Acquisitions Anonymous - #1 for business buying, selling and operating - The guys dig into a cemetery brokerage: Acquisitions Anonymous 186

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

Michael Girdley (@Girdley) and Bill D’Alessandro (@BillDA) talk about cemeteries. Check it out: https://www.bizbuysell.com/Business-Opportunity/Well-established-cemetery-broker-business-is-for-sale-in-California/2084777/?returnurl=d3d3LmJpemJ1eXNlbGwuY29tL2Jyb2tlcmRpcmVjdG9yeS9Qcm9maWxlL1ZpZXdCcm9rZXJQcm9maWxlLmFzcHg%2fQnJva2VyUHJvZmlsZUlEPTM2OTQ4JmJwbHQ9MTA%3d&returnurllabel=50_____Thanks to our sponsor!This episode is sponsored by Acquisition Lab. Acquisition Lab, created by Walker Deibel author of Buy Then Build: How to Outsmart the Startup Game, is an accelerator with a highly vetted cohort-based educational and support community for people serious about buying a business. After going through the Lab's month-long intensive, you have ongoing access to almost daily Q&A sessions with advisors, regular live deal review forums with Walker, hand-picked vendors for your deal team, and a very active Slack group with other searchers on this path. Our team personally understands how to buy a business and will help navigate all the complexities of the process, as well as provide a trusted framework, tools, and resources to support you from search to close. The Acquisition Lab recently celebrated its 70th business being acquired and well over $100m in aggregate transaction value. The Lab is there to stand by your side, so you can take the right action (at the right time) and avoid wasting countless hours trying to "go it alone".For more information, check out acquisitionlab.com or email the Lab's director Chelsea Wood, [e-mail] to weekly our Newsletter and get curated deals in your inboxAdvertise with us by clicking here Do you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations. For inquiries or suggestions, email us at [e-mail]

Acquisitions Anonymous, Internet's number one podcast about small businesses for sale and the case studies we do around them. Had a good time today with Bill. We talked about another cool business, which is a cemetery plot brokerage in Southern California. And this one came from one of our listeners, and I'm totally blanking on who it was. But if this was you, thank you for sending it over. Again, our DMs are open on Twitter, and you can always email and track us down. We would love to see more like that. So with no further ado, here is the episode.

This episode is sponsored by Acquisition Lab. Acquisition Lab created by Walker Debel, author of Buy Then Build, How to Outsmart the Startup Game, is an accelerator with a highly vetted cohort-based educational and support community for people serious about buying a business. After going through the lab's month-long intensive, you have ongoing access to almost daily Q&A sessions with advisors, regular live deal review forums with Walker,

handpick vendors for your deal team, and a very active Slack group with other searchers on this path. Our team personally understands how to buy a business and will help navigate all the complexities of the process, as well as provide a trusted framework, tools, and resources to support you from search to close. The Acquisition Lab recently celebrated 70th business being acquired and well over $100 million in aggregate transaction value.

The lab is here to stand by your side so you can take the right action at the right time and avoid wasting countless hours trying to go it alone. For more information, check out AcquisitionLab.com, link is in our show notes, or email the labs director, Chelseawood, at Chelsea at buy-then-build.com.

All right, Bill, I got a deal. I don't know if it's as good as the Aphrodisiac chocolate pizza boat or all the other crazy deals we've done lately, but I think it's pretty good for today. It's a little less upbeat than those two, but this may be at the other end of the life cycle. But anyway, how are you doing?

I am doing great. I have finally got my camera fixed. I'm back live, so if you go on YouTube, you can look at my ugly face. Oh, man. Well, it's good to see you again. It's better than a dark room, Bill. Yes, yes, I'm back. And congrats to you on launching scale path.

