Worked funeral home deal examples
Numbers make the concepts concrete. Each example walks one realistic scenario from the financial statements through normalization, a valuation range, the deal structure, and the net proceeds after debt and estimated taxes, then states the lesson.
Every example is an illustrative composite built from typical industry figures. None is a real client, firm, town, or transaction, and none predicts the outcome for any specific funeral home.
- Illustrative example: a 220-call third-generation Midwest funeral home with no successor
A small funeral home valuation example: a 220-call, third-generation Midwest firm with no successor, from add-backs and owner replacement to after-tax proceeds.
- Illustrative example: a 650-call suburban funeral home and crematory weighing a consolidator offer
A consolidator offer example for a 650-call funeral home and crematory: turning an $8.75 million headline into cash, risk-adjusted value, and net proceeds.
- Illustrative example: after-tax proceeds of a C-corporation funeral home, asset sale vs. stock sale
A funeral home sale taxes example for a C corporation: Form 8594 classes, double tax on an asset sale, a lower stock offer, personal goodwill, and break-even.
- Illustrative example: renegotiating price after diligence finds deferred maintenance
A funeral home purchase renegotiation, step by step: what diligence found, which repairs earned a credit, which went to escrow, and which were priced in.
- Illustrative example: a licensed director buys his employer's firm with SBA 7(a) and a seller note
An SBA funeral home purchase example: a licensed director buys his employer's 240-call firm with a 7(a) loan and a full-standby seller note under SOP 50 10 8.1.
- Illustrative example: a call-volume earnout when a new competitor opens
A funeral home earnout example with full math: a 410-call firm, a competitor breaking ground nearby, and a three-year call-volume earnout that bridged the gap.
- Illustrative example: a funeral home and cemetery sold to a regional family group
A combination funeral home sale example: a 265-call funeral home and its cemetery sold to a regional family group, with perpetual care, taxes, and net proceeds.
- Illustrative example: selling the operations and leasing back the real estate
A funeral home leaseback example: a 285-call firm sells its operations, leases the building to the buyer at market rent, and nets cash now plus income later.
- Illustrative example: valuing a funeral home with a pet cremation line
A pet cremation business valuation inside a funeral home sale: splitting a combined P&L, allocating shared costs, and pricing each line on its own earnings.
- Illustrative example: a high-burial Southern funeral home sold to a neighboring firm
A traditional funeral home sale example: a 165-call, burial-heavy Southern firm sold to a neighboring competitor with a 30% seller note, shown step by step.
- Illustrative example: a standalone crematory serving third-party funeral homes
A crematory for sale valuation walk-through: a two-retort trade crematory serving 31 funeral homes, priced on EBITDA, customer risk, retort age, and building.
- Illustrative example: a three-location regional group sold to a PE-backed platform
A funeral home group EBITDA valuation example: three locations, a QoE that cut adjusted EBITDA by $133,000, an assumed 7.0x multiple, rollover equity, net cash.
- Illustrative example: a two-location family firm split between two buyers
A selling two funeral homes example: a 450-call New England family firm sells its main location to a regional group and its rural branch to its own manager.
- Illustrative example: a $1.8M preneed backlog that is 15% underfunded
A preneed shortfall example: a $1.8 million guaranteed backlog the owner thought was overfunded, taken rung by rung to a $270,000 gap and a negotiated price.
- Illustrative example: a direct-cremation business in a high-cremation Western market
A direct cremation business valuation example: a 702-call cremation-only firm in the West, from P&L and buyer adjustments to price, structure, and net proceeds.