How much is a veterinary practice worth?

What multiple of EBITDA do veterinary practices sell for?

In mid-2024, Simmons & Associates put sales to private veterinarians at 4 to 6 times adjusted EBITDA and Mandelbaum Barrett put corporate sales at 7 to 12 times; BizBuySell's veterinary listings were asking 2.52 to 4.20 times SDE on October 27, 2026.

Each row sits on its own base. Adjusted EBITDA has already paid a fair salary for the owner's clinical work; SDE has not, because it includes the owner's salary and other benefits. Simmons' Doyle Watson notes that many accountants and appraisers keep EBITDA apart from the cash an owner can take out of the practice. Apply a multiple quoted on EBITDA to that larger figure and you overstate value.

Simmons and Mandelbaum Barrett both advise on practice sales, so read each range as that firm's own view. Simmons says its corporate figure depends on many factors. Its percent-of-gross range applies only to a well-managed, reasonably profitable practice grossing over $900,000 that sells to a private veterinarian, and the firm says there is no general rule of thumb for practice value.

How much does a veterinary practice sell for?

BizBuySell publishes no free, public sold-price benchmark for veterinary practices; its free veterinary figures come from current listings. On October 27, 2026, the 56 listings it analyzed in its Veterinary Practices category asked a median $1,040,000, and their median revenue was $1,063,239.

Read these as asking figures. BizBuySell says multiples based on listings generally run higher than those of businesses that actually sold, because owners set asking prices above what their businesses typically sell for. Its veterinary page does not say which asking prices include real estate.

BizBuySell's SDE includes the owner's salary and other benefits, so for a veterinarian-owner it includes the pay for clinical work that a buyer would have to replace. The category's 87 results that day also included some non-veterinary pet businesses and asset-only offers.

Closed prices from one buyer's SEC filings

Inspire Veterinary Partners, a small buyer that filed reports with the SEC until it filed to end its registration in May 2026, disclosed transaction values from $500,000 to about $3.11 million for the 14 hospitals it bought from January 2021 through November 2023. The five deals whose value included no real estate ran from $500,000 to $1,505,000. The filings give no revenue or EBITDA per deal, so no multiple can be worked out, and one small buyer's 14 deals are not a market survey.

How do you value a veterinary practice?

Start from profit, not gross. Simmons' appraisers say buyers pay for income, and the firm says value is driven by profit and risk.

Adjusted EBITDA: profit after fair pay and fair rent

Simmons' appraisers find valuation profit by recasting the practice's tax returns: the owner's salary is adjusted up or down to fair market, and owner pay and rent are treated as operating costs. They usually look at the last two or three years, often as a weighted average.

The pay and rent rates are judgment calls. Simmons' hypothetical example pays the owner-doctor 22% of personal production, adds 3% of gross for management and sets rent at 8% of the building's value; Mandelbaum Barrett's deck uses 20% of production for owner and doctor salaries and rent of 8% to 10% of building value. Simmons labels its figures assumptions, Mandelbaum Barrett's are slide rules of thumb, and fair rates vary by market, species and the doctor's role.

If you pay yourself more than a fair salary, the recast adds the excess back to profit. If you pay yourself less, or your own real estate company charges the practice less than market rent, the recast takes profit down.

SDE: what the owner takes home

Seller's discretionary earnings, the figure BizBuySell uses, includes the owner's salary and other benefits. Simmons' Doyle Watson describes a related figure, adjusted net cash flow, as what the owner can pull from the practice for personal use; Simmons likes to see it around 30% of gross in a well-managed small animal practice, in benchmarks framed for the Southeast.

Percent of gross

Percent of gross is a cross-check. Simmons says a well-managed, reasonably profitable practice grossing over $900,000 should appraise and sell for 85% to 105% of gross to a private veterinary buyer, while corporate prices far exceed 100% of gross. Profit moves that answer: the firm's own example of a low-profit practice comes out at 41% of gross.

Why do corporate buyers pay more than a private veterinarian?

