Auto Repair Shop Valuation: What Auto Repair and Auto Body Shops Sell For
Enter the shop's revenue and owner earnings and read a range benchmarked to what repair, collision and tire shops actually closed at, whether you are pricing your own shop or checking a listing before you make an offer.
Estimated business value
Method breakdown
What moves this number
Estimate, not a certified appraisal. Your figures are not stored.
Auto repair shops sold in the US across the five years to 2025 went for a median of 2.31x seller discretionary earnings, or 0.50x annual revenue, with a lower quartile of 1.70x and an upper quartile of 3.26x. The median sale price was $410,000, on median revenue of $819,431 and median owner earnings of $182,133, after a median 207 days on the market. Divide the median price by the median earnings and the multiple that clears the market is 2.25x.
What sets the price inside that range is who does the work. A buyer who works the bays can finance about $560,677 for the median shop at an $80,000 draw. A buyer who has to hire a technician at the BLS median wage of $50,620 first can finance about $282,790. The market price of $410,000 sits between the two, and a shop that runs without its owner in a bay moves toward the top of the range. This is a benchmark and an estimator, not a certified appraisal.
Closed transactions
01What auto repair shops actually sold for
These are sale prices, not asking prices, from 1,286 auto repair and service businesses sold across the five years 2021 to 2025. The category covers general repair and mechanic shops plus the specialists: tire shops, auto body shops, glass replacement, window tint and muffler shops. Most guides to auto repair shop valuation quote a single band of two to four times earnings. The distribution is more useful, because it shows how far apart the bottom and the top of the market really are.
Median sale price
$410,000
What the middle auto repair shop actually closed at
Median asking price
$450,000
What the same sold shops were listed at
Median revenue
$819,431
Annual sales of the middle shop sold
Median owner earnings (SDE)
$182,133
Seller discretionary earnings of the middle shop sold
| Auto repair shops sold, 2021 to 2025 | Lower quartile | Median | Average | Upper quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seller discretionary earnings multiple | 1.70x | 2.31x | 2.82x | 3.26x |
| Revenue multiple (multiple of annual sales) | 0.35x | 0.50x | 0.64x | 0.78x |
| Revenue | $507,873 | $819,431 | $1,065,603 | $1,322,206 |
| Owner earnings (SDE) | $110,915 | $182,133 | $233,174 | $299,531 |
Source: BizBuySell auto repair and service business valuation benchmarks, 1,286 sold listings on the platform 2021 to 2025, retrieved September 2026. Benchmarks, not quotes. The multiple rows and the dollar rows describe the same population but not the same shop, so multiplying a median by a median will not exactly reproduce a quartile. Business value only, before any real estate.
The gap between the lower and upper quartile of owner earnings is $188,616 a year, a little more than the median shop earns in total. So a shop earning $300,000 is not the median shop with a better multiple; it is a larger business that more buyers can finance. If you are working out how to calculate SDE for the shop in front of you, do that first, then find its row in section 08.
Our calculation
02Why the same shop is worth more to a technician than to an investor
In many independent shops, the owner is also the best technician on the floor, and part of the $182,133 of owner earnings is really a wage for that work. A buyer who can step into the bays keeps all of it. A buyer who cannot has to hire that capacity first. The BLS median annual wage for automotive service technicians and mechanics was $50,620 in May 2025, and for automotive body repairers it was $54,890.
The table runs an SBA 7(a) loan at 10 years, 10.5 percent, 1.25x debt service coverage and a 10 percent injection against the median shop, for both kinds of buyer. Everything in it is computed here, not quoted.
| Buyer and owner draw | Left for debt service | Supportable purchase price | As a multiple of $182,133 SDE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Works the bays, draws $50,620 | $131,513 | $721,964 | 3.96x |
| Works the bays, draws $80,000 | $102,133 | $560,677 | 3.08x |
| Works the bays, draws $100,000 | $82,133 | $450,884 | 2.48x |
| Hires a technician at $50,620, draws $50,620 | $80,893 | $444,077 | 2.44x |
| Hires a technician at $50,620, draws $80,000 | $51,513 | $282,790 | 1.55x |
Computed here. Annual loan constant 0.16192 for a 10 year loan at 10.5 percent, so the supportable price is earnings left for debt service divided by 1.25, divided by 0.16192, divided by 0.90. Wage figures: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, median annual wages for automotive service technicians and mechanics and for automotive body and related repairers, May 2025. Illustrative arithmetic before payroll taxes, not a loan offer or a credit decision.
