Party Rental Business for Sale: Buying, Valuing and Selling One

Most small party rental and bounce house businesses for sale are listed on BizBuySell, usually under its Equipment Rental and Dealers category, which on 16 October 2026 held 250 listings, most of them car, boat and construction rental. Others change hands without a listing, through operator Facebook groups, brokers and word of mouth between competitors.

These are the party, event and inflatable rental listings we found there on 16 October 2026.

Read 16 October 2026. Every figure is the seller's own; BizBuySell states that it has not verified any listing. FF&E means furniture, fixtures and equipment.

Two patterns stand out. Five of the six are young companies, founded in 2019 or later, and the smallest are priced close to the equipment they include. Only the largest disclosed its seller's discretionary earnings, the figure buyers value a business on.

For a tent company specifically, the tent guide covers a larger Florida listing and what to inspect in a tent fleet: see buying a tent rental business for sale.

Small businesses are valued on seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), the profit an owner takes out including their own salary and benefits. A profitable party rental company sells for a multiple of that, and BizBuySell's data puts the market average for completed sales at 2.7 times in the second quarter of 2026, with asking multiples higher.

BizBuySell describes SDE as what owners earn, "which includes the owners salary and any other financial benefits they receive". It starts from net profit and adds back the owner's pay, personal expenses run through the business, interest, depreciation and one off costs. A buyer pays a multiple of SDE because SDE is what the buyer will live on and repay a loan from.

Two cautions. The equipment rental category is mostly car, boat and construction rental, not party rental. And asking multiples are what sellers hope for; the 2.7 average is what buyers paid. The Riverside listing above asks about 3.4 times its stated SDE ($1,640,000 against $481,000) and about 1.4 times revenue, our arithmetic, inside the asking range.

What pushes a multiple up: SDE that has held for three years, repeat customers such as schools, churches and planners, a team that runs the work without the owner, a lease with years left, and books an SBA lender will accept. What pulls it down: an old fleet, revenue that depends on the owner's phone, missing records and a single venue or planner sending most of the work.

A small bounce house business is usually worth the resale value of its fleet and trailer plus something for its bookings, reviews and website. A larger one with steady profit is worth a multiple of SDE. The fleet sets the floor, and a fleet depreciates fast.

The listings show the floor at work:

• Lusby, Maryland: $34,000 asked, with $21,000 of equipment. That leaves about $13,000 for a 5.0 rated Google profile with 17 reviews, a website ranking for about 15 town pages, the business phone number and the bookings.
• Temple, Pennsylvania: $275,000 asked on $167,000 of revenue, about 1.65 times revenue. Inventory and FF&E add up to $78,890, so about $196,000 of the price is for the brand, more than 200 five star reviews and six years of customers. No SDE is stated, so a buyer would have to build it from the books.

That arithmetic is ours, from the sellers' own figures.

Valuing the fleet

Value each inflatable at what it would fetch used today, not what the seller paid. A unit's condition, age and paperwork decide that. Check that each unit still has its data plate and serial number, its manual and its state approvals where your state regulates inflatables, and inflate every one before you agree a price. What a used commercial unit is worth, and how to inspect one, is in buying commercial bounce houses.

Valuing the earnings

If the business is profitable, rebuild SDE from three years of tax returns and bank deposits, not from the listing. Bounce house revenue is seasonal and concentrated in a few months, so compare full years, never a strong summer to a weak one. What a unit should gross, and what a booking really costs to run, is worked through in what a bounce house business actually makes.

Buying gets you a running calendar, reviews and a trained routine on day one. Starting costs less and comes with no inherited problems. The listings above show that a young company with good reviews can be bought for little more than its equipment, which is often the best of both.

Sources: BizBuySell listings read 16 October 2026; US Small Business Administration, 7(a) loans page, read 16 October 2026.

If you start instead, the full plan is in how to start a bounce house rental business, and the ways to pay for a fleet are in bounce house financing. Either way, the party rental business plan template gives you startup costs, a two year projection and break even as a PDF, which is what a bank or a seller carrying a note will ask to see.