Simmons' appraisers say corporate consolidators price practices on investment value rather than fair market value, and Mandelbaum Barrett ties private multiples to the financing available to private buyers.

For scale, AVMA News reported that the average practice in the AVMA's 2025 owner survey had 2.76 FTE veterinarians in 2024, and the same article put average gross revenue at about $1.5 million; averages are pulled up by larger practices.

The headline multiple is not the cash at closing

Simmons says to expect part of the proceeds of a corporate sale to be paid later, as an earnout, holdback or retention bonus, and that it is also common for part of the price to come as stock in the parent company or retained ownership. Mandelbaum Barrett's deck says corporate buyers typically require the seller to take part of the price in rollover equity.

Two of the firm's attorneys, Peter Tanella and Eileen Funnell, wrote in 2024 that corporate buyers generally no longer offer simple cash deals but a mix of cash, equity, promissory notes and earnouts, and that unless the seller is retiring at once the buyer will most likely require an employment agreement, usually with a noncompete. AAHA's Trends magazine reported in July 2024 that sellers should expect less cash up front and more complex, structured deals.

One filed example: for a Pennsylvania hospital bought in November 2023, Inspire Veterinary Partners paid $800,000 in cash and $400,000 in restricted stock, agreed a $200,000 cash holdback that may be paid after two years, tied to the two selling veterinarians staying on and to revenue targets, and bought the real estate separately for $590,000. The same annual report raised substantial doubt about Inspire's ability to continue as a going concern, so read it for its structure, not as a typical price.

Corporate buyers also compute their own adjusted profit, so the multiple in an offer applies to their number, not yours. Compare offers in dollars: cash at closing, what is deferred and on what conditions, and what any rollover equity in the buyer's parent company could be worth. VetFirm Sales is not a buyer and does not buy practices. More in selling a veterinary practice to a corporate buyer.

What makes one veterinary practice worth more than another?

The sources below point to five things: higher adjusted profit, associates who stay after the sale, more gross and a suburban rather than rural location, clients loyal to the practice rather than to you, and rent that does not eat into earnings. Apart from profit, none of them says how much a factor moves the price.

What is a good EBITDA margin for a vet clinic?

Simmons considers a small animal practice financially healthy at 14% to 18% adjusted profit and sees average practices at 10% to 12%. It says a practice at 7% profit is worth about half as much as the same practice at 14%, which holds if the multiple stays the same. A separate Simmons article sets a healthy profit target of 15% to 20%, which it says practices typically do not reach until revenue passes $1 million.

Associates who stay

Simmons' appraisers say a multi-doctor practice whose associates stay after the sale is worth more than a solo practice whose seller leaves at closing. Simmons' ideal corporate target has at least three FTE veterinarians, and at an AAEP convention session a consultant said equine practices with only one or two doctors carry more risk and lower value.

Size and location

Simmons says salability is fragile for practices grossing under $700,000, practices in rural locations, and large-animal or mixed-animal practices. Fragile is not unsellable: the same article describes mergers and associate buy-ins as exits for those practices. AAHA's Trends magazine reported in July 2024 that Win Lippincott of Ackerman Group said a sale of a one- or two-doctor practice to another practitioner can take years, depending on location.

Clients who stay with the practice

At the 2022 AAEP Convention, Dr. Andrew Clark listed client loyalty to the owner rather than the practice, and no identified successor veterinarian, among the factors that lower an equine practice's value to corporate buyers. Active client counts depend on the definition: in 2015 the VHMA's executive director called a client with a transaction in the last 12 months the industry standard, while many members in a small VHMA survey had stretched the window to 18 months or longer. Give the look-back period with any count you pull from your practice-management software.

Extra equipment

Simmons' appraisers say buyers pay for income rather than equipment, so extra or very expensive equipment does not raise value. Working equipment is part of the price; equipment beyond what produces income adds nothing to an income-based value.