Technician buyer at the median price
$107,447
What a buyer who works the bays keeps each year after paying debt service at 1.25x coverage on a $410,000 purchase. The loan payment is about $59,748 a year, covered 3.05 times by the median shop's earnings, and the owner is left with 2.12 times the median technician wage. For a skilled technician with the down payment, the median shop is financeable with room to spare.
Investor buyer at the median price
$56,827
The same purchase for a buyer who hires a technician at $50,620 to replace the seller's wrench time. Before payroll taxes, that is what remains after the wage and debt service at 1.25x coverage. An investor needs a shop earning about $225,514 before a median-multiple price leaves an $80,000 draw, just under the $233,174 average shop that sold.
This is the mechanism behind the numbers. Pharmacies sell cheaply because almost no buyer can finance them at a market wage. Auto repair shops are the opposite case: financing is easy for a technician-buyer and hard for everyone else, so the market price settles where the technician pool sets it. For a seller, the most valuable change is to make the shop independent of your own hours in the bay before you list, because that widens the buyer pool to people who cannot turn a wrench.
Our calculation
03Overpriced repair shops do not sell at a discount, they do not sell
Shops currently listed ask a median 2.91x owner earnings. Shops that sold went for 2.31x. The 20.6 percent gap is made of two different things. Selection is the part where listings that ask too much never close and drop out of the sold set. Negotiation is the discount a shop takes off its own asking price at the table. Dividing the sold multiple by the sale-to-ask ratio recovers what the sellers who actually closed had been asking, which splits the gap.
| Reading of the sale-to-ask ratio | All listings ask | Closers asked | Selection | Sold at | Negotiation | Total gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Published average sale to ask, 0.97 | 2.91x | 2.38x | -18.2% | 2.31x | -3.0% | -20.6% |
| Ratio of five-year pooled medians, 0.91 | 2.91x | 2.54x | -12.9% | 2.31x | -8.9% | -20.6% |
| Average of the five yearly ratios, 0.97 | 2.91x | 2.37x | -18.5% | 2.31x | -2.6% | -20.6% |
Computed here from the published listing multiples, sold multiples and sale-to-ask ratios. The three rows show how sensitive the split is to which reading of the ratio you use. The total gap is the same 20.6 percent in all three, because it depends only on the two multiples.
On the published ratio, 18.2 points of the gap are selection and only 3.0 points are negotiation. A repair shop that is priced where the market is closes within a few percent of asking. One priced at the listing median of 2.91x mostly sits. That is the opposite of pharmacies, where sellers price near the market and then lose 11.0 percent at the table.
| Sector | All listings ask | Closers asked | Selection | Sold at | Negotiation | Total gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto repair shops | 2.91x | 2.38x | -18.2% | 2.31x | -3.0% | -20.6% |
| Pharmacies | 3.02x | 2.75x | -8.8% | 2.45x | -11.0% | -18.9% |
| Laundromats | 4.80x | 3.80x | -20.7% | 3.50x | -8.0% | -27.1% |
| Restaurants | 2.50x | 2.06x | -17.8% | 1.85x | -10.0% | -26.0% |
| Accounting and tax practices | 2.32x | 2.10x | -9.3% | 2.04x | -3.0% | -12.1% |
| Gas stations | 2.89x | 3.00x | +3.8% | 3.00x | 0.0% | +3.8% |
Same calculation applied to each sector's published figures, using the published average sale-to-ask ratio in each case. Leaving aside gas stations, which close at their asking price, auto repair shares the smallest negotiation discount in the set with accounting practices, at 3.0 percent.