That's pretty cool. Oh, dude, thanks for the shout-out. We, you know, our goal was to get to 50 to 100 sign-ups, and we've exceeded that as of this morning. So, sweet. Pretty happy. And Sam, you know, who's CEOing and he's my associate that is growing in. to running the business. He has 18 customer interviews today. So he's like, no, I can't move our meeting, Michael. I'm on Zoom all day. So pretty. Those are the worst days. I mean, great when you're selling

things, but the worst days. For him, not for you. For me, it's cool. Like, you know, I'm just the chair. He's, he's the one that's making the business habit. But, you know, he and I developed the idea together, and that's the thing that has me excited is how excited he is about it. That's the key to have, you know, to have an operator who is incentivized the right way and excited about it. Yeah. Well, and I think that's the biggest learning that I've done through incubating companies. Like, you think it's about you come up with the idea and then somebody else will get excited about it.

They never do. They never do. You have to develop the idea together. So, yeah, it is for that. Cool. All right, you want to talk about this cemetery brokerage business? Let's do it. All right.

Let me pull the sucker up and we will read it. Man, we are just, I think we're doing a great. great job of picking interesting deals, which has to be excited. So, and I've heard some stories about this cemetery brokerage business. So it's from Biz By Sell, our favorite future sponsor of the podcast. One day, we'll get you Biz By Sell. We'll get you. Either that or it will get so big that we buy Biz Bysell and then just make it capped up.

That's the thing I want to do. They should totally buy our podcast. We would, we would, well, I don't know. The problem is they don't care. The problem is they don't give a crap because they're owned by CoStar and just they got, right, it got bought as part of it like a big acquisition. And it's like this backwater of this huge company and nobody cares about Biz Buy Sell. CoStar is definitely one of those.

Like it's in the eBay category of we all use you, but we hate you. Bucket. Like, just terrible. Terrible. All right. This one is a well-established cemetery brokerage business for sale in California. The asking price, by the way, the picture for those of you not on YouTube. The picture is of some cemetery plots,

but nobody's name is on the headstones, which is interesting. So the asking price is $2.9 million. The cash flow is $2.1 million. So my math there, Bill, which is not always good, is this is for sale at approximately 1.3 times free cash flow. That's right. I'm not a rock scientist either, but that's roughly correct.

Did I have you at hello? Maybe. The thing is, though, usually when they're priced like this, it's too good to be true. It's so good that you know something's wrong with it. And then you just got to figure out why. Maybe we'll, maybe we'll find out. Life is like a box of chocolates. I don't know if you've heard that. All right, gross revenue is 2.4 million. So cash flow is 2.1 million. Gross revenue is 2.4 million. EBDA is 900,000. I'm in tree. I'm puzzled. But continue. How does that work? I don't know how that works. That cash flow of 2.1 and EBDA of 900.

revenue of 2.4. All right. Yeah, because EBAA has to typically be bigger than cash flow. Usually, I mean, unless the cash flow number is just totally wrong. And in fact, this is $900,000 of EBITDA priced at $2.9 million, which is a little bit more normal. Right? Yeah, that's 3x. Yeah, yeah, 3x. All right. So inventory, non-existent, furniture, fixtures, equipment, non-existent, established in 1998. Business description. This cemetery brokerage firm is a well-known, and respected business in California that specializes in helping death care service providers and individuals purchase and sell cemetery plots. With a long history of providing reliable services to its clients, these cemetery brokers have become a trusted source for families looking

to buy or sell cemetery plots for their loved ones in California. This business focuses mainly on the Southern California area and could grow if the new owner has the right expertise in comprehension of the death care industry. There is a unified and established team in place that is prepared to help the owner with transition. The current owners enjoy managing the business, but they have the freedom to take time away from it due to the proficiency of their team. The office staff works alongside the owners while the sales staff is out in the field. The office personnel are well informed and have a thorough understanding of all the regulations associated with the business. In order for this business to operate, the broker of record must

be a resident of California. This broker should be a great supplement to an existing cemetery records are a perfect opportunity for someone in the field of cemetery sales who desires to become their own boss. 20 employees, and this is perfect business for an industry expert who wants to maintain their stellar customer service that has made this business a success and earned it a great reputation in the community, be part of something special, and join this thriving business today by Andy Rumpf of the Decane Group. So I'm going to click on Andy Rump here while you kind of think about, I feel about this one.

