How we ranked
The ranking applies four criteria in priority order. A firm that could not show the first one did not make the page.
The four ranking criteria
1. Verified closed deals in the sector, with public sources. A named HVAC, plumbing, mechanical or specialty trades sale on the firm's own site or in a dated press release. A deal count with no names counts for less than named deals.
2. A sector-dedicated team. A firm or team that works in HVAC, plumbing and mechanical contracting, not a generalist desk with one trades closing.
3. Size band fit. A published band or deals at a scale an owner-run trades company can use as a reference.
4. Founder-led engagement. Named partners or principals who lead the work, not hand-offs to junior staff.
Order inside the list follows criterion 1 first, then 2, 3 and 4. That is why the two firms that work only on trades and publish the longest lists sit first, and why general banks sit lower even where an individual deal is larger. Where a source did not publish something, the table says "Not published" and does not guess.
Inclusion filters and exclusions
Inclusion filters. A firm had to show a sell-side engagement for a private HVAC, plumbing, mechanical or specialty trades company on its own site or in a dated release fetched in October 2026. It had to be identifiable by name and its pages had to load. Pure brokerages that list businesses for sale and private equity firms that sold their own portfolio companies did not qualify.
Who we left off, and why. FOCUS Investment Banking, Benchmark International, Synergy Business Brokers, Peakstone Group and Boxwood Partners are generalists whose homepages showed no HVAC, plumbing or trades practice, and we did not find a named trades sale for them. Calder Capital and Cross Keys Capital were on the candidate list, but the domains we tried did not load or were parked. Ad Astra Equity Advisors lists HVAC and mechanical under construction and specialty contracting but showed no named HVAC sale. Anchor Peabody covers HVAC and plumbing distribution but showed no contractor sale. Clearsight was a candidate, and we found no trades transaction attributed to it. Dubin Clark sold Sila Heating & Air, but it is a private equity firm and not an advisor.
ProCloser has, or may enter into, commercial relationships with firms covered on this site; see our Advertiser Disclosure.
Quick comparison table
All eleven firms, in ranked order. Size band and deal evidence are what the firm or a dated release publishes, and "Not published" means we found nothing.
| Firm | HQ | Sector Focus | Size Band | Deal Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SF&P Advisors | Boca Raton, FL | Residential, commercial and mechanical HVAC and plumbing; electrical | HVAC businesses of all sizes | 459 closed deals, $4.1B combined client revenue (firm-reported) |
| 2. Good Hope Advisors | Tenafly, NJ | HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, landscaping, paving contractors | Lower-middle-market founders | Track record page names GNG Plumbing, GRC Mechanical Services, Mechanical Service Inc. and others |
| 3. FMI Capital Advisors | Raleigh, NC | Contractors and construction services; mechanical and MEP | Not published; cited deal is a 1,200-person contractor | Atlantic Constructors to TriplePoint MEP; 800+ built-environment transactions |
| 4. IEI Advisors | Richmond, VA | Mechanical, HVAC and plumbing contractors | Not published | 10 transactions, $200M+ total value (firm-reported) |
| 5. PKF Investment Banking | Not stated in release | Business owners in HVAC and mechanical contracting (release) | Not published | Armistead Mechanical to PremiStar (Apr 2026) |
| 6. Kinected Advisors Verified · Deal Network | Los Angeles, CA | Plumbing and HVAC, specialty trades, utility services, construction management | $10M to $100M revenue; $1M+ EBITDA | Power Plumbing; Pride Resource Partners |
| 7. Commonwealth M&A | Philadelphia, PA (release dateline) | Small and medium-sized businesses; HVAC and plumbing | Small and medium-sized businesses | Phoenix Mechanical to Northwinds Services Group (Jan 2026) |
| 8. Houlihan Capital | Chicago, IL | Supply chain, construction and facility services; residential and commercial HVAC | Not published | Auburn Heating to Clarion Home Services Group (Apr 2023) |
| 9. Capstone Partners | Multiple U.S. offices | HVACR industrials: HVAC services and HVAC equipment | Middle market; not published | Air Innovations to Altus Capital Partners (Dec 2024) |
| 10. Baird | Not stated on deal card | Large investment bank; HVAC solutions example | Platform scale | Gil-Bar Industries strategic investment from ICG |
| 11. Generational Group | Not verified this session | Cross-industry; electrical and specialty trades example | Ranked on deals up to $10M and $25M | Reilly Electrical Contractors to Crete Mechanical Group (2022) |
The 11 firms, ranked
Each profile lists the source we used. Deal figures that a firm reports about itself are labeled firm-reported. For valuation, see our guides to HVAC business valuation multiples and plumbing and mechanical valuation multiples.