The rent you charge as landlord

If you own the building, the rent you charge comes off the EBITDA a buyer multiplies, and Simmons warns that when the real estate is worth about as much as the practice's revenue or more, rent begins to eat into earnings. The next section covers how the building is sold.

The veterinary practice due diligence checklist lists what buyers and lenders ask to see.

Are real estate, equipment, inventory and receivables included in the price?

Simmons' Doyle Watson wrote in 2024 that it is not uncommon for veterinary practices to appraise and sell at fair market value for 4.3 to 5.6 times earnings, a price that includes the working equipment, a going-concern level of drug and supply inventory, and the goodwill. His list leaves out receivables and the building.

Real estate

Simmons says that in a private sale the selling veterinarian's real estate is typically sold with the practice, while corporate investors typically do not buy it. Mandelbaum Barrett says most corporate buyers require a fair-market lease, confirmed by a rent appraisal, with the rent deducted from EBITDA.

Watson puts a fair-market return on practice real estate at about 7% to 10% of the property's value under a triple-net, arm's-length lease; other Simmons and Mandelbaum Barrett material uses 8% to 11% and 8% to 10%, and a local rent study governs in a real deal. The building's value is separate from the practice's, so the two are not added into one multiple.

If the buyer uses an SBA 7(a) loan under SOP 50 10 8.1, the business purchase price excludes owner-occupied real estate, which is valued by its own commercial appraisal, and only the real estate portion of a blended loan may amortize past 10 years, up to 25.

Among owners in the AVMA's 2024 practice owner survey, 54.9% held the practice in one legal entity and the land and building in another, 24.7% did not own the real estate, and 19.3% held both in one entity. Some sellers keep the building: when Heartland Veterinary Partners bought Family Vet Group, a multi-site group, in July 2022, the sellers kept the real estate and agreed to act as Heartland's real estate partner.

Equipment and the tax allocation

In an asset sale you and the buyer each file IRS Form 8594, allocating the price by asset class: equipment is generally Class V, and goodwill, in Class VII, takes whatever is left. Gain on depreciated equipment is ordinary income up to the depreciation allowed or allowable, and that recapture is reported in full in the year of sale even if part of the price arrives later. Ask your CPA how the allocation affects your tax; the guide to selling a veterinary practice covers the steps.

Drug and supply inventory

Simmons counts a going-concern level of drug and supply inventory in the price. Inventory is Class IV on Form 8594, and inventory sales cannot be reported on the installment method.

Controlled substances follow federal DEA rules, and your state adds its own: your DEA registration cannot be assigned to the buyer without DEA's written consent, and a complete controlled-substance inventory taken on the day of transfer serves as your final inventory and the buyer's first. Schedule II drugs transferred need DEA order forms.

Accounts receivable

Receivables are Class III on Form 8594. Attorney Peter Tanella of Mandelbaum Barrett lists the common ways to handle them: you keep them and the buyer collects as a courtesy or for a fee, you collect and keep them, or the buyer pays a negotiated amount and collects them after closing. High receivables were on Dr. Clark's list of risk factors for equine practices.

These are summaries of IRS, SBA and DEA rules as dated in the sources, for general information only. Ask your CPA and counsel how they apply to your sale.

How are emergency, specialty, mixed and equine practices valued?

We found no verified source that publishes a current multiple for emergency, specialty or mixed practices, and Simmons' historical 4 to 6 times describes the general small animal practice.

Emergency and specialty hospitals

Mandelbaum Barrett's 2024 deck says practices with specialty services or emergency care have higher demand, without giving a separate multiple. Its attorneys wrote in 2023 that during the consolidation boom corporate buyers offered up to 18 to 20 times EBITDA for companion animal practices and more for some specialty or referral practices, again without a number for those. In a 2018 estimate, a Brakke Consulting analyst put corporate ownership at about 10% of general companion animal practices and 40% to 50% of referral practices.

Emergency and specialty deals can also draw antitrust review: the FTC's consent orders in Mars' 2017 purchase of VCA and in JAB Consumer Partners' 2022 deal for SAGE Veterinary Partners required clinic sales and set notice or approval duties for some later specialty and emergency clinic purchases. More in selling an emergency or specialty hospital.

