What Is My Security & Alarm Business Worth in 2026?

Security and alarm businesses are selling at 6.0x-12.0x EBITDA for commercial integrators in 2026, with high-quality recurring monthly revenue (RMR) books pricing separately at 35x-50x per dollar of monthly recurring revenue. Which framework applies to your business depends on the customer mix and the share of revenue that is contracted, recurring, and low-attrition. Most deals end up blending both lenses.

Who this is for

This guide is for owners of commercial security integrators, residential alarm companies, electronic access control specialists, video surveillance integrators, and central station operators generating between $2M and $50M in annual revenue who are evaluating a sale within the next 12 to 36 months. If your trailing-twelve-month EBITDA is above $750K and a meaningful share of revenue is recurring monitoring or service, the buyer pool is deep and the timing is favorable.

How are security and alarm businesses valued in 2026?

Two frameworks dominate. Commercial integrators with installation, service, and monitoring revenue are valued on normalized EBITDA, with multiples in the 6.0x-12.0x range. Pure residential monitoring books — companies whose value is concentrated in a contracted monthly recurring revenue stream — are often valued on RMR multiples in the 35x-50x range, sometimes higher for very low attrition portfolios. Most real-world transactions blend the two lenses: buyers underwrite EBITDA primarily, then validate the price by checking implied RMR multiples on the recurring portion of the business.

EBITDA normalization in this industry is more aggressive than in many others. Buyers will subtract non-recurring installation gross profit, add back above-market owner compensation, normalize for one-time large project work, and reserve for accounts at risk based on aging, payment history, and contract length. The result is a "quality of EBITDA" view that often differs from book EBITDA by 10-25%.

What multiples are security and alarm companies trading at right now?

Platform-quality commercial integrators — typically $1.5M+ EBITDA with 50%+ recurring revenue, multi-state licensing, UL-listed monitoring station relationships, and ESA or NICET-certified technician depth — are pricing at 9.0x-12.0x EBITDA in competitive processes. I have personally seen 11.0x and 12.0x prints in the last twelve months for businesses with concentrated commercial customer bases in healthcare, government, and Class A office. Tuck-in commercial integrators with $500K-$1.5M EBITDA price at 6.0x-9.0x depending on customer concentration and recurring mix.

Residential RMR books trade at 35x-50x monthly RMR, with the best low-attrition portfolios occasionally reaching 55x. Cellular conversion status, attrition rate, and dealer-versus-direct-sold mix all factor in. A book where 95%+ of accounts are on cellular communicators with sub-7% annual attrition will price at the top of the range; a book with significant POTS-line exposure or 15%+ attrition will be aggressively discounted or restructured into earn-out paper.

Who is buying security and alarm companies in 2026?

The active acquirer table is led by Pavion (the post-merger Convergint-Coleman platform, one of the most active commercial integrator consolidators), Pye-Barker Fire & Safety (now actively acquiring in low-voltage life safety alongside fire protection), ADT Commercial (now branded ADT Commercial / Everon), Securitas Technology (formerly Stanley Convergent), Allied Universal Technology Services, Brinks Home Security (the dominant strategic for residential RMR portfolios), Johnson Controls, Convergint Technologies, Per Mar Security Services, and Vector Security. Below the platform consolidators sit a deep bench of regional operators backed by lower-middle-market PE pursuing $500K-$2M EBITDA add-ons.

Residential RMR portfolios have their own specialized buyer pool. Specialty alarm capital lenders and dealer-program operators purchase contract books on a recurring basis, and for a pure residential book the structuring tradeoffs (cash up-front, holdback for attrition, multiyear earnouts) often matter more than the headline multiple. Many of the same buyers active in security also compete in adjacent low-voltage life safety; my fire protection valuation guide walks through the parallel dynamics.

What makes a security and alarm business worth more?

Six drivers move the multiple, in roughly this order of impact:

1. RMR mix and quality. Recurring monitoring and service revenue above 50% of total revenue is the threshold for premium pricing; above 70% is platform-grade. Buyers underwrite recurring revenue at a much higher multiple than installation revenue.

2. Attrition rate. Sub-10% annual gross attrition is the threshold for premium pricing; sub-5% is exceptional and adds material multiple expansion. Attrition is the single best predictor of long-term enterprise value because every percentage point of attrition compounds against the buyer's IRR model.

3. Cellular conversion percentage. The share of monitored accounts on cellular communicators rather than POTS lines. The higher the better — ideally 95%+. POTS exposure is a known landmine for buyers and will be priced accordingly.

4. UL-listed monitoring station relationship. Whether you operate your own central station or contract with a UL-listed third party, the contract terms — pricing, ownership of the data, switching rights — meaningfully affect transferability and value.

5. Technician credentialing. ESA-certified, NICET-certified, and state-licensed technician depth. Buyers cannot grow without licensed labor and discount businesses where the credentials sit only with the owner.

6. Customer concentration. No single customer above 15% of revenue, and a healthy mix across vertical segments — healthcare, education, government, commercial real estate, retail, residential.

What hurts security and alarm valuations?

The single most common valuation killer is high attrition. A business with 15%+ annual attrition will have its RMR valued aggressively lower regardless of headline EBITDA, because buyers know the contract base is melting in real time. The second most common is heavy installation revenue concentration without a service or monitoring tail — installation work is project-based, hard to forecast, and often grew because of a one-time customer relationship that does not survive a sale. The third is POTS-line exposure on the residential book; buyers will require the seller to fund cellular conversion before close or take a steep discount. Fourth is owner-dependent licensing — a business where only the owner holds the state license is functionally untransferable until that situation is fixed. Finally, undisclosed AHJ violations or open monitoring complaints will surface in diligence and create retrade risk.

How long does it take to sell a security and alarm business?

Commercial integrator deals run 6 to 9 months from go-to-market with a complete CIM. The first 60-90 days are buyer outreach, NDAs, management presentations, and bid solicitation. LOI selection and negotiation takes 30-45 days. Quality of Earnings, RMR audit, technician license verification, monitoring station diligence, and final purchase agreement negotiation run 75-120 days from LOI. Pure residential RMR books often close faster — 90-120 days for established consolidators with standing acquisition programs and pre-built diligence checklists. The seller's preparation work, especially RMR aging and attrition documentation, is the variable that most often shortens or lengthens the timeline. To benchmark against an adjacent skilled-trades sector, see my electrical contracting valuation guide, which covers parallel buyer dynamics for licensed-trade businesses.

John's Take. I closed a commercial security integrator last year with $2.4M EBITDA and a 58% recurring revenue mix. The buyer underwrote it at 10.6x EBITDA, but they also separately confirmed an RMR multiple equivalent of about 42x on the monitoring book to validate the price. When you sell a security business, you are really selling two assets — an operating company and a recurring contract book — and the smartest sellers prepare both stories before going to market.