1SF&P Advisors
SF&P Advisors is the most specialized firm in this ranking. Its homepage describes it as specializing in residential, commercial and mechanical HVAC and plumbing mergers and acquisitions, and its recent-deals page reports 459 closed deals and $4.1 billion in combined client revenue.
The leadership page names Fred Silberstein, a CPA with 20-plus years of HVAC and plumbing M&A, as CEO and President, and Justin Haas as Director of Transaction Services, who it says has worked on more than 125 deals. The firm lists HVAC, plumbing and electrical practices and describes itself as a preferred partner of Service Roundtable.
Best for: HVAC and plumbing owners, residential or commercial, who want the largest published trades deal count and a team that works nowhere else.
Considerations: The 459-deal figure and the dollar totals are firm-reported, the target names are logos rather than text, and no size band or fee is published. Ask for referenceable sellers in your revenue range.
2Good Hope Advisors
Good Hope Advisors says it works exclusively with lower-middle-market founders of legacy contracting businesses, on a success-fee-only basis with no retainer. It is on the Axial Advisor 100 list for 2026 and was ranked 18th in Axial's Top 25 Investment Banks for Q1 2025, per its site.
Its track record page names add-on and platform sales to PE-backed buyers, such as Mechanical Service Inc. to PremiStar and Live Free HVAC into the Sila Services roll-up, and it states $500 million or more in aggregate transaction value. Three partners, Eric Seifert, Josh Gladtke and Gregg Lerman, are named as the people who run every deal.
Best for: Founder-owned HVAC and plumbing contractors who want a partner-led team and PE add-on buyers, and would rather not pay a retainer.
Considerations: The transaction value and platform valuation totals are firm-reported, and the track record page does not give dates or deal sizes for each sale. Success-fee-only pricing means you should still ask about the fee on the engagement letter.
3FMI Capital Advisors
FMI Capital Advisors sold Atlantic Constructors, a Richmond, Virginia company with five locations across Virginia and North Carolina, more than 1,200 professionals and 300,000 square feet of fabrication space. The announcement says its HVAC, industrial services and heavy fabrication work includes data center projects.
FMI says its bankers have guided clients through more than 800 transactions across engineering and construction, building products and infrastructure, and it works only in the built environment. For a commercial or mechanical contractor, that sector focus matters more than for a residential shop.
Best for: Commercial, industrial and mechanical contractors with backlog, fabrication or data center work that want a bank that already covers the contractor universe.
Considerations: FMI is oriented toward larger contractors, publishes no size band and its announcement page shows the date as 21 May without a year. A residential HVAC owner will likely find a trades specialist a closer fit.
4IEI Advisors
IEI Advisors was founded by Peter Flippen, who learned the HVAC industry while selling software to HVAC owners and executives, then launched a sell-side firm for HVAC and mechanical contractors in 2018. He holds the CM&AA certification and says he personally handled every stage of the closed deals.
The firm is small, and says so: the first closing did not come until February 2021 because COVID froze its first three engagements. That candor helps a seller judge how much experience sits behind the pitch.
Best for: Commercial HVAC and mechanical contractors who want to work directly with the principal who has run each deal.
Considerations: Ten closed deals is a small base and the firm has one named principal, so ask about backup coverage and for referenceable sellers. Both figures are firm-reported.
5PKF Investment Banking
PKF Investment Banking announced on April 22, 2026 that it closed the sale of Armistead Mechanical, a 1917-founded New Jersey and New York contractor that does industrial and process piping, plumbing, HVAC design and installation, temperature controls and preventive maintenance. The buyer was PremiStar, which the release says runs 61 commercial HVAC, building automation and plumbing branches in 18 states.
Partner Alberto Sinesi is quoted, and the release calls the deal further evidence of PKF Investment Banking's track record in HVAC and mechanical contracting. The unit sits inside PKF O'Connor Davies, an accounting, tax and advisory practice.
Best for: Industrial and commercial mechanical contractors in the Northeast that value having tax and accounting advice under the same roof.
Considerations: One named deal is the extent of what we could source, no size band is published, and an accounting-firm affiliation means you should ask how it handles conflicts when it also audits or advises buyers.
6Kinected Advisors Verified · Deal Network
Kinected is a sell-side-only boutique in Los Angeles. It lists plumbing and HVAC and specialty trades among its industries, and its transactions list includes Power Plumbing, a plumbing services business shown as acquired by a portfolio company.