Mixed and large-animal practices

Simmons puts large-animal and mixed-animal practices among those whose salability is fragile, and points to mergers and associate buy-ins as exits. Its 4 to 6 times range is written for general small animal practice, not mixed practice.

Equine practices

At an AAEP convention session, consultant Mike Pownall, DVM, MBA, said equine practices historically sold for about 4 to 5 times EBITDA, and the same summary put sales to associates at about 5 times. The 10 to 15 times he described corporate aggregators paying reflects the 2020 to 2021 peak and is not a current equine range.

Equine consultant Amy Grice, VMD, MBA, wrote in January 2026 that selling to an associate is still the most common exit for small equine practices and that most large equine referral practices are now owned by global corporations. She writes that a retiring solo practitioner who sells a client list usually receives a declining share over three years; her example is 15%, 10% and 5% of the seller's average EBITDA, and the terms are negotiable.

EquiManagement, citing the AVMA/AAEP equine reports, put the share of equine practitioners working for a national corporate chain at 4% in the 2024 report, up from 1% in an earlier one. For costs, Grice puts facility and equipment typically at 6% to 8% of revenue for an ambulatory equine practice and 9% to 11% for one with a haul-in facility, which shapes the profit a buyer is paying for.

Multi-location groups

KPMG reported that platforms of 10 or more clinics traded at 18 to 20 times EBITDA in the first half of 2022; that was a platform price at the peak, not what a single practice or a small group receives.

How have veterinary practice multiples changed since 2021?

The sources describe corporate multiples peaking around 2021 and falling after interest rates rose in 2022; by mid-2024 Mandelbaum Barrett put corporate sales at 7 to 12 times EBITDA and private sales at 4 to 7 times.

Mandelbaum Barrett's attorneys wrote that corporate buyers stopped offering the boom-era multiples as interest rates rose in 2022. AAHA's Trends magazine reported in July 2024 that EBITDA multiples in the high teens were gone. In January 2026, Brakke Consulting's John Volk told the VMX conference that the volume and valuation of practice acquisitions had declined as higher interest rates raised deal costs, while large practices remained attractive to consolidators; he gave no current range.

The private range has a longer history. Simmons' Doyle Watson describes 4 to 6 times EBITDA as the general small animal practice's historical fair market value, a norm traced to an income formula introduced in the late 1970s. He also notes that the sale statistics said to confirm those multiples came from appraisers and brokers using the same formula, so the norm partly confirms itself.

A worked example

Take an illustrative companion-animal hospital, not a real one: $1,600,000 of gross revenue, 3 FTE veterinarians (you and two associates), $500,000 of the production yours, and a building you own that would appraise at $1,000,000. Your SDE is $450,000, after the practice pays your real estate company $60,000 a year in rent. Step one recasts that SDE to adjusted EBITDA with the assumptions in Simmons' hypothetical example.

A 17% margin sits inside Simmons' 14% to 18% band for a financially healthy small animal practice. Step two applies the ranges from the first table.

The last row shows what happens when a multiple quoted on EBITDA is applied to SDE: the result lands well above the private range, because SDE still contains your pay. The asking-multiple row applies what BizBuySell's veterinary listings were asking, not what practices sold for.

Where this practice lands inside the private range depends on the drivers above. Two associates who stay after the sale would point up; a solo doctor leaving at closing would point down. The building is separate: in a private sale it would typically sell with the practice but be valued apart from it, and a corporate buyer would usually lease it from you at a fair-market rent, here $80,000 a year, already deducted above.

Can a buyer finance that price?

Under SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, which took effect October 1, 2026, a buyer using a 7(a) loan for an initial acquisition, SBA's default category, must inject at least 10% of total project cost as equity; the practice loan may not amortize over more than 10 years; and debt service coverage must be at least 1.25 to 1, measured on EBITDA.

