Find your next home services acquisition.
Access vetted companies generating $/£1M-$/£50M revenue. Direct business owner relationships + boutique home services M&A advisor partnerships. 100% free for buyers.
Share Your Acquisition Criteria
Get matched with curated, pre-qualified businesses in your target sectors. Takes 2 minutes.
Free. Confidential. No spam.
Active Buyer Relationships (And Growing)
Your exit's success depends on having options. We provide them. With over 12,000 buyers registered directly on our platform, plus our advisor network and access to institutional-grade data tools, we ensure your business is presented to the most relevant, qualified acquirers in the market.
The Sterling System
See exactly how Sterling matches you with vetted acquisition opportunities
How Sterling Sources Deals for Buyers
The Complete Sage & Sterling Ecosystem
The Sterling AI Calibration Interface
After completing your questionnaire, calibrate your mandate with Sterling through a 15-minute AI conversation
Why Buyers Choose Sterling
Not a marketplace. Not a database. A conversational AI matchmaker.
Curated Access
We maintain ongoing conversations with HVAC, fire safety, and plumbing business owners considering exits. All pre-qualified with verified financials before introduction.
Pre-Qualified Matches
Only see businesses that match your criteria. We vet data rooms and financials before making introductions.
AI-Powered Intelligence
We partner with boutique M&A advisors specializing in home services. Sterling learns from their expertise and 3+ years of deal outcomes to understand nuance and soft signals.
Confidential & Secure
Strict NDAs and blind profiles protect all parties. We never share your acquisition strategy with competitors.
Why Traditional Deal Search Is Broken
Most acquirers waste months on unqualified leads, cold outreach, and marketplace noise.
Of marketplace inquiries fail to match buyer criteria, wasting weeks of due diligence time.
Traditional deal sourcing takes 6+ months of cold outreach, dead ends, and unqualified leads.
Government mandates accelerating heat pump installations and electrical upgrades are creating a surge in demand for specialized home services businesses.
Want To See Sterling In Action?
Watch this video to hear a conversation with Sterling
How It Works
Sterling filters our network of vetted opportunities and notifies you only when he finds a strong match.
Brief Sterling
Spend 15 minutes on a call with Sterling. He learns your exact acquisition criteria: from financials to culture. The more detail, the better the matches.
Get Curated Matches
He filters our network of vetted opportunities and notifies you only when a strong match is found.
Request Introductions
Receive a detailed match report via email. If you're interested, we broker a direct introduction to the advisor.
Example: You're a PE-backed HVAC platform in the Midlands seeking bolt-ons with 60%+ recurring maintenance revenue. Sterling won't waste your time with one-off installation businesses in Scotland, even if they're 'for sale.'
How We Compare to Traditional Sourcing
See why PE funds and search funds choose Sterling over traditional methods
| Feature | Marketplaces | Direct Outreach | Traditional Brokers | DealFlowAgent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Access to Opportunities |
Public listings, high competition
|
Cold emails ignored, months of dead ends
|
Limited network, low response rates
|
Curated network of vetted opportunities
|
| Seller Quality & Readiness |
Unvetted, incomplete financials
|
Targets not interested, no docs ready
|
Uncertain readiness, slow response
|
Pre-qualified, verified data rooms
|
| Buyer Qualification |
Anyone can inquire, low quality leads
|
No credibility with sellers
|
Cold outreach ignored as spam
|
AI matching, warm introductions
|
| Confidentiality |
Public exposure risk
|
Strategy exposed to competitors
|
Inconsistent NDAs
|
Strict NDAs, blind profiles
|
| Opportunity Cost |
Time wasted on unqualified
|
Huge, chasing uninterested sellers
|
Slow, missing better deals
|
Focus only on qualified matches
|
| Fee to Buyers |
Platform or success fees
|
Free but ineffective
|
Retainer or success fees
|
Always free
|
Built for Serious Acquirers
Sterling serves private equity funds, search funds, roll-up platforms, and strategic buyers acquiring $/£1M-$/£50M home services businesses.
HVAC & Heating
5.5x-7.5x EBITDACommercial and residential heating, ventilation, and air conditioning businesses with strong maintenance revenue.
Fire Safety & Protection
6.0x-8.5x EBITDAFire alarm, suppression systems, and safety compliance businesses with recurring inspection contracts.