Founder Kevin Berson and partner Jim Twerdahl personally run each engagement, according to the firm, and the band it publishes, $10M to $100M in revenue with roughly $1M or more of EBITDA, fits multi-location HVAC and plumbing groups better than single-shop owners. See the Kinected Advisors profile.
Best for: Multi-location HVAC, plumbing and specialty trades owners with $10M to $100M in revenue who want two senior partners on the deal.
Considerations: We ranked Kinected sixth because its sourced trades record is one named plumbing sale, behind the specialists whose sites or dated releases show more trades deals. Its closed-deal count and close rate are firm-reported and unaudited, and the firm generally takes to market companies with $1M or more of EBITDA, which excludes many single-shop owners.
7Commonwealth M&A
Commonwealth M&A announced on January 29, 2026 that it advised Phoenix Mechanical, a heating, cooling and plumbing company in New York's Westchester County, on its sale to Northwinds Services Group. The release calls it the firm's third HVAC and plumbing transaction of the year.
Co-owner Doug Budney was retiring and co-owner Jonathan Nissman stayed on as a partner to the buyer, and the release quotes the sellers on how the team handled both owners' goals. Rick Calabrese of Commonwealth is quoted.
Best for: Owner-operators of residential and light commercial HVAC and plumbing companies who want a Northeast advisor with recent trades closings.
Considerations: The sourced evidence is a firm press release about one deal, and the firm is a generalist for small and medium-sized businesses, so confirm how many of its engagements are in trades.
8Houlihan Capital
Houlihan Capital advised Auburn Heating, Plumbing & Air Conditioning, a Chagrin Falls, Ohio company that the announcement says serves residential and commercial customers across the Cleveland area. Frank DiMarco acquired the business in 2014, and the firm ran a process that reached strategic and financial acquirers.
The buyer was Clarion Home Services Group of Chicago, a portfolio company of LightBay Capital. The announcement is dated April 26, 2023, so treat it as past evidence rather than a statement about the firm's current trades pipeline.
Best for: Residential and commercial HVAC owners in the Midwest who want a bank that has already sold a comparable service company to a home services platform.
Considerations: The sourced deal is from 2023, and we found no size band or current trades team page.
9Capstone Partners
Capstone Partners tags its work under HVACR and published an HVAC Services M&A Update in July 2026 and an HVAC Equipment Market Update on October 8, 2026. Its named example is Air Innovations, a manufacturer of environmental control units for hospitals, semiconductor lithography and spacecraft payloads, sold to Altus Capital Partners in December 2024.
That deal is an equipment manufacturer, not a service contractor, so it shows equipment-side experience more than contractor experience. The research pages are useful for a services owner because they track buyer activity in HVAC services.
Best for: HVAC equipment makers and larger HVAC services groups that need buyer data from a middle-market bank.
Considerations: The named deal is equipment-side and from 2024, and the HVAC research is not the same as a closed contractor sale. No size band is published.
10Baird
Baird's deal card says Gil-Bar is the largest and most comprehensive provider of HVAC solutions in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with more than 60 degreed sales engineers, relationships with more than 40 equipment manufacturers and more than 85 percent of business from repeat clients.
Baird served as exclusive financial advisor on the strategic investment from Intermediate Capital Group. It is a platform-scale example rather than a sale of an owner-run contractor.
Best for: Large regional HVAC contractors or distributors weighing a sponsor investment.
Considerations: The deal card is undated, the example is not an owner-run company, and Baird is a general bank without a published trades practice in the pages we read.
11Generational Group
Generational Group announced that it advised Reilly Electrical Contractors, a licensed family-owned electrical and telecommunications contractor in New England, on its sale to Crete Mechanical Group. Crete provides commercial HVAC, electrical, plumbing and building automation services through a national network of regional partners.
Generational is a cross-industry firm, not a trades specialist, and its homepage cites rankings for completed transactions up to $10 million and $25 million. That is the end of the market where many single-location contractors sit.
Best for: Electrical and specialty trades owners with smaller deals who want a firm with high transaction volume.
Considerations: The named deal is from 2022 and is an electrical contractor, not HVAC or plumbing, and the firm is a generalist, so ask for its HVAC and plumbing closings specifically.
How to choose
Residential or commercial? SF&P, Good Hope and Commonwealth M&A show service companies. FMI, IEI and PKF show mechanical and industrial contractors. Match the advisor to your revenue mix.
Which platforms are buying? Ask each advisor which platforms it sold to in the past two years and which are buying in your region.
Who does the work? Good Hope names three partners, IEI names one principal and Kinected names two. Ask for those names in writing and ask how many mandates are open now. Our guide to selling an HVAC business walks through the process these advisors run.