At the top of the private range, about $71,000 a year is left for interest on a loan of almost $1,470,000. That arithmetic is one way to read Mandelbaum Barrett's point that private multiples rest on the financing available to private buyers. In this example adjusted EBITDA already pays a fair salary for veterinary work, so the buyer's own clinical pay is covered before the loan.

The lender's own business valuation also caps the debt: total debt, including any seller note not on full standby, cannot exceed it, and any price above it has to come from the buyer's equity. This is a general summary of SBA rules, not advice. Selling to an associate or another veterinarian covers seller notes and staying on.

How the estimator works

The valuation estimator multiplies the numbers you enter by the published ranges on this page. It is arithmetic on other firms' ranges, not an appraisal and not an offer to buy.

What you enter

• Practice type: companion-animal general practice or animal hospital; emergency or specialty; mixed or large animal; equine; or multi-location group.
• Annual gross revenue.
• Your earnings basis, adjusted EBITDA or SDE, and the earnings figure itself.
• FTE veterinarians: full-time equivalents, not a head count.

What it calculates

• Adjusted EBITDA. Profit after paying the owner a fair-market salary for veterinary work and paying fair-market rent, recast the way Simmons' appraisers describe. The estimator multiplies it by 4 to 6, Simmons' range for sales to private veterinarians and its historical norm for general small animal practice. Mandelbaum Barrett's mid-2024 private range of 4 to 7 times is a cross-reference and does not change the result.
• Corporate range, for larger practices. With 3 or more FTE veterinarians and gross of $1,500,000 or more, the size Simmons calls ideal for a corporate investor and Mandelbaum Barrett calls the average corporate target, the estimator also shows 7 to 12 times EBITDA, labeled as Mandelbaum Barrett's reported range for mid-2024. It notes that corporate buyers typically require part of the price in rollover equity and usually lease the real estate rather than buy it.
• SDE. If you enter SDE instead, the estimator multiplies it by 2.52 to 4.20, the middle half of BizBuySell's veterinary listing multiples on October 27, 2026, and labels them asking multiples, which BizBuySell says run higher than the multiples of businesses that sold. On the SDE basis the EBITDA ranges are not used, since a multiple quoted on EBITDA overstates value when applied to owner cash flow.
• Revenue cross-check. When gross is over $900,000, the result also shows 85% to 105% of gross, Simmons' range for a well-managed, reasonably profitable practice selling to a private veterinarian, beside the earnings result.
• Practice type adds notes in words and never moves the range. Choose mixed or large animal, or enter gross under $700,000, and the result repeats Simmons' note that salability is fragile for those practices and for rural ones. Choose equine and it adds that one consultant told an AAEP convention session that equine practices historically sold for about 4 to 5 times EBITDA. Emergency, specialty and multi-location practices use the same ranges, because no verified source publishes separate current ones.
• Three drivers in words. The result explains, without moving the range, what does move a real price: associates who stay after the sale, your profit margin, and real estate you own.

Results are rounded to the nearest $5,000. The figures you type are not sent anywhere unless you carry them into the valuation request form and send it; the estimator fills in that form's revenue band from the gross you entered.

What it cannot see

The estimator cannot see your lease, premises permit, DEA registration, staff agreements or medical records, and a buyer will. If your buyer uses an SBA 7(a) loan, the lender must get its own valuation from an independent, accredited appraiser and may not rely on one prepared for you or the buyer; for a business purchase price of $350,000 or less, the lender may value the practice itself unless buyer and seller are closely related.

Sources

All sources accessed October 27, 2026.