Plumbing & Gas Services
4.5x-6.5x EBITDAPlumbing contractors and Gas Safe registered businesses serving commercial and residential markets.
Electrical Contracting
5.0x-7.0x EBITDACommercial and domestic electrical contractors including renewable energy and EV charging specialists.
Experienced Dealmakers Lead Your Exit
A senior M&A bench, plus a sector specialist recruited for your industry on every deal.
James Duboullay
Senior M&A Advisor
- •25+ years across investment banking, M&A and fundraising
- •Sector focus: essential services and software
- •Long-standing relationships with private equity buyers and growth funds
- •Personally advising DealFlowAgent founders for the past four years
Emerson Patton
Sector Specialist: Building, Construction & Trade Services
- •20+ years advising owners in building services, fire safety, HVAC, plumbing, and construction
- •Guided 200+ companies through growth, profit improvement, and exit planning
- •Builds equity value and operational structure long before a sale
- •Partners with DFA to prepare owners for exit while the advisory team runs the sale
- •22 completed M&A transactions
- •Direct relationships with hundreds of strategic and financial acquirers
- •Previously built a mobility and field services business to 30 staff and 6 UK warehouses, then sold via competitive process with an EY M&A partner
- •Raised £2m in funding; placed 3rd of 1,900 at OnStage (the "Y Combinator of Europe")
- •Full-stack developer of advanced agent systems and second-brain tooling for the M&A process
- •Founded Fanbytes, scaled revenues to £10m+, exited at multi-eight-figure valuation
- •Advises on multiple M&A deals, invests in early-stage ventures
- •Built 700,000+ follower community teaching founders to scale and sell
- •Partnered with DealFlowAgent to expand access for founders to buyers
Sage
AI Deal Concierge
- •Available 24/7. Monitors every signal in your deal
- •Keeps your advisory team one step ahead at all times
- •Trained on thousands of M&A transactions
Sterling
Buy-Side Deal Origination Agent
- •Engages 12,000+ acquirers to surface live mandates and intent
- •Qualifies buyer fit, budget and timing before introductions
- •Feeds your advisory team with warm, ranked buyer matches
Sector Expert
Industry-Specific Advisor
For every engagement we add a sector specialist from your industry to the core team: a 15–25 year operator or advisor with direct relationships in your niche. Recruited per deal so you get the right fit, not a generalist.
Head of M&A
Senior hire — interviewing now
Final-round interviews underway with 100+ applicants. Joining May 2026 to lead the advisory bench across Building Services and Healthcare.
Senior M&A Advisor
New seat — 100+ applicants
Sourced from boutique investment banks and Big-4 corporate finance teams. Joining May–June 2026.
Senior M&A Advisor
Second seat — interviewing
Sector-specialist hire focused on the lower-mid market (£1M–£10M EBITDA). Joining May–June 2026.
We're actively expanding the bench — three senior M&A hires confirmed for May–June 2026. See open roles → Apply now →
Backed by investors behind Uber, SpaceX, Canva, Notion and others, to modernise M&A advisory for business owners and buyers like you.
We have raised investment from the same backers behind companies that transformed entire industries.
Capital is being deployed to keep delivering successful exits — sharper buyer mapping, a stronger advisory bench, and a faster process for owners.
What Our Clients Say
Hear directly from business owners and advisors who've worked with us.
Watch Chris share his experience working with DealFlowAgent.
Hear how Saim successfully navigated his business sale.
Watch Nikki share her experience working with DealFlowAgent.
"I couldn't have asked for better support during my exit. They found the perfect acquirer and negotiated terms that exceeded my expectations."
Get Matched with Home Services Sellers This Week
Create your free buyer account and schedule a 15-minute call with Sterling to set your acquisition criteria. Start receiving warm introductions to vetted HVAC, fire safety, plumbing, and electrical businesses within 7-10 days.
No signup required. Sterling will call you for a confidential conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about acquiring home services businesses
Key valuation drivers include recurring maintenance contract revenue (ideally 40%+ of total revenue), customer diversification, Gas Safe/F-Gas certified workforce, geographic coverage, and fleet/equipment condition. HVAC businesses with strong recurring revenue and heat pump capabilities command premium multiples of 6-7.5x EBITDA.
Have more questions?
Contact our team →