Due diligence is the checking you do between an accepted offer and closing. For a party rental company it means proving four things: the equipment exists and is fit to rent, the revenue is real and will stay, the customers and online presence will follow you, and no liability will.

Ask for each of these, in writing, before you close:

1. Inventory list with ages. Every item, quantity, purchase date and purchase price, matched against invoices. Count it yourself. For inflatables, the serial number on each data plate.
2. Condition, inflated or set up. Every bounce house inflated, every tent top unrolled, a sample of chairs and tables loaded. Seams, baffles, anchor points, vinyl and blowers.
3. Inspection records. In states that regulate inflatables, the inspection history and any permits, plus the repair log. Which states require what is in licenses, permits and inspections.
4. Three years of financials. Tax returns, profit and loss statements and bank deposits that match. Rebuild SDE yourself.
5. Booking records. Orders by month for three years, average order value, and the share that came from repeat customers, schools, churches, planners and venues.
6. Customer concentration. If one venue, school district or planner sends most of the work, find out whether that relationship belongs to the business or to the owner.
7. Reviews and online presence. The Google Business Profile, the review count and rating, the website and its rankings, the social accounts and who controls each one.
8. Insurance loss runs. A loss run is the insurer's record of every claim on the policy. Ask for five years. Injury and wind claims tell you how the crew sets up. How underwriters read them is in bounce house insurance.
9. Open bookings and deposits held. Every future booking, what was paid on it, and what is still owed. See the next section but one.
10. Vehicles, lease and contracts. Titles, maintenance records, the warehouse lease and its expiry, and any truck lease you would assume. The Riverside listing, for example, includes three box trucks and a fourth leased truck the buyer takes over.
11. Software and accounts. The booking system, payment processor, domain, phone carrier and email. Which can be transferred, and which are tied to the seller personally.
12. Staff. Who stays, at what pay, and whether the experienced installers are on payroll or paid as contractors.

For a local rental company, the Google profile, the website domain and the phone number carry most of the goodwill you are paying for. Each one moves by its own rules, and each should be transferred to you as a condition of closing, not as a favor afterwards.

Reviews stay attached to the Google profile, which is why the profile matters more than the website. Do not let a seller close the old profile and start a new one: the reviews would not follow. Google also notes that a departing owner's past replies to reviews stay on the profile.

Sequence it so nothing lapses: add yourself as an owner of the profile two weeks before closing, start the domain transfer and the number port in the week before, and keep the seller reachable for a month after.

Every future booking is work you will do for money the seller may already have taken. A deposit held on a booking after closing is a liability that comes with the business, so the price should come down by the deposits you will have to honor.

Four things to settle in the purchase agreement:

1. A list of every open booking, with the customer, date, items, total, paid and owed, as of the closing date. The Myrtle Beach listing above includes "upcoming bookings", and the Temple listing says bookings are secured through year end: both are things to verify line by line.
2. A credit at closing equal to the deposits held for events after closing. You deliver those parties, so you should hold the money for them.
3. Who collects the balances due after closing. Usually the buyer, into the buyer's own payment account.
4. What happens to a booking the seller took at a price you would not have, or for a date the fleet cannot cover. Decide before closing, not on the Saturday.

Check open bookings against the inventory list. A seller who promised the same water slide to two parties on the same day has handed you a problem, and it is cheaper to find it in October than in June. The same discipline applies when you move the bookings into your own system, below.

The structure decides what you are buying, what you owe afterwards and how the price is paid. Small rental deals are often asset sales, sometimes with seller financing, and usually with a short transition period in which the seller trains the buyer.

Asset sale or stock sale

In an asset sale you buy the equipment, vehicles, name, domain, phone number and customer list, and generally leave the seller's company and its past behind. The Lusby listing states that it is an asset sale. When the assets make up a trade or business, the IRS requires both buyer and seller to file Form 8594, the Asset Acquisition Statement, which reports how the price is allocated across the assets.

In a stock sale (or a membership interest sale, for an LLC) you buy the company itself, with its contracts, its tax history and any claim from a past party. That can keep a lease, insurance or a vendor account in place, but it also carries the history. Ask an attorney which fits before you sign a letter of intent.

