13 Best Business Brokers in Houston: Fees and Deal Sizes 2026

This guide profiles 13 verified business brokers in Houston, from Main Street brokerages selling restaurants and service companies to lower middle market M&A advisors running competitive processes for industrial and healthcare businesses. Each entry lists deal size, sectors, location and website.

Houston is not a generic brokerage market. The buyer pool is shaped by the energy complex that runs from upstream service companies through the petrochemical plants along the Ship Channel, the fabrication, distribution and specialty contracting businesses that supply them, and the Texas Medical Center. A broker who has sold a machine shop knows a completely different buyer list than one who has sold dental practices.

That mix explains why so many Houston owners sell to buyers from outside Texas: private equity platforms building out industrial services, national strategic acquirers in distribution, and international buyers who want a Gulf Coast footprint. Add a founder generation that started in the 1980s and 1990s and is now retiring, and a steady flow of owner-managed businesses reaches the market every year.

Quick list of business brokers in Houston

• Certified Business Brokers: One of the country's oldest brokerages, founded in Houston in 1974.
• CGK Business Sales: Multi-city brokerage selling companies from roughly $1.5M in revenue upward.
• Gentry Company: Specialist in industrial manufacturing, distribution and service firms.
• Crutchfield Capital: Boutique investment bank covering energy services, healthcare and industrial deals.
• Gilbert & Pardue Transaction Advisors: Lower middle market advisory firm run by former operators.
• TruView Business Advisors: Downtown brokerage for Main Street and small lower middle market sales.
• Exit Equity: Sell-side advisory and valuation practice with CBI-credentialed advisors.
• Del Lingco International: Long-established Houston brokerage handling mid-sized private companies.
• Healthcare Growth Partners: Investment bank focused exclusively on health IT and healthcare technology.
• Sunbelt Business Brokers Texas: Houston office of the Sunbelt network, several hundred local sales.
• Transworld Business Advisors of South and West Texas: Large regional team covering franchise resales too.
• Murphy Business Central Houston: Local office of a North American network, strong on valuations.
• Texas Business Brokers: Statewide brokerage with offices in Houston, Austin and Dallas.

How to get yes from business brokers in Houston

Good Houston brokers turn work away. A firm that runs a real process spends months on each engagement, so it screens for businesses that will actually close. That screen is mostly about your books: three years of clean financials, a tax return that reconciles to your profit and loss, and a written add-back schedule with supporting invoices.

The second filter is concentration. If one customer is 40 percent of revenue, or one operator holds the relationships that generate the work, buyers discount hard or ask for a large earnout. You do not have to fix it first, but you need to explain it.

The third filter is document readiness. Brokers judge how organised a seller is within two meetings, and emailing a zip file of scans fails that test. Put everything in one permissioned place and share it as a link. Our comparison of the best virtual data rooms covers the options at each budget.

Have these ready before your first broker meeting:

1. Three years of financial statements plus the current year to date
2. Federal tax returns matching those statements
3. An add-back schedule with a justification for each item
4. Revenue by customer for the last two years
5. Equipment, vehicle and inventory schedules with book values
6. Leases, licences, permits and environmental filings
7. An organisation chart showing who does what without you

Start 7-day data room trial

No credit card required.

How to find business brokers in Houston

Most owners meet three or four brokers before signing. The criteria below make those meetings comparable rather than a series of sales pitches.

• Deal size band: Ask what their smallest and largest closings were last year. A firm selling mostly under $1M runs a different process than one marketing to private equity.
• IBBA and M&A Source membership: Both bodies set education and ethics standards, and membership is easy to verify.
• CBI or M&AMI credential: The two designations that require coursework and transaction experience rather than a subscription.
• Texas Association of Business Brokers: TABB has an active Houston chapter, and membership signals the broker works this market.
• Industry specialisation: For energy services, fabrication, distribution and healthcare, ask for three closings in that exact sector.
• Buyer network: A Houston broker should be able to name the platforms and strategic acquirers buying in your niche now.
• Fee structure: Retainer, success fee formula, minimum fee, and what happens if you accept an unsolicited offer.
• References: Ask for two owners who sold in the last 18 months and one whose deal did not close. The second call is more informative.

How to approach business brokers in Houston

Treat the first meeting as a two-way diligence session. You are testing whether they understand your business and whether their process reaches the buyers who pay most.

• Send a short anonymised summary first: sector, revenue, adjusted earnings, headcount, reason for selling.
• Ask for a written opinion of value with the method behind it.
• Compare at least two proposals side by side, fee schedules included.
• Ask who runs your deal day to day and how many other engagements they carry.
• Ask how they screen buyers before releasing the confidential information memorandum.
• Check the agreement term, exclusivity clause and tail period after termination.
• Share your document set as a trackable link so you can see which advisors actually reviewed it.

Comparison of business brokers in Houston

1. Certified Business Brokers

Certified Business Brokers has operated from Houston since 1974 and is one of the oldest brokerage firms in the United States. It handles valuations and appraisals alongside sales, covering restaurants, service businesses, distribution and light manufacturing across the metro.