So this is a cemetery plot brokerage business. So I think this means that my loved one dies. And I call the broker and go, I have somebody to bury somewhere in this area. Can you find a spot for them? Is that how it goes? I always assumed, and this may be naive, that you kind of knew what cemetery you wanted and that most cemeteries had plots available. But maybe that's wrong.

So the way I understand this works, and I've heard stories, by the way. So like here in Catholic St. Antonio, the two biggest and most prestigious burial lots cemeteries are owned by the Catholic Church. And it's actually a huge moneymaker for them because they are auctioning off and selling and buying and reselling and getting donated plots all the time. So they have like a wholesale staff in the Catholic Church who is brokering and dealing people paying $100,000 to be buried on a hill at this at a particular ceremony or a cemetery here in San Antonio. So I think that in most of these markets, especially because they're, you know, cemeteries have this problem of filling up. I think that people end up buying these plots. They reserve them. And I have to have to believe in the way I understand it works is there is like a hierarchy of plots that you want to.

a half and people will trade up, trade down, they'll buy one, and then they'll have be estranged. While they're still living, you mean? So like, yeah, I know where I'm going to be buried. I own my plot and then a better one comes available and I want to trade out. Yeah, or I get divorced and I'm not interested in being buried next to husband number one. Okay, I perceive that this transaction happened between death and burial, but you're telling me that these transactions happen mostly while you're alive. For yourself. I don't know if it's mostly, but I know it happens. Like my grandparents had picked out in their 50s where they were going to be buried. And it was already all set out and they paid money for it.

And it went to the funeral home who had the cemetery plot in the back. It's right near my house. Like I know. Interesting. So you can totally. So this is not more, this is not as much like a realtor with like, you know, infrequent large transactions. This is more like a market maker almost, like of all the cemeteries in the area.

And the inventory moves around all the time. and you're just trying to do transactions. 100%. And it's interesting. I double-clicked on the listing, Bill. This Decane group is the first time we've run across a brokerage that specializes in. And I hope you're sitting down. They specialize in the death care businesses.

Exclusively. Exclusively funeral homes. And, well, in this case, they're the one brokerage. But here they're selling like a burial concept system, so like a technology business. that sells entities in the death care industry. Wow. Like, it's like a service provider selling to the death care industry.

And they've got various funeral homes. And by the way, there is a huge private equity roll up going on in funeral homes and has been for 20 years. Yeah. Right? I mean, it's pretty hard to find an independent funeral home anymore, isn't it?

Yeah, and it is, I mean, have you been on the business side of, like, bearing any relatives or anything? I just recently, unfortunately, was. Yes, my grandmother. Yeah. So, like, how much did they charge it for the casket? It was a lot.

Actually, what we learned in this process, this is interesting, my grandfather passed away 20 years ago. My grandmother's casket, same casket, $500 less, which means that this same funeral director took my then-grieving grandmother 20 years ago for a ride. on my grandfather's casket because in 20 years,

that price of that casket should have been double, but the market clearing price was the same, which means she got absolutely screwed 20 years ago. Look, I'll just come out and say it. I hate this industry. Like, I hate the way they treat their clients. I hate the way the margins are. I hate the way they leverage people's guilt

to try to make money from them. And it's like, to me, like, it's just so gross. Yeah, it's pretty gross. It just feels so wrong the way they treat people. And then you have private equities coming in, right? And they're like, oh, well, you need, do you need the basic flower arrangement? Or do you need the one that shows you actually loved your mom? Yeah, oh, it's terrible.

Like, this is one of those things where, like, it just feels like, okay, if it's a local operator, like, obviously we need funeral homes, right? Like, they need to exist, right? And like, the local operator who is in touch with the community and is not gouging people, like, that's what you hope to see. But then it gets total 180 when private equity comes in and like corporatizes and upsells and it just gets really gross. Because like you have, like your loved one dies, like you have three days or so to arrange all of this. You don't have time to shop, you know, and you're in a state of grief and people just stick it to you. It has been

interesting to see people do discount, discount funeral services. Have you seen any of these guys? No, well, just like quick cremation and you're done. Here's one. Well, this one I knew was by me because they're in a strip ball. Okay. But it's called Funeral Carrying USA. And they claim to do discount funerals. So like the Costco for funerals.