Listings against reality
04What auto repair shops for sale are asking
If you are looking at auto repair shops for sale, this is the most reassuring table on the page. In most sectors we measure, listings describe bigger and more profitable businesses than the ones that sell. In auto repair, listed shops report almost exactly the same revenue and earnings as shops that sold. The difference is almost entirely in the multiple.
| Financials | Shops listed now | Shops that sold | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median revenue | $809,296 | $819,431 | -1.2% |
| Median owner earnings (SDE) | $185,705 | $182,133 | +2.0% |
| Lower quartile owner earnings | $113,030 | $110,915 | +1.9% |
| Upper quartile owner earnings | $302,961 | $299,531 | +1.1% |
| Average owner earnings | $253,406 | $233,174 | +8.7% |
| Implied owner margin (computed here) | 22.9% | 22.2% | +0.7 points |
| Quartile | Listed SDE multiple | Sold SDE multiple | Difference | Listed revenue multiple | Sold revenue multiple | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | 2.19x | 1.70x | -22.4% | 0.46x | 0.35x | -23.9% |
| Median | 2.91x | 2.31x | -20.6% | 0.67x | 0.50x | -25.4% |
| Average | 4.05x | 2.82x | -30.4% | 0.98x | 0.64x | -34.7% |
| Upper quartile | 4.00x | 3.26x | -18.5% | 1.09x | 0.78x | -28.4% |
Listed and sold figures are published. The difference columns are computed here. The average listed SDE multiple of 4.05x sits above the listed upper quartile of 4.00x, so a small number of very expensive listings pulls the listing average up. Do not use it for pricing.
For comparison, listed pharmacies report 73.3 percent more owner earnings than pharmacies that sold, and listed laundromats 49.6 percent more. Listed repair shops report 2.0 percent more. So when a repair shop listing says $185,000 of cash flow, that figure is probably in line with the market. The asking multiple usually is not. Rebuild the price at the sold multiple, not the listing's.
Five-year record
05Auto repair shop sale prices year by year
The median shop sold for $399,500 in 2021 and $399,000 in 2025, a flat price across five years. The businesses behind that price did not stay flat. Median owner earnings of sold shops rose 17.5 percent over the same period and revenue rose 27.3 percent, so buyers in 2025 paid the same money for a bigger, more profitable shop. Prices peaked in 2024 at $475,000, then fell 16.0 percent in 2025 as median earnings of the shops that sold fell 12.1 percent.
| Year | Median revenue | Median SDE | Owner margin | Avg SDE multiple | Avg revenue multiple | Median sale | Median ask | Sale/ask | Effective SDE multiple | Effective revenue multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $702,500 | $158,317 | 22.5% | 2.86x | 0.66x | $399,500 | $417,000 | 0.95 | 2.52x | 0.57x |
| 2022 | $740,077 | $150,000 | 20.3% | 2.91x | 0.63x | $380,000 | $400,000 | 0.97 | 2.53x | 0.51x |
| 2023 | $836,415 | $195,123 | 23.3% | 2.80x | 0.64x | $425,000 | $450,000 | 0.98 | 2.18x | 0.51x |
| 2024 | $964,002 | $211,500 | 21.9% | 2.86x | 0.67x | $475,000 | $549,950 | 0.99 | 2.25x | 0.49x |
| 2025 | $894,227 | $185,970 | 20.8% | 2.69x | 0.59x | $399,000 | $412,500 | 0.98 | 2.15x | 0.45x |
Revenue, SDE, margin, the two average multiples, sale price, asking price and the ratio are published. The two effective multiple columns are computed here as that year's median sale price divided by that year's median SDE and median revenue. They are ratios of medians and sit below the published averages of ratios, which is expected.
The effective earnings multiple slid from 2.52x in 2021 to 2.15x in 2025, and the sale-to-ask ratio rose from 0.95 to 0.98 over the same years. That pattern fits sellers adjusting their asking prices to what buyers were paying, so deals closed closer to asking even as the price per dollar of earnings fell. The source itself attributes the 2025 dip to relatively smaller shops selling that year and to continued interest rate pressure on financing costs. The owner margin barely moved, between 20.3 and 23.3 percent in every year, which is why the revenue multiple works as a cross-check for this sector.
