Is buying a pool route worth it? Cost per account, bought or built
Put the price of a bought pool account next to what one costs you to win, then check handoff losses and where the bought stops land on your week.
Published 6 min read
Buying a pool route gives you paying customers right away, but some may leave when the seller hands the route over. Is buying a pool route worth it? Compare the price per customer who stays with what you spend to find one yourself. Then check whether you can fit the bought pools into your workweek.
Check the asking price against collected billing
Get these two numbers from a listing before you spend time on it:
- Monthly multiple: asking price ÷ monthly recurring billing. This tells you how many months of billing equal the asking price. It does not tell you when you’ll get your money back.
- Price per account: asking price ÷ active paying accounts. This leaves out service costs and the risk that customers leave after the sale.
Check what the seller collects, not only what they invoice. Ask for monthly deposits, billing for each account and a list of accounts that stopped paying. For a seasonal route, compare the same months from earlier seasons. Don’t treat one busy month as typical of the whole year. Don’t count repair-only work as recurring service revenue.
Ask what’s included in the sale. Accounts alone cost something different from accounts sold with a truck, equipment or chemicals. Ask how long each account has paid for service. A new customer has less payment history than one the seller has served for years.
If the asking price is ten times one month’s billing, you’re paying the equivalent of ten months of billed revenue. It will take longer to earn back the price. Some bills may go unpaid, and you still have labor, chemical and truck costs.
What an account you win yourself costs
Use your own completed hanger or postcard round. Count only signed weekly accounts:
- Add printing and postage, if you mailed.
- Add the hours you spent hanging or knocking. Multiply by what an hour of your work is worth to you. The pool cleaning clients guide shows how to compare what you earn per hour from two stops after chemicals.
- Divide your total cost by the weekly accounts you signed. Write down their streets and service days too. A low-cost account across town may not be a bargain.
(Your print and postage bill + your knocking hours × your hourly target) ÷ weekly accounts signed.
Example: you spend $150 printing 500 hangers. You spend 12 hours hanging and knocking, valued at $50 an hour ($600). After six weeks, you sign three weekly accounts. Your cost per account is ($150 + $600) ÷ 3 = $250.
If you haven’t tried a round, choose streets near a route day with room. After the round, count the accounts you signed. Then you can work out what each one cost to find.
If you sign no accounts, don’t divide by zero or call the effort free. Record the full cost. Try another street or offer before deciding that finding your own accounts is cheaper. Write down how long each round took. A bought account already has a bill; a new one won’t pay you until you sign it.
Allow for customers who leave after the handoff
Customers may leave when a new company takes over. Ask whether they know about the sale and whether they’ll accept your service day. Find out if the seller will introduce you. Ask for the seller’s past cancellations before estimating how many customers might leave.
Work out what each customer who stays would cost you:
Asking price ÷ number of accounts still paying after the handoff.
Example: a seller asks $12,000 for 10 active accounts. That’s $1,200 per account before anyone leaves. If two stop paying after the sale, eight remain. Your price per remaining account is $12,000 ÷ 8 = $1,500. Try that calculation with the seller’s price and account count, using several possible cancellation counts.
Compare $1,500 with the $250 cost per account in the hanger example. The bought account costs six times as much. But the eight remaining accounts already get billed each month. At three signups every six weeks, it would take about four months to sign eight yourself, if each round went as well as the example.
Before agreeing to a price, ask for:
- A written agreement about customers who stay. Say how long the seller will help introduce you, which accounts count as staying and what happens to the price if they cancel. Paying part of the price later won’t protect you unless the agreement covers cancellations.
- A cancellation list. Ask for the seller’s reasons for lost accounts, including changes in service day, complaints and unpaid bills.
- An introduction on the usual service day. Meet customers with the seller. Get gate and equipment notes, and confirm what each one pays.
Have your own adviser review the purchase agreement. Check whether customer agreements can transfer. Buying a list does not mean homeowners must keep your service.
Put the seller’s stops on your weekday map
Ask for every address and its current service day before you commit. Mark the pools on the days you already drive nearby. Count how many you can take without changing a customer’s service day.
| Where the account sits | What it means for your week |
|---|---|
| Near your stops, on the day you already run there | Adds a stop to a drive you already make. |
| Near your stops, but serviced on a different day | You drive there on the seller’s day, or ask the owner to switch. Don’t assume the owner can change days. |
| In its own tight group away from your days | Could become a new route day if there are enough of them. |
| Scattered | Each one adds a drive every week. |
Count the accounts you’d turn down or need to move to another day. Then decide what the route is worth to you. Even an account too far away to keep is included in the asking price.
Drive the seller’s route on its usual service days and time the gaps between pools. Count the trip from your existing route too. Compare what the seller collects for a faraway pool with the travel and service costs before you decide to keep it.
Check what the route will pay after purchase
Compare what it costs you to sign an account with the seller’s asking price divided by customers likely to stay. Then time the work those bought pools would add each week. For each account, check what the customer pays against chemicals, labor and travel. A low asking price won’t help if the service rate doesn’t cover the work.
Buying may suit you if you’ve hired a tech who has an empty day. It may also suit you if the seller’s paying pools fit a day you can run. If your hangers bring in nearby accounts at a cost you can afford, signing your own may work better. In either case, keep enough cash to run the truck while the route changes hands or your own route fills.
Check whether those same rates would support paying a tech to clean the pools, even if you’ll clean them yourself at first.
Pass or offer less if the seller won’t show what customers have paid, which ones canceled and where the stops are. Check the payment history for new accounts before pricing them the same as long-term ones.
Filling open route days without buying
If you decide to find your own accounts, pick a weekday with room and work the pool homes near those stops. Write that day on the hanger. The pool cleaning clients guide has door and hanger wording. Door hangers vs postcards compares the costs and shows how to tell which round brought a call.
RouteLeads lists pool homes near the stops you already clean, giving you a knock list for that open day.
Keep each round’s cost by street. If a route comes up for sale later, compare its price per account with your own cost of signing one nearby. The route density guide helps you count the weekly drive to a faraway pool.