How Much Does It Cost to Buy an Auto Repair Shop? Price, Cash to Close and SBA Loan Math

An existing US auto repair shop cost a median $410,000 to buy across 2021 to 2025, and $399,000 at the 2025 median, based on 1,286 closed BizBuySell sales. Half of the shops that sold went for between 1.70 and 3.26 times seller discretionary earnings, before any real estate. With an SBA 7(a) loan on a $410,000 shop, the cash you bring is about $49,000 for the equity injection and the guaranty fee, plus working capital.

Most pages that answer this question are really about opening a shop from scratch: lifts, tools, permits and rent. Buying a running shop is a different purchase. You pay for customers, staff and earnings that already exist, and the question that decides your price is simple. Will you be working in the bays, or paying someone to?

How much does it cost to buy an auto repair shop?

The median auto repair shop sold for $410,000, on median revenue of $819,431 and median owner earnings of $182,133. The price barely moved across the five years, from $399,500 in 2021 to $399,000 in 2025, with a peak of $475,000 in 2024. The shops behind the price did change: median owner earnings of shops that sold rose 17.5 percent between 2021 and 2025. The record covers general repair and mechanic shops plus tire, auto body, glass, tint and muffler shops.

Shops trade on a multiple of seller discretionary earnings (SDE), so read the price off the earnings of the shop in front of you:

The 2.25x column is the median sale price divided by median owner earnings, the multiple that reproduces what the typical shop closed at. The published median multiple is 2.31x, slightly higher because a median of per-deal ratios is not the same number as a ratio of medians. Size, staff, the lease and how much the owner works on cars decide which column a shop belongs in. The full quartile spread, the five-year record and a comparison against nine other automotive categories are on our auto repair shop valuation page.

How much money do you need to buy an auto repair shop?

On a $410,000 shop financed with an SBA 7(a) loan, plan on about $49,000 of cash for the equity injection and the SBA guaranty fee, before working capital and closing costs. Here is the arithmetic on the five-year median shop, with the 2025 median alongside:

Three lines need a note. The guaranty fee is set by the SBA each fiscal year, and for FY2026 loans between $150,001 and $700,000 it is 3 percent of the guaranteed portion. Working capital is our own planning figure, sized at a month of revenue because payroll and parts suppliers get paid before every customer invoice is collected. SBA 7(a) proceeds can include working capital, so ask the lender to size it into the loan rather than paying it from savings.

The environmental line is specific to this industry. SBA SOP 50 10 8 requires an environmental investigation of commercial property offered as security for a loan, including a leasehold interest, and Appendix 6 lists automotive repair and maintenance as an environmentally sensitive industry. When there is a match, the investigation has to start with a Phase I assessment regardless of loan size. Used oil, solvents and old in-ground lifts are what the report looks for, and a finding can delay or stop the loan. If you are buying the building too, get this started early.

A business valuation may also be on the list. Under the same SOP, the lender must get an independent valuation when the intangible part of what is financed, after appraised real estate and equipment are taken out, is above $250,000. Repair shops carry real equipment, so it is closer than in most sectors: on a $369,000 loan, the valuation is required if lifts, scan tools and other equipment appraise below $119,000. The lender engages the appraiser, so a report you buy yourself will not replace it. Our guide to business valuation for an SBA loan explains the threshold, and what a business valuation costs compares the options.

Can you get an SBA loan to buy an auto repair shop?

Yes, and for a buyer who works on cars the numbers are comfortable. A $369,000 SBA 7(a) loan over 10 years at 10.5 percent costs about $59,748 a year. The median shop's $182,133 of owner earnings covers that 3.05 times, well above the 1.25x coverage most lenders want, and after holding that coverage you still keep about $107,447 a year. That is 2.12 times the $50,620 median annual wage the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported for automotive service technicians and mechanics in May 2025.

Now buy the same shop as someone who does not work the bays. If the seller was also a technician, you have to hire that capacity before anything else. Here is what the median shop leaves you in each case, on the same loan terms at 1.25x coverage:

Those are before payroll taxes and benefits on the new hire, so the real gap is wider. The market price of $410,000 sits between the two buyers: comfortable for a technician, a stretch for an investor. If you will not be turning wrenches, look for a shop above the median where a service writer and a full crew already run the floor, or negotiate part of the price as seller financing. Rates move with prime, which was reported at 6.75 percent in September 2026, so treat 10.5 percent as a planning figure. Our overview of an SBA loan to buy a business walks through the application, and seller financing a business sale covers the usual way to close a gap between the lender and the seller.