Cross-check
06Which published multiple reproduces the real sale price
A seller handed a multiple usually multiplies. The four ways of doing that with the published auto repair figures land from $284 below to $114,436 above the observed median sale. The median revenue multiple is almost exact, and both average multiples overshoot by a quarter.
| Method | Arithmetic | Implied value | Against the observed median sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median earnings x median earnings multiple | $182,133 x 2.31 | $420,727 | +2.6% |
| Median earnings x average earnings multiple | $182,133 x 2.82 | $513,615 | +25.3% |
| Median revenue x median revenue multiple | $819,431 x 0.50 | $409,716 | -0.1% |
| Median revenue x average revenue multiple | $819,431 x 0.64 | $524,436 | +27.9% |
| Observed median sale price | reported directly | $410,000 | n/a |
Computed here from the published medians and multiples. An average of per-deal ratios is pulled up by a minority of high-multiple sales, which is why the two average rows overstate the typical shop.
The practical rule: price a repair shop off earnings, and use 0.50x revenue as a quick check that should land close. If the two disagree by a lot, the shop's margin is away from the 22.2 percent median, and that is the thing to look into before the multiple. The median identity confirms how stable this sector is. The median SDE multiple of 2.31x times the 22.2 percent owner margin gives 0.51x revenue, against the published 0.50x. More on how these metrics relate is in our note on the revenue multiple against the EBITDA multiple.
Sector comparison
07Auto repair shops against the rest of the automotive sector
Two rows put a price on labor. The median car wash earned $191,451, only 5.1 percent more than the median repair shop, and sold for $800,000, 95.1 percent more. The median gas station earned $185,632, 1.9 percent more, and sold for $615,000, 50.0 percent more. Car washes run largely without skilled staff and usually sell with their land, which our car wash valuation page breaks down, and gas stations run without a technician. A repair shop's earnings depend on people who can leave, and often on the owner being one of them.
| Automotive category | Median revenue | Avg revenue multiple | Median SDE | Avg SDE multiple | Owner margin | Effective SDE multiple | Median sale | Sale/ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Car washes | $555,000 | 2.01x | $191,451 | 4.99x | 34.5% | 4.18x | $800,000 | 0.91 |
| Towing companies | $1,332,354 | 0.92x | $428,547 | 3.28x | 32.2% | 3.15x | $1,350,000 | 0.98 |
| Equipment rental and dealers | $1,000,069 | 0.89x | $294,000 | 3.15x | 29.4% | 2.88x | $847,000 | 0.98 |
| Marine and boat service and dealers | $1,000,000 | 0.69x | $223,000 | 2.83x | 22.3% | 2.13x | $475,000 | 0.94 |
| Auto repair and service shops | $819,431 | 0.64x | $182,133 | 2.82x | 22.2% | 2.25x | $410,000 | 0.97 |
| Junk and salvage yards | $1,141,763 | 1.03x | $251,000 | 3.85x | 22.0% | 3.53x | $885,500 | 0.98 |
| Trucking companies | $1,954,881 | 0.65x | $400,000 | 3.00x | 20.5% | 2.84x | $1,137,500 | 0.93 |
| Truck stops | $6,111,912 | 0.71x | $1,214,942 | 3.69x | 19.9% | 4.32x | $5,250,000 | 1.13 |
| Car dealerships | $3,500,000 | 0.41x | $383,000 | 2.90x | 10.9% | 2.55x | $975,000 | 1.00 |
| Gas stations | $1,998,900 | 0.50x | $185,632 | 3.76x | 9.3% | 3.31x | $615,000 | 1.00 |
Source: BizBuySell automotive valuation benchmarks, businesses sold 2021 to 2025, retrieved September 2026. Owner margin (median SDE divided by median revenue) and effective SDE multiple (median sale divided by median SDE) are computed here. Sorted by owner margin.
The closest match on the table is marine and boat service: a 22.3 percent owner margin against 22.2 percent, and an effective multiple of 2.13x against 2.25x. Both are skilled-labor service businesses, and both sell at the bottom of the automotive range. Every category above 3x effective either runs with little skilled labor or owns heavy assets. If you want the same comparison across the whole economy, our SDE multiples by industry tables carry it, and the gas station valuation page runs the same five-year treatment on 796 station sales.