But they don't say that. They just describe it as affordable and all that kind of stuff. And they give you packages. But here it's like they have prices listed on their website, which I think is pretty good. That is not normal. Price is listed on the website and the funeral care. Caskets from 599. So they're here.

This one's here in San Antonio. And they're like, yeah, hi, we're, you know, very basic type stuff. And then they have like a not very good website. It doesn't much, it looks like it's been a hacked. Man. Yeah, so big business. So I didn't, I mean, I knew funeral homes were big business. I did not realize this funeral plot, burial plot thing was big business.

Also, I just sort of assumed like you had a church or maybe the funeral home performed this I didn't realize this would be a third-party situation. Yeah, so the way I understand it works is say that somebody wants to go dispose of a plot that they're not going to use, right? They go to one of these brokerages, and then the brokerage has the connections to the different funeral homes, to different folks that are associated with different, like, what you call it, like the cemetery management. And I don't know if you knew this, you can actually go buy like a cemetery, because

they're money makers. Have you ever looked into this? I have not owning a cemetery. Yeah, so they're somewhat regulated because it turns out putting dead bodies underneath your ground is something the state kind of cares if you're doing or not, and they want to know you're doing it correctly. But yeah, there was one time I owned a piece property on the south side of San Antonio and somebody had put a cemetery next to it. It was like a for-profit cemetery, and then I looked up one day and they were trying to sell it. Here's the income from the cemetery. So the economics of these things, as I understand it. The cemetery, you know, right, you buy once, you're dead forever. So you're in the ground for perpetuity, and they've still got to, like, mow the grass, keep the lights on, all this stuff,

right? So as I understand it, now, of course, you can net present value the, the cash flow stream of mowing the lawn forever, right? And I think that's sort of how they price it. But as I understand it, Michael, there is specific regulation that the cemetery must put aside, like a certain number of assets in trust, like perpetually, so that they are guaranteed to always be able to mow the grass. Like, they can't just promise you that they'll always mow the grass. They are legally required to basically have an endowment that yields enough money to mow the grass. I'm so fine, right? But that's true, isn't it?

I think so. I was just pulling up the Texas laws for cemeteries. The basic laws pertaining to cemeteries. All right, let's look them up. I have no idea. A cemetery is a place where dead bodies and cremated rains are married. is the local set aside you by an authority or a private enterprise. Cemetery are normally regulated on a state level,

and they provide provisions to privately owned. For example, when a cemetery is a privately owned an operated cemetery, then blah, blah, then it has to have a care. There's like a care act that goes with that one. And it looks like, I don't know what state this is, but I guess each state has their own kind of type of things, and it, like, covers, okay, here's what's going to happen

if you abandon your cemetery, like how to like make sure that the the cemetery facilities stay safe and healthy and all that kind of stuff what the local government can do to keep you from having the cemetery in an area because obviously people sometimes don't like cemeteries because they don't pay a lot of property taxes and that sort of thing yeah the contract definition all that kind of stuff yeah it's very it's very there i mean this all smells like they at one point had problems where people would open up cemeteries sell a lot of plots and then haul ass to Brazil. Oh, yeah, I'm sure.

I'm sure. So what's interesting is you mentioned, Michael, they're regulated state by state. And this business, the burial plot brokerage business, is located in the Southern California area and the owner must be a resident of California. So it sounds like in classic California fashion, you need a license for this,

just like you need a license to cut hair or fart in public in California. So you need a license to broker funeral plots in California. California, the same of life. And live in California. So you cannot live someplace else. Yes. I thought you meant you needed a license to live in California. And I was like, yes, basically.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it does tie back to kind of my general rant about California, which is like people, business people like us or people that want to live there complain about California and all these regulations and high taxes and all this kind of stuff. And then the answer that everybody gives you is, but like California is the sixth largest economy in the world. Look how great it's doing. Look at all this stuff that's going on. And my answer to them is, well, wait, what if you didn't screw it up as much as you are? Like, would it be the third largest economy in the world?