1. Simmons & Associates, Four Methods to Sell Your Veterinary Practice, Published June 27, 2024
2. Simmons & Associates, Unraveling the Mystery of Practice Appraisals, Published March 19, 2024
3. Mandelbaum Barrett PC, Peter Tanella, Mandelbaum Barrett PC: presentation slides ('Current Trends in the Market – 2024'), hosted by GeniusVets
4. BizBuySell, Veterinary Practices For Sale, live page, undated
5. Simmons & Associates, How to Buy a Veterinary Practice, Published October 18, 2021
6. Simmons & Associates, Veterinary Practice Financial Fitness, Published February 20, 2024
7. BizBuySell, Business Valuation Multiples by Industry: Revenue & Earnings (SDE)
8. BizBuySell, Medical Practice Business Valuation Multiples & Financial Benchmarks
9. Inspire Veterinary Partners, Inspire Veterinary Partners, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024, March 31, 2025
10. U.S. Small Business Administration, SOP 50 10 8.1, Lender and Development Company Loan Programs with Technical Policy Updates, September 25, 2026
11. American Veterinary Medical Association, Benchmarking data plus elevating efficiency equals practice productivity, October 15, 2025
12. Today's Veterinary Business, Legal Lingo: Navigating a Corporate Takeover, May 21, 2024
13. American Animal Hospital Association, Practice Ownership Exit (and Entry) Strategies (AAHA Trends magazine), July 1, 2024
14. Inspire Veterinary Partners, Inspire Veterinary Partners, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2023 (MD&A and business acquisitions note), April 2024
15. Simmons & Associates, Veterinary Practice Profitability - 4 Ways to Grow Your Bottom-Line, Published January 24, 2023
16. EquiManagement, AAEP Business Coverage: Selling Your Equine Practice to a Corporate Entity, February 17, 2023
17. Simmons & Associates, How can the “perfect” veterinary practice have little to no value? April 26, 2024
18. EquiManagement, From AAEP Convention 2021: Understanding Corporate Acquisition of Equine Practices, January 28, 2022
19. dvm360, Is your veterinary client retention a sad country song? October 30, 2015
20. American Veterinary Medical Association, Economic State of the Veterinary Profession 2025 (p. 39), January 2025
21. Gryphon Investors / Heartland Veterinary Partners, Gryphon-Backed Heartland Veterinary Partners Acquires Family Vet Group, July 25, 2022
22. Internal Revenue Service, Instructions for Form 8594 (Rev. November 2021), Asset Acquisition Statement Under Section 1060
23. Internal Revenue Service, Publication 544 (2025), Sales and Other Dispositions of Assets, 2025 edition
24. Internal Revenue Service, Publication 537 (2025), Installment Sales, 2025 edition
25. Office of the Federal Register / National Archives, 21 CFR 1301.52 Termination of registration; transfer of registration; distribution upon discontinuance of business, eCFR current as of October 23, 2026
26. Today's Veterinary Business, 8 Mistakes You'll Regret (Legal Lingo column), June 1, 2021
27. Simmons & Associates, Practice Valuations: Is It Time for a Paradigm Change? Published November 29, 2021
28. Today's Veterinary Business, How to Avoid a Messy Separation (Legal Lingo column), December 1, 2023
29. American Veterinary Medical Association, The corporatization of veterinary medicine (JAVMA News), November 14, 2018
30. U.S. Federal Trade Commission, FTC Requires Mars to Divest 12 Veterinary Clinics as a Condition of Acquiring Pet Care Company VCA Inc., August 30, 2017
31. Federal Trade Commission, FTC Acts to Protect Pet Owners from Private Equity Firm’s Anticompetitive Acquisition of Veterinary Services Clinics, June 13, 2022
32. EquiManagement, Business Briefs: Creating a Succession Plan for Your Equine Practice, January 14, 2026
33. EquiManagement, The Corporatization of Equine Practice (Amy L. Grice, VMD, MBA; Summer 2025 issue), June 24, 2025
34. EquiManagement, Business Briefs: Should You Build a Haul-in Facility? November 18, 2025
35. KPMG LLP, Veterinary M&A industry trends, 2023
36. American Veterinary Medical Association, Veterinarians report increasing price sensitivity, decreasing visits, February 13, 2026
37. U.S. Small Business Administration, SBA Information Notice 5000‑880695, Issuance of SOP 50 10 8.1, August 14, 2026