Find your row
08What an auto repair shop is worth at each level of owner earnings
The first three columns apply the sold lower quartile, median and upper quartile multiples to each earnings level. The last two are the SBA-supportable price at an $80,000 owner draw, first for a buyer who works the bays, then for a buyer who also has to pay a $50,620 technician. Together they show which buyers can actually reach a given price.
| Seller discretionary earnings | At 1.70x (lower quartile) | At 2.31x (median) | At 3.26x (upper quartile) | SBA capacity, technician buyer | SBA capacity, investor buyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $110,915 (lower quartile sold) | $188,556 | $256,214 | $361,583 | $169,713 | Does not finance |
| $182,133 (median sold) | $309,626 | $420,727 | $593,754 | $560,677 | $282,790 |
| $185,970 (2025 median sold) | $316,149 | $429,591 | $606,262 | $581,741 | $303,854 |
| $233,174 (average sold) | $396,396 | $538,632 | $760,147 | $840,876 | $562,989 |
| $299,531 (upper quartile sold) | $509,203 | $691,917 | $976,471 | $1,205,155 | $927,267 |
| $400,000 | $680,000 | $924,000 | $1,304,000 | $1,756,697 | $1,478,810 |
Computed here. Business value before real estate. SBA columns on the same terms as section 02, both at an $80,000 owner draw. Illustrative arithmetic, not a loan offer.
Read across the median row. The market price of $420,727 at 2.31x is inside what a technician can finance and well above what an investor can. Move down to the average shop at $233,174 of earnings and both buyers clear the median-multiple price of $538,632. That is where a repair shop stops being a job you buy and becomes a business an outside buyer can own, and it is the practical target for a seller who wants the widest market.
Methods
09The five ways an auto repair shop gets valued
You will meet all five in a shop sale, and they will not agree. Knowing which one the other side is using is most of the negotiation.
Seller discretionary earnings multiple
The primary method for an owner-operated shop. Normalized SDE times a multiple between about 1.70x and 3.26x, which is where half of all auto repair shop sales landed. It is also the number a lender underwrites, because SDE is what pays the acquisition loan.
Revenue multiple
A better cross-check for repair shops than for most sectors. Sold shops traded at a median 0.50x revenue, and median revenue times that multiple lands within $284 of the median sale price. It works here because shop margins are unusually stable, between 20.3 and 23.3 percent in every year of the record.
EBITDA after replacing the owner in the bay
Take SDE, subtract what it would cost to hire someone to do the work the owner does, and you have an earnings figure an investor or a multi-shop operator can use. At the median, $182,133 less a $50,620 technician wage is $131,513, and the $410,000 median sale is 3.12 times that. A body shop owner who works the booth would be replaced at the $54,890 body repairer median instead.
Size rule of thumb
BizBuySell notes that a shop generating $1.3 million or more of revenue may sell for an earnings multiple of 3.25 or better, while a shop with sales below $500,000 may trade closer to 1.7 times earnings or less. That is the lower and upper quartile of the whole record, sorted by size, and it is a fast first read before any adjustment.
Equipment and asset value
The floor. Lifts, alignment racks, diagnostic scan tools, compressors and a paint booth at depreciated value, plus parts inventory at cost. A shop whose earnings will not support a loan sells at or near this figure, which is where most shops below the lower quartile of $110,915 of owner earnings end up.
A note on industry tables. Our cross-industry table shows auto repair at 2.70x SDE, which is a different measurement: a sub-sector figure from roughly 9,500 closed sales reported for 2025 alone, compiled by a different source. The five-year sold median on this page is 2.31x, and the 2025 average in this record is 2.69x. Both are right about what they measure. Use the median to price one shop.
Value drivers
10What moves an auto repair shop between the quartiles
The distance between the lower and upper quartile multiple is 1.70x to 3.26x, which on $182,133 of earnings is the difference between $309,626 and $593,754. These are the factors that decide where a specific shop lands.