That's, you know, that's the logic. Like, yeah, it's going fine, but that's not proof you're not underperforming. And like the same thing going on for this business. Like, okay, this business theoretically is either selling for 1.3 or 3 times cash flow profits, which we haven't really figured out how that works in terms of this listing. But also, like, because of the rules of California, like, your number of buyers that you could sell to is relatively limited. You can only sell to California residents. Like, so you or I is not going to be able to buy this unless we decide we're going to start paying California personal taxes, and I'm not interested. No, thank you. Well, of course, there are plenty of people, though, that live in California that might be interested in this

business. So let's hit what I do really like about this business, I think. It's going to be be around forever, right? I mean, there is, now, I don't know, maybe there is some technology risk in this. Like, could you see a biz by sell for funeral plots? Like, I could potentially see a marketplace here. But at the same time, this is a very kind of like touchy, personal type of thing, you know, and local. So I think you could be around for a long time doing this. Look, and I think it also is going to grow with inflation and is going to benefit from California's stupidity. And California's stupidity is, I got here first. I built my house here. Nobody else could build a house near mine. Thank you. My ancestors got here in the 80s. That makes me an OG. And I think the same thing

is like, you know they're not put any more like cemetery plots anywhere. Like when they put in the cemeteries. So like you're only going to see the same kind of stuff that you're seeing with every other real estate thing in California, which is California shooting itself in the foot by not allowing there to be enough development of new stuff to match the population and growth. And I think that's going on here too. Like these plots, the good plots have to be going for hundreds of thousands of dollars, right? And you like that about a brokerage because you're charging a percentage, like, unless this is a wacky kind of brokerage, but that's the way this stuff almost there's an episode of that show Billions, which entirely centers on this concept, where

Bobby Axelrod or Wags, his number two, won a specific plot, and one of their rivals has it. And it's like it's a seven-figure transaction in the show in New York City, which is probably another place with very expensive burial plots. So it's great, right? Like, this is going to be around. Got a lot of durability. It turns out, I don't know if you're aware of this fact,

but people are going to keep dying forever. Or at least for the future. And more, that could change. There's more people. And so they're probably going to keep dying. People keep moving to California, so you have to love that. Look, I think there's a two-sided marketplace these people are making. There's a combination of the funeral planning industry, you know, via the funeral homes.

So I don't know if you're aware of this, but a lot of what the funeral planning industry will do is they go to folks in their 50s or 60s, and they pre-sell them their funeral stuff. Because, I mean, I'm seeing my parents go through this. I saw my grandparents go through this. They get old enough that they want to plan out what's going to happen after they die because they're very cognizant that they're. they don't want to be a burden on their kids. They saw what happened with their parents. And so, like, a lot of times these people will come in and pre-buy a spot. They'll buy a funeral home package ahead of time.

It'll all be set up, maybe even prepaid. And it's like, here's how it's going to go. Even down, here's who the priest is and the music they're going to play. And so I think, you know, because of that, you're in a situation where, like, the transactions keep happening. You're connected to those people as one side of the marketplace running this business. And the other side of the marketplace is, like, the sellers, right? who are potentially the same people.

And you're brokering the deals between all of those. And then you're connected to the funeral homes. You're connected to the cemetery management. They all kind of work through you. And you make that market. Like, those personal connections are not going anywhere. And then I have another point. But I'll pause there because I did like a minute long.

Gurdly rant about why I like this business. I like this, but you know what business I really like? I just found it by Googling, which is the theme of this show. but it is called the cemetery exchange.com. Oh, I'll pull it up. And please pull it up on the screen share because it is priceless. It looks like it was made in the GeoCities editor

in 1991. Whoa. I mean, it is unbelievable. And Michael, if you want to see, go ahead and click on search for cemetery property to buy right there, the first button. I know it may take you a while to find it, given the design. Whoa!

