-year operating Java-based vertical SaaS serving government customers with limited go-to-market investment. The 55.8% SDE margin is achievable for established vertical SaaS but requires verification through the add-back schedule. Technical debt assessment is the priority on any 20-year-old Java platform, alongside customer concentration analysis and the development status of the 2026 product launch referenced in the listing.

Asking $10.0M on $1.369M SDE. Implied multiple 7.30x, 62% above sample median. The highest multiple in the valid sample.

The listing is the strongest candidate for margin-implausibility analysis this week. Reported SDE of $1.369M on $2.46M revenue produces a 55.6% SDE margin. The operational profile claims the business is run by "just one owner (with an optional assistant)" working "10-12 hours per week" from anywhere. A telecom services business with carrier integrations typically requires substantially more operating hours than the listing claims; if accurate, this would represent an extraordinary asset-light model. The 7.30x multiple reflects buyer skepticism about the operating claims, and the within-batch duplication (the same listing appearing twice in this week's intake) suggests broker repositioning effort to reach broader audiences.

Asking $7.0M on $1.3M SDE. Implied multiple 5.38x, 20% above sample median. Reported SDE margin: 65.0% (the highest in the sample).

A consulting firm with 101 active client accounts at average revenue of $49K per family, global high-net-worth clientele, fully remote delivery, 100% referral-driven growth. The 65% margin is implausible for any service business with W-2 staff, but the listing is consistent with a labor-light professional services structure where the owner captures most of the revenue as personal compensation. The 5.38x multiple reflects market discomfort with the founder-dependency profile rather than an irrational premium. A buyer must determine what portion of the $1.3M SDE actually transfers post-close versus what was the owner's personal services income.

Asking $16.2M on $3.6M SDE. Reported SDE margin: 58.1%.

Lawn care businesses typically operate at 12-25% SDE margins. A 58% margin is approximately 2-4x category norms and is implausible without substantial owner-labor inclusion or aggressive add-back treatment. The asking multiple of 4.5x on reported SDE translates to substantially higher effective multiples against any normalized SDE. The buyer's first request should be the labor schedule, equipment ownership and depreciation, and the proportion of revenue under service agreements versus one-time work.

The duplicate-listings rate this week (28% including within-batch duplicate) is the highest in five issues. The listing-endurance tracker introduced this week will accumulate observations on each new listing's appearance and reappearance pattern. The Adult Venue Nevada listing at four-issue endurance and the Tire & Auto Westchester NY listing at three-issue endurance are the leading observations to monitor.

Real-estate-inclusive share at 39% continues the five-week trajectory (13%, 13%, 25%, 27%, 39%). The pattern remains directionally upward and is now sustained enough to be treated as a market feature. RE-inclusive separate reporting will continue weekly.

Healthcare listings now total n=3 across five issues (Implant Dental in Issue 004, Med Spa in Issue 004, Primary Care this week though borderline-excluded). Healthcare sub-segmentation analysis becomes possible at n=5 cumulative observations; one or two additional listings will trigger that analysis.

Plumbing sub-cluster within Home services produced three observations this week. As cumulative Home services sample accumulates across weeks, plumbing operations may emerge as a tractable sub-segment with characteristic multiple ranges (currently 4.44x – 6.05x excluding the Omaha anomaly).

The sub-1x multiple observation count is now three across five issues (Issue 004 Legal at 0.88x, Issue 004 Wood Casework at 0.98x, this week's Omaha Plumbing at 0.36x). Whether sub-1x listings cluster in particular categories or appear randomly will become tractable with more cumulative observations.

The category-withholding rate is now one listing per week for the second consecutive week ("Recession Resistant Service Business" appearing across both Issue 005 readings). If category-withheld listings persist as a pattern, this will be tracked alongside the asking-price disclosure rate.

The 90-day rolling median remains targeted for Issue 010 introduction. The five-week rolling figure (4.23x) is the current best estimate of where SBA-range listings are clearing.

SDE refers to Seller's Discretionary Earnings. Most listings in this cash flow range are priced against SDE. The broker's stated metric is used. Where a broker discloses EBITDA but not SDE (two listings this week: Telecom Engineering TX, Pool Construction VA), EBITDA is substituted for the multiple calculation.

Sample median is computed from US listings with disclosed financials and disclosed asking price, falling within the SBA-range cash flow band ($1M-$5M). The Canadian listing this week (Insulation Contractor, Ontario) is reported separately because SBA financing is not available for Canadian operations. The "Sale Pending" listing (Synthetic Turf, Broward FL) is excluded because no longer actively available. The investment-opportunity listing (Cannabis Extraction, Oklahoma, $20K minimum investment) is excluded because the offering is not a business sale.

Duplicate listings from prior issues are excluded from sample median calculations to avoid double-counting. They are tracked separately as a market-turnover indicator through the listing-endurance tracker introduced this week.

Two borderline cases were excluded from the median this week. Primary Care Practice (Denton TX) at EBITDA $700-800K falls below the $1M SBA-range floor used for this sample. Multi Unit Gas Station Portfolio (San Diego CA) at $28.5M asking and $23M revenue exceeds typical SBA 7(a) loan financing capability. Both borderline cases are summarized in a dedicated section above.

Real estate included designates listings where the broker states the asking price includes ownership of the operating property. Six of seven RE-inclusive listings this week disclosed property valuation explicitly. Where disclosure is absent, only the blended multiple is reported with a note that operating multiple cannot be cleanly calculated.

Margin implausibility refers to reported SDE or EBITDA figures that imply margins substantially above category norms. Such listings are retained in the sample for transparency but flagged in diligence commentary.

The EBITDA Report compiles public listing data. Not legal, financial, tax, or investment advice. Independent verification and professional diligence are required before any acquisition decision.

Published Tuesdays. Deal Diligence published Sundays.