Case study · Landscaping / Outdoor services · Midwest
Twelve years into running a HOA-contract landscaping business in suburban Columbus, Ohio, Donna Fleischer had built something a local competitor had been quietly trying to replicate for years. When Acquire Weekly made the introduction, the deal closed in 60 days - no price negotiation, no escrow holdbacks, no drama.
Acquire Weekly · Deal team · Published May 2026
Annual revenue
From intro to close
Full asking price
Fleischer Outdoor Services was built, contract by contract, across twelve seasons in the Columbus suburbs. What started as a two-crew residential mowing operation evolved into something considerably more defensible: a HOA-anchored commercial landscaping company with 22 active community association contracts, a seasonal enhancement program, and a winter snow removal add-on that kept crews - and cash flow - running through February.
By 2025, the business was generating $1.1M in annual revenue with roughly 68% of that tied to multi-year HOA maintenance agreements. EBITDA margins ran at 19%. Donna managed operations personally with one part-time office coordinator and five full-time crew leads who had each been with the company for at least four years.
The business ran on reputation and retention. Donna had never lost an HOA contract mid-term. Not once in twelve years.
Donna’s concern wasn’t finding a buyer - she suspected there was demand. Her concern was what the process of finding one would do to the business she was trying to sell.
HOA boards are notoriously sensitive to ownership changes. Several of Donna’s contracts included notification clauses that could allow a board to put the contract out for rebid if a change of control wasn’t handled correctly. A public sale process - even a quiet one on a broker platform - risked a board member seeing a listing and triggering that clause before a deal was even close to closing.
She had two requirements going in:
The buyer had to have experience acquiring landscaping or outdoor services businesses - specifically, someone who understood HOA contract dynamics and how to manage a board relationship through a transition
The process had to stay off-market until a buyer was identified and an NDA was signed- no teasers, no platforms, no public signals
“My whole business was the contract book. If even one HOA board heard a rumor before I was ready to tell them myself, I could’ve lost a renewal. That wasn’t a risk I was willing to take for a faster process.”
When the Acquire Weekly deal team mapped the buyer landscape for a $1.1M HOA-anchored landscaping business in the Columbus metro, the answer wasn’t a private equity roll-up or an out-of-market platform. It was a 14-year-old, $3.2M landscaping company based 22 miles away in Westerville.
Greenleaf Property Services had been trying to break into Donna’s HOA market for three years. They’d underbid two of her contracts and lost both times. What they couldn’t replicate with lower prices was the relationship equity Donna had built over a decade - board members knew her crews by name. Rather than keep competing, Greenleaf’s owner, Marcus Webb, had been quietly asking around about acquisition targets.
Acquire Weekly had Marcus in its buyer network. The introduction took 48 hours from Donna’s initial conversation with the deal team. Both parties signed NDAs the same day.
“We’d been trying to get into those HOA communities for years. Buying Donna’s company didn’t just give us the contracts — it gave us the crews that the boards already trusted. That’s not something you can build quickly.”
Selling to a competitor carries real risks - particularly around confidentiality of customer lists, crew compensation, and operational methods. Donna knew this. The deal structure was designed to manage it.
Information was released in staged tranches: high-level financials and contract summary first, then detailed customer data and crew records only after a signed LOI was in place and a deposit was held in escrow. Marcus never received raw HOA contact information until two days before closing.
The upside of a competitor buyer, however, was significant. Marcus didn’t need a QofE to understand the business model. He knew exactly what a well-run HOA contract looked like, what the crew retention risk was, and what the contracts were worth in the context of his existing operation. Diligence that might take an inexperienced buyer 45 days took Marcus three weeks.
Full payment at close, no earnout
Transition consulting by Donna
Crew leads retained post-close
HOA contracts successfully transitioned
The deal closed at Donna’s full asking price with no price chip during diligence, no escrow holdback on the contract book, and no clawback provisions. Marcus paid cash at close. Donna agreed to a 90-day transition consulting arrangement to support HOA board introductions — a condition she actually welcomed, since it let her control the narrative with boards she’d worked with for years.
Every HOA contract renewed on schedule the following season under Greenleaf’s management. All five crew leads stayed on, three of whom received retention bonuses funded by Marcus as part of the deal negotiation.
Day 1
Donna contacts Acquire Weekly — intake call and deal parameters established
Day 3
Greenleaf Property Services identified from buyer network — NDAs signed same day as introduction
Days 4–10
Stage 1 diligence: high-level financials and contract summary shared under NDA
Day 14
LOI signed at full asking price — deposit placed in escrow; Stage 2 diligence begins
Days 15–57
Full due diligence: crew records, HOA contract terms, equipment inventory, site walkthroughs with two crew leads
Day 58
HOA contact list and customer data released to buyer — final purchase agreement executed
Day 60
Deal closes — 100% cash at close, 90-day transition consulting agreement signed
The instinct to avoid selling to a competitor is understandable — but it often costs owners the best deal available to them. A strategic buyer who already operates in your market understands your business faster, values the contracts more accurately, and has operational infrastructure that reduces transition risk for customers and crew alike.
The risks are real, but manageable with the right deal structure:
Never share customer-level data before a signed LOI and escrow deposit - information released pre-LOI to a competitor is information you can’t take back
Build tiered information release into the diligence process - compete-sensitive operational details (crew comp, contract margins) come last, not first
Lean into the transition consulting structure - a 60–90 day overlap gives you control of the customer narrative and protects the contract book through the handover
A competitor who’s been trying to win your customers already knows what they’re worth - which means less price negotiation, not more
Donna’s situation is more common than most owners realize. In fragmented local service markets - landscaping, pest control, HVAC, cleaning - the most motivated buyer is often already operating within 25 miles of you and has been trying to replicate what you built.
Document your contract renewal history - a clean HOA renewal record is one of the most valuable data points you can present to a buyer in this space
Know your change-of-control clauses cold before you start any sale process — surprises here late in diligence can unravel deals or give buyers leverage to reprice
Crew retention is a real value driver - buyers paying for a contract book are also paying for the people those contracts trust
Don’t dismiss competitor buyers out of fear - with the right process, they’re often the fastest path to a full-price, low-drama close
Donna Fleischer spent twelve seasons earning contracts that a competitor couldn’t buy on price alone. When she sold, she did it on her terms: full price, clean close, crews intact, and every HOA board transitioned in a way she could stand behind. The buyer she was worried about turned out to be exactly the right one.
For Acquire Weekly, this deal illustrates why market knowledge matters more than deal volume. The right introduction - to a buyer who already understood the asset - closed faster and at a better price than any broad-market process would have delivered.
Final purchase price withheld per NDA. Revenue, deal timeline, and retention figures verified by Acquire Weekly deal team. Buyer and seller names used with permission.
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