Skip to main content

Texas Childcare Business Brokerage

Sell Your Texas Childcare Center, Preschool, or Private School With Complete Confidentiality

With 37+ years of exclusive early-education transaction experience, SIP and its Texas-licensed team help owners maximize exit value while protecting staff, enrolled families, and legacy.

Request a Confidential Texas ValuationCall (888) 881-0118 (Hablamos Español)
  • 37+ YearsEst. 1989
  • 1,000+Centers sold
  • $1B+In closed sales
  • ConfidentialBlind-profile process

Why Selling a Childcare Business in Texas Requires a Specialist Broker

Selling a licensed childcare center in Texas requires coordinating a new HHSC Child Care Regulation permit for the buyer, background checks, Texas Rising Star reassessment, and the Child Care Services agreement with your local workforce board. General business brokers often overlook these regulatory triggers, risking closing delays or enrollment loss.

Strictly speaking, a Texas childcare permit does not move with the business. Under HHSC Child Care Regulation policy, a change in ownership revokes the operation's permit, and the new owner must apply for a new one. That one rule sets off a chain of steps the buyer, the lender, and you all have to plan around:

  • A new permit. Issued by HHSC Child Care Regulation to the new owner, with new application and license fees. HHSC added an expedited change-of-ownership process in March 2026.
  • Background checks. Requested through HHSC Child Care Regulation for the new owner and staff, including FBI fingerprint checks.
  • A re-signed Child Care Services agreement. Workforce boards must have the provider agreement re-signed when facility ownership or the permit number changes.
  • Texas Rising Star reassessment. A certified program is reassessed within three months of the new permit, and the result restarts the three-year certification cycle.

SIP has focused on childcare and private-school transactions since E.T. and Pam Strickland founded the firm in 1989, and our Texas broker, Robert L. Johnson, is an active center owner. We build these steps into the purchase agreement and closing schedule from the start, so licensing and funding deadlines are planned for, not discovered late.

How We Value Texas Daycares, Preschools & Educational Real Estate

A defensible price starts with the right earnings measure and a clear view of the real estate. We work through both with you before your business goes to market.

SDE or EBITDA

Owner-operated centers are usually valued on seller's discretionary earnings (SDE): profit with the owner's salary, benefits, and one-time or personal expenses added back, because the buyer will usually step into the owner's role. Larger centers and multi-site groups with a director and management team in place are usually valued on EBITDA, the measure multi-unit operators and investors use to compare acquisitions.

Leased Facility or Fee-Simple Property

In a leased center, much of the value rides on the lease: the term remaining, renewal options, rent, and whether the landlord will consent to an assignment or a new lease for the buyer. When you own the building outright (fee simple), the real estate is valued separately from the business, and the two can be sold together or separately.

Keep the Building, Become the Landlord

Owners who want ongoing income can sell the business, keep the real estate, and sign the buyer to a new triple-net (NNN) lease, under which the tenant pays property taxes, insurance, and maintenance on top of rent. The rent you set works on both sides: it is an expense in the business's earnings and the income that sets the building's value as an investment.

Multiples vary widely: two Texas centers with similar revenue can be valued very differently once enrollment, staff tenure, licensing history, Texas Rising Star certification, Child Care Services participation, and the lease are taken into account. How our confidential valuation works

Navigating Texas HHSC Licensing, Texas Rising Star & Child Care Services

What changes hands in a Texas childcare sale, what doesn't, and who signs off.

Who licenses the new owner

Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) Child Care Regulation issues the permits for licensed child care centers statewide. When ownership changes, the permit is revoked and the new owner applies for its own, paying new application and license fees. HHSC asks the current permit holder to notify Licensing as early as possible before the change, and since March 2026 it has offered an expedited process for change-of-ownership applications.

Background checks

Licensed centers request background checks through their online Child Care Regulation account, including one for each owner, and staff complete FBI fingerprint checks. Buyers who start their checks early keep them off the critical path.

Child Care Services and Texas Rising Star

Child Care Services (CCS), the subsidy program run by local workforce boards under the Texas Workforce Commission, requires the provider agreement to be re-signed when facility ownership or the permit number changes. Texas Rising Star treats a change of ownership as a facility change: the program is reassessed within three months of the new permit, and certification earned then restarts the three-year cycle.

Grandfathered conditions

HHSC's handbook says grandfather provisions generally stop applying after a change in ownership unless Licensing determines the change didn't affect them. We review the building and operation against current minimum standards before you go to market, so a buyer's inspection holds no surprises.

Visit HHSC Child Care Regulation's provider pages

General information, not legal advice. Agencies update their forms and rules, so confirm current requirements with your licensing office.

Statewide Representation Across Every Major Texas Market

SIP's Texas-licensed broker and associate represent sellers across the state. HHSC Child Care Regulation permits centers statewide, so the same change-of-ownership rules apply in every market.

  • Dallas–Fort Worth

    • Dallas
    • Fort Worth
    • Collin & Denton counties

  • Greater Houston

    • Houston
    • Katy & Fort Bend County
    • The Woodlands

  • Central Texas

    • Austin
    • Round Rock & Williamson County
    • Waco

  • San Antonio & South Texas

    • San Antonio
    • New Braunfels
    • Corpus Christi

Don't see your area? Our Texas team works statewide; call (888) 881-0118.

Texas Childcare Sellers: Common Questions

Private. Confidential. No Obligation.

Request a Confidential Texas Valuation

Tell us about your Texas center and what you are considering. Your inquiry is confidential and puts you under no obligation.

Robert L. Johnson, Broker at School Investment Properties, childcare business brokerage

Broker | Multi-State

Robert L. Johnson

Robert has owned and operated several centers in the Southeast and currently owns a center in Monroe, Georgia. That operating experience helps bring the right buyer and seller together and keep a sale moving through closing.

Meet our team

Also licensed in Texas

  • Justin BoatnerSales Associate

Prefer to call?

(888) 881-0118

Hablamos Español

Headquarters: 3309 Northlake Blvd, Suite 107, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33403

Please do not submit tax returns, financial statements, legal documents, employee records, family information, or other sensitive files through this form. Initial conversations can begin with high-level, non-sensitive information.