• Deal size: Up to roughly $30M
• Sectors: Restaurants, services, distribution, manufacturing
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: Certified Business Brokers
• Notable: Founding member of the International Business Brokers Association and the Texas Association of Business Brokers

2. CGK Business Sales

CGK Business Sales runs its Houston practice as part of a firm with named brokers in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and cities outside Texas. The Houston team skips very small listings: its stated threshold is around $1.5M in revenue or $300K in seller's discretionary earnings.

• Deal size: $1.5M in revenue and above
• Sectors: Services, industrial, healthcare, distribution
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: CGK Business Sales
• Notable: Member of the International Business Brokers Association and M&A Source

3. Gentry Company

Gentry Company is unusually narrow for a Houston brokerage. It works only with industrial manufacturing, distribution and service firms, the profile that dominates the northwest and east side of the metro.

• Deal size: Businesses with $1M to $25M in sales
• Sectors: Industrial manufacturing, distribution, industrial services
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: Gentry Company
• Notable: Started as an industrial consultancy in 1999 and has brokered businesses since 2002

4. Crutchfield Capital

Crutchfield Capital is a boutique investment bank rather than a listing brokerage. It advises middle market owners on change of control and funding transactions, with coverage that maps onto the Houston economy: energy services, healthcare, manufacturing and industrial, professional services and specialty distribution.

• Deal size: Middle market
• Sectors: Energy services, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, distribution
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: Crutchfield Capital

5. Gilbert & Pardue Transaction Advisors

Gilbert & Pardue, which trades as GaP Transaction Advisors, is a Houston boutique serving lower middle market owners. Alongside sell-side and buy-side representation it offers valuation and value-growth work for owners two or three years from an exit.

• Deal size: Lower middle market and middle market
• Sectors: Multi-sector, services, industrial
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: GaP Transaction Advisors
• Notable: Founded by principals who have built, acquired and exited operating businesses themselves

6. TruView Business Advisors

TruView Business Advisors is a boutique brokerage based downtown that handles confidential sales of privately held Houston companies. It covers the band where Main Street brokerage overlaps with the lower middle market, where most owner-managed service businesses sit.

• Deal size: $500K to $10M
• Sectors: All industries, Main Street and lower middle market
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: TruView Business Advisors

7. Exit Equity

Exit Equity brings an investment banking process to Houston businesses too small for a bulge bracket bank. It has offered sell-side advisory and valuation services for close to two decades across home services, business services, energy, technology and manufacturing.

• Deal size: Lower middle market
• Sectors: Home services, business services, energy, technology, manufacturing
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: Exit Equity
• Notable: Advisors hold the Certified Business Intermediary credential

8. Del Lingco International

Del Lingco International is one of the longest-running brokerages in the Houston market, operating from the Katy Freeway corridor. It specialises in the valuation and sale of mid-sized privately held companies across a wide industry range.

• Deal size: Small to mid-sized privately held companies
• Sectors: Multi-sector, industrial, services
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: Del Lingco International
• Notable: The firm states it has served buyers and sellers for more than 57 years

9. Healthcare Growth Partners

Healthcare Growth Partners is a Houston-based investment bank working exclusively in health information technology. It runs sell-side and buy-side processes, capital advisory and pre-transaction growth strategy work for the software and services companies orbiting the Texas Medical Center.

• Deal size: Health IT transactions
• Sectors: Health IT, healthcare technology
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: Healthcare Growth Partners

10. Sunbelt Business Brokers Texas

The Sunbelt Texas office in Houston is part of one of the largest brokerage networks in the world and reports several hundred completed local sales. It covers the full Main Street to middle market range.

• Deal size: Main Street to middle market
• Sectors: All industries
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: Sunbelt Business Brokers Texas

11. Transworld Business Advisors of South and West Texas

Transworld's South and West Texas region is headquartered in Houston on Wilcrest Drive and fields one of the largest broker teams in the state. Alongside conventional brokerage it handles franchise resales, which matters if you are a multi-unit franchisee.

• Deal size: Main Street to lower middle market
• Sectors: All industries, franchise resales
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: Transworld Business Advisors of South and West Texas
• Notable: The region fields a team of more than 40 brokers and support staff

12. Murphy Business Central Houston

Murphy Business operates one of the larger brokerage networks in North America. Its Central Houston office covers sales, valuations and buyer representation, and the valuation practice is useful if you are two or three years out from selling.

• Deal size: Main Street to lower middle market
• Sectors: All industries
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: Murphy Business Central Houston

13. Texas Business Brokers

Texas Business Brokers sells companies across the state from offices in Houston, Austin and Dallas. The statewide footprint helps when the natural acquirer for a Houston business is a DFW operator adding a Gulf Coast branch.

• Deal size: Main Street to lower middle market
• Sectors: All industries
• Location: Houston, TX
• Website: Texas Business Brokers

Common mistakes when hiring a business broker in Houston

The most expensive mistake is hiring on valuation. Some brokers win listings by quoting a number the market will not support, then spend nine months talking the owner down. Ask every firm to show the comparable transactions behind the figure.