How many hours the owner spends in a bay
This is the largest single driver and the one sellers most underestimate. If the owner is the lead technician, a buyer who is not a technician has to hire that capacity before paying anything else, and on the median shop that alone cuts financeable price from $560,677 to $282,790. Shops where a service writer and a team of techs run the floor are priced on their full earnings.
Technician tenure and pay
Technicians are the capacity of the shop, and a buyer is paying for them to still be there after closing. BLS counted about 825,800 automotive service technician and mechanic jobs in 2025, with employment projected to grow 5 percent to 2035, so replacing one who leaves is a real cost. Tenure records, pay plans and certifications go straight into the price conversation.
Revenue scale
Multiples rise with sales volume in this category. On the published size read, shops above $1.3 million of revenue can reach 3.25x earnings and shops under $500,000 sit near 1.7x. Bigger shops spread the owner role across staff and carry enough earnings to pay a manager, which widens the pool of buyers who can finance them.
The property and its environmental record
SBA SOP 50 10 8 lists automotive repair and maintenance (NAICS 8111) as an environmentally sensitive industry, so when real estate or a leasehold interest is pledged as collateral, the environmental investigation has to begin with a Phase I assessment regardless of loan size. Used oil, solvents and old lifts are what those reports look for, and a finding can stall a financed sale.
The lease
Most shops rent. A lender will not amortize a ten year loan against a lease with two years left, and a landlord who will not assign the lease can end the deal outright. Remaining term plus options, the rent against market, and the assignment clause belong in the listing package.
Customer mix and fleet accounts
Recurring work from fleet, dealer or insurer relationships is the closest thing a repair shop has to contracted revenue, and buyers pay for it. They also check how much of it depends on one account or on the seller personally. For collision shops, buyers look at whether insurer referral programs will carry over to a new owner.
Records a buyer can verify
Shop management system reports that tie to tax returns, repair order counts, average ticket and parts margin by month make the earnings believable. Cash jobs that never reach the books cannot be priced, however real they are.
Questions
Auto repair shop valuation questions, answered against the sold record
How much is an auto repair shop worth?
The median US auto repair shop sold over the five years to 2025 went for $410,000, on median revenue of $819,431 and median owner earnings of $182,133. That is 2.25 times owner earnings on the reported medians. The published median multiple is 2.31x, and half of all shops sold between 1.70x and 3.26x owner earnings, before real estate.
What multiple do auto repair shops sell for?
Auto repair shops sold at a median of 2.31 times seller discretionary earnings and an average of 2.82 times, with a lower quartile of 1.70x and an upper quartile of 3.26x, across 1,286 sales from 2021 to 2025. On revenue the median was 0.50x and the average 0.64x. Shops currently listed ask a median 2.91x.
How do you value an auto repair shop?
Start from normalized seller discretionary earnings: net profit plus owner salary, owner benefits, interest, depreciation and one-time costs. Decide whether the owner works in a bay and, if so, what replacing that labor costs. Apply a multiple between about 1.70x and 3.26x based on size, staff and lease. Check the result against 0.50x revenue.
How much is my auto repair shop worth?
Work out your seller discretionary earnings, then find your row. At the lower quartile of $110,915 of owner earnings a shop is worth roughly $189,000 to $362,000 on the sold multiples; at the median $182,133, roughly $310,000 to $594,000; at the upper quartile of $299,531, roughly $509,000 to $976,000. Real estate is valued separately.
What is my body shop worth?
Auto body and collision shops are included in the same closed-sale record, so the same spread applies: half sold between 1.70x and 3.26x owner earnings, at a median of 2.31x. What moves a body shop within that range is whether insurer referral work transfers to a new owner, the paint booth and frame equipment, and whether the owner is the lead body technician.
How much does an auto repair shop make a year?
The middle auto repair shop that sold reported $182,133 of seller discretionary earnings on $819,431 of revenue, a 22.2 percent owner margin. The lower quartile earned $110,915 and the upper quartile $299,531. For comparison, the BLS median annual wage for automotive service technicians and mechanics was $50,620 in May 2025.
Is owning an auto repair shop profitable?
On the sold record, yes, and consistently. The owner margin of shops that sold stayed between 20.3 and 23.3 percent in every year from 2021 to 2025, and the median shop earned its owner $182,133. The catch is that part of that figure is often the owner working as a technician, so profit and wages need separating before you compare it with a salary.
