Check the history of the accounts to assess if the accounts are paid in a timely manner. Ensure that the person offering the accounts is actually the owner of the accounts.

Get a complete history of the accounts. The history should show dates of services performed incase a warranty query arises. It should indicate when the account was billed and when payment was received. It should also show a guide to the prices charged for additional services performed and the age of the accounts.

Ensure that the accounts are in locations that you are looking for and that they are reasonably close to one another. Trade accounts with others to tighten your route and improve your bottom line by shortening time spent travelling and service more accounts in less time.

Talk to the account holder and meet them to ensure you’re comfortable with them. If you’re new to the industry involved you should ask for a training period some times up to a month. You need to be comfortable with the account holder to smooth the transaction. If you are not it may not be wise to go through with it.

The accounts should be guaranteed normally for a period of 3 months. During this time if a customer cancels service other than negligence of the new account holder these accounts should be replaced with accounts of the same value or the amount paid returned.

This can be any where between 3-5 years. During this period the original account holder signs a covenant not to compete on the accounts.

If buying or selling accounts an escrow account can be opened with a licensed escrow company. This account can hold certain funds during the transaction. This can protect both parties during the process.

Retaining a percentage of the purchase price until all commitments on both sides have been completed. This can be held in escrow.

In many industries the purchase price of the accounts is a multiple of the monthly gross service income. The multiple can be any where up to 12 times the monthly gross income. Both parties negotiate and agree on the multiple used.