Seller financing

Seller financing means the seller lends part of the price and you repay it over time. It is in demand: BizBuySell's second quarter 2026 survey found 90 percent of buyers expect it, while only 29 percent of owners plan to offer it.

The Lusby listing shows a typical small deal: 30 percent down ($10,200) with the balance at 9 percent over 24 to 36 months, secured by the equipment. On the $23,800 balance that works out to about $1,087 a month over 24 months or $757 over 36, our arithmetic. Make sure the payment fits inside the off season, when a bounce house company earns little.

Bank and SBA loans

The US Small Business Administration's 7(a) program lists changes of ownership as an approved use, up to a $5 million maximum loan. The Riverside listing advertises SBA financing to qualified buyers with 15 to 20 percent down. Lenders look hard at the seller's tax returns, so a business whose books do not support its asking price may not finance at that price. The financing options for a fleet are in bounce house financing.

The transition period

Write the handover into the agreement: how many weeks the seller trains you, whether they ride along on deliveries, introduce you to key venues and planners, and stay reachable for questions. The Temple and Lusby sellers both offer training. A non compete, limited to the service area and a reasonable term, protects the goodwill you paid for; its enforceability depends on state law.

Close in the off season if you can. November to February gives you time to learn the fleet, fix the books and move the bookings before spring.

The same logic applies in Canada: equipment value as a floor, a multiple of earnings for a profitable company, and the same checks on the fleet, the reviews and the bookings. Two things differ, and both need a Canadian accountant.

• GST/HST on the sale. The Canada Revenue Agency's form GST44 is used to elect not to have GST/HST apply to the sale of a business or part of a business. Whether the election is available depends on what is sold and who is buying.
• Share or asset sale. Canadians call a stock sale a share sale. The trade offs are the same in principle, but the tax treatment differs from the US.

Provincial rules on inflatables also differ from state rules: see licenses, permits and inspections.

To sell a party rental business, make it easy for a buyer to trust your numbers and to run the business without you. Owners who prepare get financed buyers; owners who do not get offers at the price of their equipment.

BizBuySell's second quarter 2026 report found that 52 percent of owners say they have an exit plan, while buyers and lenders have grown more selective, and brokers named SBA eligibility as a major driver of what a business sells for. In practice that means:

1. Clean books for three years. Separate business and personal spending, file the returns, and be able to show your SDE from them.
2. An inventory list with dates and prices, and a fleet in good repair. Retire worn units before you list, rather than let a buyer find them.
3. Booking history you can export, by month and by customer type, with repeat customers visible.
4. Transferable accounts. The Google profile, domain, phone number and social pages in the business's name, not your personal one.
5. A business that runs without you. Written procedures, a trained crew, and venue and planner relationships that more than one person holds.
6. A realistic price. Get a valuation, or ask a broker for comparable sales, and expect buyers to read your asking multiple against the 2.7 average.
7. Timing. List after a strong season so the full year's numbers are on paper, and plan for it to take a while: service businesses that sold in the second quarter of 2026 had a median of 155 days on the market.

Be ready to offer some seller financing. With 90 percent of buyers expecting it, a seller who refuses narrows the field.

The day you take over, every open booking has to be in your system, with the right items and the right amounts paid. Get the seller's exports before closing, while their software subscription is still active, and move the catalog and the open bookings before the first spring weekend.

What to get from the seller's system before access ends: the inventory list, every open and future booking with amounts paid and owed, the customer list, signed agreements and waivers, catalog photos at full size, and payment history for your accountant. The full export list and a two week cutover plan are in switching rental software without losing a season.

If you move the company onto Rentopus, the migration page sets out what comes across and how. The catalog comes in from a CSV or Excel file of up to 2,000 rows, with InflatableOffice and Goodshuffle Pro files recognized. Open bookings are entered by hand, nearest dates first, and each item shows how many are free as you add it, so a unit the old system sold twice shows up before the Saturday. There is no customer list import: a customer is created with their first booking. Past orders and signed paperwork stay in the seller's old system, so keep a readable export of it for at least a season.