Deal report · sample
Building maintenance company
Cleaning and maintenance for condominiums and offices · Kansai · 1998 · 4 office staff, ≈120 part-time cleaners
- Prepared for
- US search fund, first acquisition in Japan
- Date
- September 2026
- Exchange rate used
- ¥150 = $1
Cleans about 600 buildings under month-to-month contracts with property managers. Very cheap because the owner is 71, in poor health, and needs to sell now. The price is not the problem. The owner's daily presence is the business, and cleaners are leaving for higher wages.
Asking price
¥3.0M $20K
All-in cost
¥3.9M $26K
asking + fees + debt, less cash
True earnings per year
¥2.0M $13K
listed as ¥14M
Multiple
1.9×
all-in cost ÷ true earnings
Payback
1.9 years
at true earnings, before tax
Match score
58 / 100
Outside your “runs without the owner” criterion. Shown so you can see why cheap is not the same as good.
01Snapshot
- Revenue
- ¥240M ($1.6M)
- Contracts
- ≈600 buildings via 5 property-management firms
- Largest channel
- One property manager brings 35% of revenue
- Owner
- 71, does scheduling and sales himself, urgent sale
- Debt / cash
- No debt, ¥5M cash
- Workforce
- ≈120 part-time cleaners, turnover rising
02True earnings
What the business actually earns for a new owner, starting from the profit on the listing.
| Line | ¥ millions | USD |
|---|---|---|
| Operating profit as listedOwner takes no salary. His wife runs payroll unpaid. | ¥14M | |
| Cost of a manager to replace the ownerScheduling 120 cleaners and handling five property managers is a full-time job. | −¥6.0M | |
| Cost of replacing unpaid family laborPayroll and invoicing, part-time. | −¥2.0M | |
| Wage catch-up to keep cleanersMinimum wage in the region rose 5% a year. Current pay is at the floor. | −¥4.0M | |
| True earnings per year | ¥2.0M |
Once you pay people for the work the owner and his family do for free, almost nothing is left. The listed profit is real only if you move to Osaka and run it yourself.
03All-in cost
What you actually pay, including the fees that do not appear on the listing and the debt you take over.
| Line | ¥ millions | USD |
|---|---|---|
| Asking price | +¥3.0M | |
| Seller's advisor fee (buyer pays)Larger than the price itself. Common on very small listings. | +¥5.5M | |
| Marketplace minimum fee | +¥0.4M | |
| Less cash you receive | −¥5.0M | |
| All-in cost to you1.9× · payback 1.9 years | ¥3.9M |
Verdict
Pass, unless you have an operating partner living in Kansai.
On paper this pays back in two years. In practice a remote owner cannot hold 120 part-time cleaners and five property managers together through a change of ownership. If you do have a local operator, it is a cash-generating business at almost no cost. Otherwise it is a job, not an investment.
04Flags
Red flag
Owner is the business
He schedules every crew and knows every property manager. No foreman ready to step up.
Red flag
Contracts cancel on 30 days' notice
Property managers switch vendors easily. A rough transition can lose a third of revenue in a quarter.
Check
Labor shortage
Cleaner turnover rose last year. Wages need to go up just to stand still.
Good
No debt, 28-year relationships, cheap
For a hands-on local buyer, the economics work.
05Questions to ask the seller
- 1.Cleaner turnover in the last 12 months and current hourly pay versus the regional minimum wage.
- 2.Which property-management firms, and what do their contracts say about vendor changes?
- 3.Is there a foreman or office staff member who could become manager?
- 4.Why is the sale urgent, and is the owner able to help for three months after closing?
06Documents to request next
- Revenue by property-management firm for three years
- Cleaner roster with hourly pay, hours and start dates
- Sample service contracts with the two largest property managers
- Two years of financial statements
07How the succession would work
Only with a local operating partner: asset purchase of the contracts and staff, owner stays three months, partner takes over scheduling from day one, wages raised before closing to stop turnover.