This page documents the methodology behind M&Apedia's encyclopedia articles and its annual Home-Services M&A Multiples Report. For the editorial standards that govern the site as a whole — authorship, sourcing, review and corrections — see the editorial policy.

Encyclopedia articles

Sources

Each article draws on three source layers, in this order of preference:

  1. Standards and authorities — IFRS Foundation (IFRS 3, IAS 36), FASB (ASC 805, ASC 350), the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (Sections 338, 368, 382, 1202), the U.S. SEC, FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division publications, the European Commission's DG COMP, and the relevant state corporate-law statutes for U.S. structures.
  2. Widely used corporate-finance references — Investopedia (terminology), the Corporate Finance Institute (CFI), Wall Street Prep (process content), Aswath Damodaran's valuation research at NYU Stern, and the M&A publications of the Big Four (Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, EY) and major strategy consultancies (McKinsey, Bain, BCG).
  3. Practitioner experience — the author's and reviewers' direct deal experience in the lower-middle market. Practitioner-derived content is identified as such in the article and is paired with sources from the first two layers wherever possible.

Where claims rest on practitioner experience without a published source, that is disclosed in the article. We do not cite tertiary sources (other wikis, paraphrased blog posts) as primary references.

Citations

Articles use inline citation footnotes of the form ^[N] that link to a numbered References & further reading section at the bottom of the page. Each citation links to its source — usually the primary publication — and the references list shows the title and URL.

Review

Articles are reviewed by at least one named practitioner before publication. Pillar articles and the annual report are reviewed by a second practitioner where available. The review date and reviewer are visible on every article (in the byline) and in the JSON-LD reviewedBy field. Articles are re-reviewed at least annually; articles tied to standards that change (IFRS, U.S. tax law, antitrust thresholds) are reviewed whenever the underlying standard moves.

Update cadence

Material updates change the visible last reviewed date. Cosmetic edits do not. Where an article is materially updated, the change is summarised in the article's review log (visible in source control; we are working on a public log page).

Home-Services M&A Multiples Report

The annual Home-Services M&A Multiples Report is produced by Main Street Wealth. The methodology is summarised on the report itself and detailed below.

Scope

U.S. lower-middle-market home-services M&A, defined as transactions of approximately $1M–$75M enterprise value across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, pest control, landscaping and lawn care, pool service and garage-door services. Excludes franchise-system roll-ups at the system level (where reporting is dominated by franchise-territory transfers rather than arms-length M&A).

Sources

  • Direct deal experience. Main Street Wealth's live and pipeline transactions form the primary input.
  • Active acquirer interviews. Conversations with strategic and private-equity acquirers active in the segment, including pricing parameters communicated in their IOIs and LOIs.
  • Publicly disclosed transactions. Multiples from disclosed deals — including those reported by listed acquirers in 10-K and 10-Q filings, and selected SEC filings of public sellers.
  • Practitioner-reported pricing. Closed-deal multiples reported by other lower-middle-market sell-side advisors operating in the segment, where available and corroborated.

What we report

For each category, we report a range of EV / Adjusted EBITDA multiples in three deal-size bands (sub-$1M EBITDA, $1M–$3M EBITDA, $3M+ EBITDA), and for the sub-$1M EBITDA band we also report SDE multiples. We report ranges, not point estimates; within-category dispersion is greater than across-category dispersion, and a single number would mislead.

What we do not report

  • Specific deals. We do not identify individual transactions, sellers or buyers in any way that would breach confidentiality.
  • Forward forecasts. The report describes ranges in current market activity. It is not a prediction of future multiples.
  • Sample sizes. Because we draw on a mix of direct experience, conversations and disclosed deals, we report a "sample band" of typical EV sizes rather than an exact n. We will publish n as the dataset matures and the proportion of disclosed observations grows.

Adjusted EBITDA and SDE

Multiples in the report are applied to adjusted EBITDA (or, for sub-$1M EBITDA businesses, SDE), not reported EBITDA. Adjustments include normalisation of owner compensation, removal of non-recurring and non-operating items, adjustment of related-party rent to market rate, and treatment of one-time storm-, weather- or pandemic-driven swings. The specific normalisation rules are described in the normalisation adjustments article.

Refresh cadence

The report is refreshed annually, with directional quarterly updates published when sustained market changes warrant. Each release carries a visible date stamp; prior versions are preserved at versioned URLs.

License

The report is licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0. You may share, adapt and use the report — including in commercial settings — with attribution to Main Street Wealth / M&Apedia and a link to the canonical URL.

Questions or corrections

Methodology questions, suggested sources or corrections: [email protected]. For deal-pricing data contributions: Main Street Wealth.

Last reviewed: 2026-06-16