And now click on any state in the union, sure, California, since we're doing it, pick any place, somewhere popular, hopefully, so they have listings. Oh, sorry, I chose Los Altos. All right, you just went right over, like, Menlo Park and L.A. and all those places in shows Los Altos. Oh, I'll just, sorry. Look at these listings. They're, like, in neon font, like, sale, but, like, the prices are interesting here.

like $5,700, $21,000, $12,000, $10,000, $35,000. Right? So, like, these are car-sized transactions, which, and I bet you make you a 10% vague on these things. So this is a vault, actually. Oh, a double-depth companion grave space. So, like, you would sleep on top of your... I think you're buried in the same hole as your spouse in this case.

The grass is on top. So this one I clicked on. Holy cow, look at this one. It's in Los Angeles, and the Hollywood sign is behind it. So this plot is listed for $86,000 or best offer. Yep. Celebrity, it's the world-famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery,

the Celebrity Section 8, lot 76, grave 17. Man, this is like go to a Taylor Swift concert. If it's important to you, you should know that Mickey Rooney, Tyrone Power, Nelson, Eddie, and Valerie Harper, whoever those people are, are buried nearby. Oh, my God, they have a flyer? Oh, yeah, it's sold like real estate. Two-person double-depth, non-sectarian plot overlooking the lake, buy a tree, easy access close to road, beautiful site, holds two caskets or four urns, nearby plots, and immediate need are also available, blah, blah, blah, right? $86,000.

I also get the sense these things are highly negotiable because it says that is 75% of what HFC would normally charge HFC being the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where this is located. So apparently on the cemetery change, you get 25% off. But this cemetery exchange, this is the business I want to own, right? This is the technology platform that we hope one day kills the business we're actually looking at on this episode, which is the cemetery broker. But I don't know, Bill, this site looks so modern and like web three enabled. But that's why it's great, right? Because it's working anyway. Like this is like the classic great sign that they're doing everything to screw up and it's still working.

Holy cow. I just pulled up San Antonio. And, man, these are one expensive. Your grandma's cemetery on here? So actually, I think this is the one. Sunset Memorial Park. This is the one where my grandparents are buried. And the plots are $4,750 each.

There you go. So for five grand, you can be buried near the Gurdley's. The cemetery, Gurdley Cemetery. No, look, it's Floyd R. Gurdley right there. Do you see it? I do see that. It looks an awful lot like Gurdley. I think it's because Bradley, but I just, I wanted to invest with you.

I bet that would be cool. Very nice. Yeah. Yeah, and so how much do they charge you for this cemetery exchange? It doesn't say what their Vig is. If I had to bet, it's 10%. I mean, that's what they're... Okay, hold on.

This is what they do. No, they don't even charge you a percentage. Oh, it's so bad. $100. List to sell one-time fee only. It's a classified ad site. So what's so interesting here is you've got this one end in the market that is classified ads, basically, like pay per post, right?

And then you've got the other end of the market where this business that we're looking at today is doing at minimum million dollars of EBITDA, right, per year, brokering these things just in one state. And I don't think you get to a million dollars a year on $100 listing fees. So I'm almost positive they're taking a big business we're looking at. So to me, this is, there's opportunity here in this industry. I mean, this is big enough to support a million dollar EBITDA business in one little regional market, maybe not Southern California, but they're probably not the only one. It seems like there is an opportunity here. So this is, I pulled up this Catholic Cemetery. I was looking for San Antonio, but this is like the Catholic Cemetery's organization in Minneapolis. So they have like a whole price list here.

So share this tab instead. Lot internment services. You can do a crypt from anywhere from $12,000 to $60,000. Non-monument graves or $8,000.000. 1,800 to 2530, or you can get a back-to-nature ceremonial boulder, 8,000 to 16,000. You know, I think you only get that bill if you truly love your relative and want to show them how much you love. Otherwise, yeah, if you don't, you'll get one of the cheaper ones. Do you even cemetery, bro, basically, I think about this. But, I mean, you can spend a lot of money.