Where ProCloser fits
ProCloser is not an M&A advisor. It runs a matching service that introduces owners to firms in its network, and it is paid by advisory firms, not by sellers, which is a conflict worth knowing about.
Related resources
- How to sell an HVAC business. The step-by-step process these advisors run.
- HVAC business valuation multiples. What buyers pay and what drives it.
- Plumbing and mechanical valuation multiples. Valuation reference for plumbing and mechanical contractors.
- How to sell a plumbing business. The process for plumbing owners.
- Best M&A advisors for construction companies. The neighboring sector, for general and specialty contractors.
- Business broker versus M&A advisor. Which one you need for a smaller trades company.
- Kinected Advisors profile. Directory profile with firm-reported credits.
- Get matched to an advisor. Tell us your trade, size and timing and we will introduce you to firms in our network that fit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Best M&A advisors for selling an HVAC, plumbing or specialty trades business
SF&P Advisors, Good Hope Advisors, FMI Capital Advisors, IEI Advisors and PKF Investment Banking lead this ranking because their sites or dated releases show the most HVAC, plumbing and mechanical sales. SF&P reports 459 closed deals, Good Hope names plumbing and HVAC sales to PE platforms, and FMI sold a 1,200-person mechanical contractor. Kinected Advisors ranks sixth for owners with $10M to $100M in revenue.
Should I use a business broker or an M&A advisor to sell a small HVAC company?
Size and complexity decide it. SF&P says it serves HVAC businesses of all sizes, and Commonwealth M&A serves small and medium-sized businesses. Kinected states a $10M to $100M revenue band with $1M or more of EBITDA. See business broker versus M&A advisor for the registration and process differences.
Do I need a trades specialist, or will a general M&A advisor do?
A specialist usually knows the platform buyers. Most named sales here went to platforms such as PremiStar, Sila Services, Northwinds Services Group and Clarion Home Services Group. A generalist can still do the work, but ask it to name its last two trades closings.
What do buyers look for in an HVAC or plumbing company?
Buyers typically weigh recurring service revenue, technician retention, customer mix and clean financials. Read our guides to selling an HVAC business and HVAC valuation multiples before a first call.
Do these advisors charge retainers?
Good Hope states a success-fee-only model with no retainer. The others publish no fees on the pages we read, so ask for engagement terms in writing. Our M&A advisory fees guide explains the usual structures.
Which advisors fit a commercial or mechanical contractor rather than a residential shop?
FMI Capital Advisors sold Atlantic Constructors, a heavy mechanical and HVAC contractor, and PKF Investment Banking sold Armistead Mechanical, an industrial piping and HVAC contractor. IEI Advisors focuses on mechanical, HVAC and plumbing owners. SF&P also lists mechanical and commercial work.
Sources
Every page below was fetched in October 2026. Firm facts come from the firm's own site or a dated release. Deal facts are firm-reported unless the release names a third party.
- SF&P Advisors, recent deals: sfpadvisors.com/recent-deals/
- SF&P Advisors, team: sfpadvisors.com/our-team/
- Good Hope Advisors, track record: www.goodhopeadvisors.com/track-record/
- Good Hope Advisors, team: www.goodhopeadvisors.com/team/
- FMI, Atlantic Constructors: fmicorp.com/about/news/fmi-capital-advisors-announces-sale-of-atlantic-construct
- IEI Advisors: www.ieiadvisors.com/about-us
- PKF Investment Banking, Armistead Mechanical, April 22, 2026: www.pkfod.com/?p=21476
- Commonwealth M&A, Phoenix Mechanical, January 29, 2026: www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/commonweal
- Houlihan Capital, Auburn Heating: www.houlihancapital.com/houlihan-capital-acted-as-the-exclusive-financial-adviso
- Capstone Partners, HVACR: www.capstonepartners.com/insights/industries/hvacr/
- Capstone Partners, Air Innovations: www.capstonepartners.com/transactions/capstone-partners-advised-air-innovations-
- Baird, Gil-Bar Industries: www.rwbaird.com/transactions/investment-banking/dealcard/6129
- Generational Group, Reilly Electrical Contractors: generational.com/?p=31281
Disclosure
Disclosure: ProCloser.ai operates a deal-matching network and may connect sellers with some of the firms named on this page. We are paid by advisory firms rather than by sellers. ProCloser is not an M&A advisor, is not a broker-dealer, and does not represent companies in transactions. Rankings reflect the criteria stated above and the public sources listed. See our Advertiser Disclosure and ranking methodology.
About the author
Aaron founded ProCloser.ai and reviews every guide on this site against the firm's deal data and advisor research. This article is general information, not tax or legal advice.