Is the asking price of an auto repair shop what you will pay?

If the shop is priced at the market, close to it. Auto repair shops that sold closed at an average 0.97 of asking price, and 0.99 in 2024. The larger gap is in the listings that never sell. Shops currently listed ask a median 2.91 times owner earnings, while shops that sold went for 2.31 times. The sellers who actually closed were asking about 2.38 times, so most overpriced listings simply sit.

The good news for buyers is the earnings. Listed repair shops report a median $185,705 of owner earnings against $182,133 for shops that sold, only 2.0 percent higher. In pharmacies the same gap is 73.3 percent. So a repair shop listing's cash flow figure is usually in line with the market, and the part to challenge is the multiple. A shop listed at 3.5 times earnings is above the upper quartile of what sold, and it needs revenue above about $1.3 million or a crew that runs without the owner to justify it. The median shop that sold took 207 days to close.

What should you verify before you make an offer?

Verify the earnings, who produces them, and the site before you negotiate the price.

• Tax returns against the shop management system. Tie three years of returns to the profit and loss statement and to repair order reports, then recalculate owner earnings yourself using our guide on how to calculate SDE. Cash jobs that never reached the books cannot be financed, however real they are.
• The owner's hours in the bay. Ask directly how many billed hours the seller produces. Every one of them is labor you will either do or pay for, and it is the single largest adjustment to what the shop is worth to you.
• Technicians and their plans. Get tenure, pay plans and certifications for every tech, and find out who is likely to leave with the seller. BLS counted about 825,800 automotive technician and mechanic jobs in 2025 with employment projected to grow 5 percent to 2035, so replacing a good one takes time and money.
• The lease and the landlord. A lender will not amortize a ten year loan against a short lease. Confirm the remaining term, options, assignment consent and whether the landlord will cooperate with an environmental review.
• Fleet, dealer and insurer relationships. Recurring accounts are worth paying for, but check how much revenue sits with the largest one and whether it depends on the seller personally. For a collision shop, confirm that insurer referral programs will carry over to a new owner.

What costs do auto repair shop buyers forget?

• Payroll taxes and benefits on replacement labor. The wage figures above are base pay. If you are replacing the seller in a bay, budget for the full cost of the hire, not just the salary.
• Equipment that is near the end of its life. Lifts, alignment machines, diagnostic scan tool subscriptions and a paint booth age out. Get an equipment list with ages before the letter of intent, so replacements go into the price rather than into your first year.
• The shop's reputation after the handover. A change of owner is when regular customers decide whether to stay, and online reviews are the first thing new ones see. Plan how you will keep new customer reviews coming in from the first month, because a rating that slips shows up in car count before it shows up in the books.
• Due diligence fees. An accountant's review of the books, an attorney and the environmental report all cost money whether or not the deal closes. Our notes on a letter of intent to purchase a business cover the contingencies that protect that spend.

Is buying an auto repair shop worth it at today's prices?

For a technician with the down payment, the median shop finances comfortably. The owner margin of shops that sold stayed between 20.3 and 23.3 percent in every year from 2021 to 2025, and buyers paid 2.15 times owner earnings in 2025 against 2.52 times in 2021, so today's buyer pays less per dollar of earnings than five years ago. For a buyer who will not work the bays, the same shop is a thinner investment, and the target moves to larger shops with a crew already in place.

Either way, the price should still make sense at the five-year median multiple and at the labor cost you will actually carry. Before you make an offer, run the shop's verified revenue and owner earnings through an estimate and see which row of the price table above it belongs in. On a $410,000 purchase, the distance between the typical column and the upper quartile column is about $184,000, several times the cash you would bring to closing.

The benchmarks in this article come from BizBuySell auto repair and service shop sales for 2021 to 2025, retrieved in September 2026. The SBA figures reflect the FY2026 fee schedule and SOP 50 10 8, and the wage figures are the BLS May 2025 medians. Every result on this site is an educational estimate, not a certified appraisal.