And honestly, I don't think these prices, I mean, like a mausoleum or a crypt for 25 grand, like, I think that is. is still on the very low end. There is, there's the most exclusive cemeteries in San Antonio, Texas. Yeah, I got to figure out which ones those were. But maybe it was San Fernando.

Like, these are like, there were, at some point there were like 10 or 12, like plots left, and they were going for like hundreds of thousands of dollars. Oh, yeah. And now I can see how, like, a broker Like, think about it, if you got a valuable asset, a house or a business, it's helpful to hire a broker to get exposure. Like, where do you go?

You're like, hey, I've got a valuable cemetery plot that might be worth $100,000. How do I liquidate that? Like, you post an ad in the paper? You know, I could see that, you know, a broker would be really valuable. What, so what do you think this means about our back to our listing? The office staff works alongside the owners while the sales staff is out in the field. So the sales staff, I guess, has, it sounds like they're like almost a, entirely commission-based.

I mean, in the field here has got to mean visiting cemeteries, right, and trying to figure out what inventory they've got. I mean, I would think what would be really interesting here is we've already established there's not a robust sort of online marketplace that's dominant. So there's, you know, it's not easy. There's not like a zillow.com for these things. So if you want a cemetery plot, like where do you even go? I think the knowledge of what is available in the market is,

actually pretty proprietary here, right? Like, that's what makes them valuable that, that you type in Burial Plot Southern California and their Google ad comes up and you call them and they know exactly what's available in a hundred different cemeteries in the local area. And they go, oh, I got one and this one I could do you for 22 grand. I got one over here. I could do you for five. How much do you want to spend? You know what I mean? So I think that sales staff in the field actually understanding what's available is probably pretty valuable. Look, I think this business is very interesting if the cash flow is indeed $2.1 million. I think that's pretty cheap.

Like, you can buy it for $1.3. My guess is it's really probably more like three times earnings. That's my guess is what, there's got to be something wrong with this cash flow. That's a goof up. I think this is $900,000 of EBITDA asking $2.9 million. Look, it looks like you can, you can SBA this. It has track record. It looks like,

you know, I mean, and the thing I like about this, I talked about how yucky funeral homes are. Like, I don't think this is yucky. Like, I think you're actually dealing with people who are not distressed, right? They're not, like, in grief. Like, you're treating them like real human beings

and doing a transaction. Like, I think I would be okay being in this business. And I think this is a pretty good business that probably has a pretty strong network effect. It's not going anywhere. I like it too. I mean, I think what I would be diligent in here is, is there really a moat? Like, do they have proprietary data here and proprietary relationships?

Like, is that sales staff, like, beaten the pavement at all these funeral homes and has this business built relationships with these funeral homes since 1998, whenever it was established, you know, 25 years ago? If so, I think this is maybe hard to cold start. These guys started this back in 1998. So I would be interested also digging into their origin story. Like, how did they get started? And that sometimes will tell you how likely it is that one of your people leaves and goes and starts their own thing.

But there is a nice thing here that says, this could be good for someone who is in the industry already and wants to become their own boss. like, okay, that means there's probably something that keeps those folks from starting up on their own and going in to compete with you. So I like that aspect of it. But look, I think this is one, man, if you would want to be in this industry and it's the right kind of size for you

and you're in Southern California or you want to live there, like, man, pretty good little business to be at low-cap-ex. You're not maintaining any inventory. You're going to grow with inflation. You're potentially helping people. You're spending lots of time outdoors in fields. So there's a lot going on that I think I like, you know, I like this business.

And, okay, let's take a moment, pour one out for all the deals we've hated. I think we like this deal. I think it would be a really great acquisition target for an existing funeral home who wanted to kind of vertically integrate, right? Because a funeral home, they can put you in a hole in any plot of land, right? So to start to vertically integrate that out would make a lot of sense. Amazing. All right.

Well, cool. Well, let's wrap it up there, unless you have anything else. to say about it? No, it's a good one. I'd be interested to learning more. All right. Well, hey, we've been close to Cracken Top 50 on the Entrepreneurship Podcast again. Do us a favor. Open up your podcast app,

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