Consider a Houston oilfield rental business with $9M in revenue and $1.6M in adjusted earnings. The owner signed with a generalist brokerage that listed it publicly at a 5x multiple. Four months in, the only interest came from individual buyers who could not fund the deal, and two customers had heard the business was for sale. The owner terminated, re-engaged an advisor with industrial experience, rebuilt the add-back schedule and equipment records, and ran a targeted process to 40 named buyers under NDA. That produced four indications of interest and closed near 5.5x, driven less by the multiple than by earnings the first broker never documented.

Two smaller errors cost real money: signing without reading the tail period, which can oblige you to pay a fee on a sale to any introduced party for a year or more after termination, and releasing detailed financials before an NDA is signed.

Why you need secure document sharing in a Houston sale

A broker-run sale in Houston means a teaser to a wide list, an NDA, then a confidential information memorandum and a document room for buyers who clear the screen. That sequence pulls a heavy file: master service agreements and rate sheets, contract backlog, equipment and rental fleet schedules, environmental filings and safety records, quality certifications, and three years of financials with an add-back schedule behind them.

The parties asking for that file are frequently your competitors. Private equity platforms rolling up industrial and energy services approach two or three Ship Channel contractors before they buy one, and the strategic most likely to pay a premium for your fabrication shop or oilfield rental fleet is the operator running the same yard in Pasadena or Conroe. Your day rates, your customer concentration and your crew pay bands are precisely what a rival cannot obtain any other way, and a CIM sent as an attachment gives all three to a dozen firms at once, most of whom will not proceed.

What a leak costs in Houston is measured in crews and customers. Welders, operators and field supervisors are the scarcest thing in the metro, and a rumour that the business is for sale moves through a yard in a weekend. Procurement at a petrochemical account you have held for fifteen years starts qualifying a second vendor, the general contractor on your largest job asks your bonding company about a change of control, and a landlord on a leased yard or a manufacturer whose dealer agreement you hold both have consent rights they will exercise once they hear about it early. Email attachments cannot be recalled, cannot be watermarked, and tell you nothing about who actually opened them.

Data room for Houston M&A

A permissioned data room keeps the CIM, financials and contracts behind an NDA until a buyer qualifies.

A data room for Houston M&A is the permissioned workspace where your broker stages the diligence file and runs a wide buyer list through it at once, without any of them seeing what the others see. It is what a Houston adviser means when they ask whether your documents are ready.

Papermark is a secure, fully customizable, and developer-friendly data room built for exactly this: a secure data room for your Houston sale process that keeps the sensitive parts of the file locked while the process runs.

The benefit for a seller is visibility. NDA gating means a buyer accepts terms inside the link before the CIM opens. Dynamic watermarking stamps each page with the viewer's email, which discourages onward sharing of customer schedules. Granular file-level permissions release the general folder to everyone while master service agreements and job costing stay locked to the two parties still standing after bids. Page-by-page analytics tell your broker which buyers read the quality of earnings section and which opened the deck for 40 seconds, usually a better predictor of a real offer than enthusiasm on a call. The audit log records every view and download. You can set up a secure data room in an afternoon and give your broker admin access.

The Data Rooms plan is €149/month, or €99/month billed annually, with a 7-day free trial, and includes 3 team members, unlimited data rooms, unlimited documents, a custom domain, dynamic watermarking, NDA agreements, and granular file-level permissions.

Why Papermark as a data room provider for Houston M&A

Most virtual data rooms were built for bankers and priced for them. Papermark is a secure data room for modern dealmakers, and it is more customizable and more branded than any other VDR on the market.

• Security first. SOC 2 Type II, granular file-level permissions, dynamic watermarking on every page, and NDA agreements that sit on the link itself.
• Open source and self-hostable. The codebase is public, and Enterprise can run it in your own environment, which matters when a buyer's IT team asks where the documents actually live.
• Branded and white-labelled. Custom domain and full white-labelling, so the room carries your firm's name rather than a vendor's.
• AI and MCP. 43 typed MCP tools over the Model Context Protocol let Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT or your own code drive the room, plus a REST API for everything else.
• Chat with your data room. Papermark AI answers questions across the room and the documents in it, so you are not scrolling a folder tree to find one clause.
• Built for Houston deals. Permissions are set per file, so the sensitive parts of the file can stay locked to final bidders while the general file stays open.

Did not find the right business broker in Houston?

If the fit is not there, go direct. Plenty of Houston businesses sell to a strategic buyer, a private equity platform or a search fund that approached the owner without an intermediary.

If none of the thirteen above fits, the M&A advisors database lists every firm we have researched by city and by industry, with deal sizes and sectors side by side. Filter to Houston to compare these against each other, or widen to a nearby metro if the local bench is thin.

Browse the M&A advisors database

FAQ

Related resources

• M&A advisors database with every firm we have researched, by city and by industry
• Papermark data room for sharing deal documents with buyers
• Best virtual data rooms compared on price and features
• M&A due diligence checklist
• Sell-side due diligence for preparing before you go to market
• Letter of intent in an acquisition
• Selling to private equity