Business Valuation Guide
Most auto repair shops sell for 2.0x to 3.3x Seller's Discretionary Earnings, with the midpoint near 2.6x. An auto repair shop with $250,000 of SDE would typically fall between $500,000 and $825,000.
Auto repair shops are valued on earnings, but two things sit alongside that number and often dominate the transaction: the building, if you own it, and the technicians, if you can keep them. A well-equipped shop with certified techs and fleet accounts is a genuinely competitive asset.
Start with Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE): net profit plus the owner's pay and perks, interest, depreciation and one-time costs.
Then apply the industry multiple. For auto repair shops that band runs 2.0x to 3.3x, and where a specific business lands inside it is decided by the factors below. Typical SDE margin for this category runs around 16% of revenue, which is a useful sanity check: if your margin is far off that, the multiple moves with it.
Above roughly $1M to $2M of EBITDA the buyer pool changes. Individual buyers give way to private equity platforms and strategic acquirers, and pricing restates onto an EBITDA multiple of 4x to 6.5x rather than a multiple of SDE.
Multi-shop operators and consolidators expanding into a market, franchise groups converting an existing site, and experienced technicians buying their first shop, most often with an SBA loan.
A typical sale runs 5 to 10 months from going to market to closing, assuming your financials are ready when you start. Technicians are the constraint in this trade, not customers. A shop with certified techs who intend to stay sells quickly. A shop where the owner is the best technician sells slowly and for less, because the buyer is purchasing a bay they cannot staff.
Most auto repair shops sell for roughly 2.0x to 3.3x Seller's Discretionary Earnings, with equipment included and real estate valued separately if you own it. A shop with $250,000 of SDE would typically land between $500,000 and $825,000 for the business, plus the property.
Only if you own it, and it should always be valued separately. Many owners sell the business and keep the property, then lease it back to the buyer at market rent. That structure often nets more overall and gives you an income stream after closing, so it is worth pricing both ways before you decide.
Most do, when the transition is handled properly, and it is worth real money to make sure they do. Technicians are the scarcest input in this trade. Buyers frequently ask for stay bonuses or short retention agreements, and a shop that can demonstrate low tech turnover prices above one that cannot.
There is no single average, because price tracks earnings rather than revenue. At the midpoint multiple of 2.6x SDE, auto repair shops at $500,000 of SDE sell around $1,325,000, and at $1,000,000 of SDE around $2,650,000. Typical SDE margin in this category runs near 16% of revenue, so an auto repair shop doing $1,000,000 in revenue would often carry about $160,000 of SDE and land near $424,000.
SDE multiples of 2.0x to 3.3x apply to owner-operated auto repair shops. Once earnings pass roughly $1M to $2M of EBITDA the buyer pool shifts to private equity and strategic acquirers, and pricing restates onto an EBITDA multiple of 4x to 6.5x. The two are not comparable: SDE includes the owner's compensation and EBITDA does not, so the same business shows a higher SDE multiple than EBITDA multiple.
Typically 5 to 10 months from going to market to closing, assuming financials are ready. Technicians are the constraint in this trade, not customers. A shop with certified techs who intend to stay sells quickly. A shop where the owner is the best technician sells slowly and for less, because the buyer is purchasing a bay they cannot staff.
SDE times the industry multiple. For auto repair shops that multiple is 2.0x to 3.3x, so $250,000 of SDE points to $500,000 to $825,000. Recorded sales of similar businesses serve as a cross-check, and the equipment and inventory value usually sets the floor.
Yes, at the top of this page. It applies the 2.0x to 3.3x band for auto repair shops, adjusted for owner hours, margin and years in business, and returns a range rather than one number.
To decide whether to sell an auto repair shop, a market valuation: what a buyer would likely pay. A certified appraisal is usually needed only for divorce, estate, tax, litigation or a buyer's SBA loan, and costs far more.
Multiples reflect broker transaction data including the BizBuySell Insight Report and aggregated 2024-2025 USA small business sales, and mirror the bands used by the Exit Ready valuation calculator. They are planning estimates, not a formal appraisal, and not investment advice. Market multiples move; this page was last updated 2026-08-19.