Do auto repair shops sell for the asking price?
Close to it, once they sell. The published average sale to ask ratio is 0.97, and shops that closed in 2024 averaged 0.99. The larger discount happens before that: shops currently listed ask a median 2.91x earnings, and the sellers who actually closed were asking about 2.38x. Overpriced listings mostly do not sell rather than selling at a discount.
How long does it take to sell an auto repair shop?
The median auto repair shop that sold spent 207 days on the market. That counts only shops that sold, so it describes a correctly priced listing, not every listing. Lease assignment, the environmental review a lender orders when property is collateral, and books that do not tie to tax returns are the usual reasons a sale runs longer.
Can you get an SBA loan to buy an auto repair shop?
Yes. At 10 years, 10.5 percent, 1.25x coverage and a 10 percent injection, the median shop supports about $561,000 for a buyer who works the bays and draws $80,000, well above the $410,000 median price. A buyer who must hire a technician first supports about $283,000. Automotive repair is on the SBA environmentally sensitive list, so pledged property needs a Phase I.
What is a good EBITDA multiple for an auto repair shop?
For an owner-operated shop, SDE is the better metric. If you subtract the cost of replacing the owner in the bay at the $50,620 median technician wage, the median shop earns $131,513, and the $410,000 median sale price is 3.12 times that. Multi-shop groups with managers in place are priced on EBITDA and sit above the single-shop record.
How much does an auto repair shop valuation cost?
A formal business valuation commonly runs $1,500 to $8,000 for a calculation engagement and $5,000 to $15,000 for a full conclusion of value. On a $410,000 shop that is 0.4 to 2.0 percent of the sale price for a calculation and 1.2 to 3.7 percent for a full report. An estimate is enough to set an asking range or decide whether a listing deserves an offer.
Asked another way
What shop owners and buyers ask when they are deciding
These come up once the numbers are understood and the decision is the real problem, whether that is making an offer, buying without being a mechanic, or setting a price. Answered against the same closed-transaction data as the rest of this page.
Is a repair shop listed at 3.5x cash flow overpriced?
On the transaction record, usually. Half of auto repair shops that sold closed between 1.70x and 3.26x, and 3.5x is above the upper quartile. Sellers who actually closed were asking about 2.38x. A 3.5x price needs revenue above about $1.3 million, a staff that runs the floor without the owner, and a long lease behind it.
Should I trust the cash flow in an auto repair shop listing?
More than in most sectors. Shops currently listed report a median $185,705 of owner earnings against $182,133 for shops that sold, only 2.0 percent more, where listed pharmacies report 73.3 percent more. The problem in auto repair listings is the multiple, not the earnings. Still ask who does the wrench time, because that changes what the earnings mean to you.
I am not a mechanic. Can I still buy an auto repair shop?
Yes, but price it as an investor, not as an owner-operator. Hire the technician capacity the seller provides, then value what is left. On the median shop, after a $50,620 technician wage and SBA debt service at 1.25x coverage on a $410,000 purchase, about $56,800 a year remains for you. Look for shops above the median where a team already runs the floor.
Is now a good time to sell an auto repair shop?
Prices peaked in 2024 at a $475,000 median and a 0.99 sale to ask ratio, then fell 16.0 percent to $399,000 in 2025 as median earnings of sold shops dropped 12.1 percent. Buyers paid 2.15x owner earnings in 2025 against 2.52x in 2021. Demand is steady, so the lever a seller controls is earnings and owner dependence, not timing.
Why does a car wash sell for so much more than a repair shop with the same earnings?
Labor. The median car wash earned $191,451, 5.1 percent more than the median repair shop, and sold for $800,000, 95.1 percent more. A car wash runs largely without skilled staff, while a repair shop depends on technicians and often on the owner as one of them. Buyers pay for earnings they can keep without doing the work.
Benchmarks behind the estimate
Find out where in the range a repair shop sits
Enter revenue and owner earnings, for your own shop or for a listing you are considering, and read a value range against real auto repair shop sales. An educational estimate, not a certified appraisal.