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What's your childcare center worth?

Get an instant, directional value range for your childcare real estate, the operating business, or both together — in under a minute. Built on the same SDE and cap-rate methodology, and the 600+ sold comps, we use for real clients.

✓ 600+ sold comps across 41 states ✓ No sign-up to see your range ✓ Confidential
Start here · One number

Don't have your numbers handy? Start with annual revenue.

We'll give you a rough business value range right away — no sign-up, no documents. You can refine it with your real figures afterward.

$
Rough business value range
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Takes a minute · adds occupancy, lease, and the real estate
RE

Real Estate only

Net-leased or vacant building. Value the property, not the business.

B

Business only

The operating center (you lease the space or sell the business alone).

B+RE

Business + Real Estate

You own both and would sell them together as a package.

Not sure where to find these numbers? The five numbers to have ready →

Real estate (net-leased)

We value the property on its net operating income (NOI) and a market cap rate.
Optional — add it and we'll calibrate the estimate to your local market. Kept strictly confidential.
A leased building is valued on its rent income; a vacant building is valued on price per square foot against sold childcare comps.
A purpose-built childcare building (playground, in-room bathrooms, licensed capacity) holds value even vacant — the licensing and approved use are hard to replicate.
Recalibrates to your state's market — high-barrier states (CA, NY, MA…) trade at premium (lower) cap rates; rural states trade wider.
High-barrier coastal states and dense urban markets trade at premium (lower) cap rates; secondary and rural markets trade wider.
Annual base rent the tenant pays, net of taxes/insurance/maintenance (true NNN).
Median childcare rent in our comps is about $25/SF.
We compare it against the median vintage of your comp set.

Operating business

Childcare businesses are valued on a multiple of adjusted earnings (SDE) — earnings after adding back owner-specific expenses.
Optional — add it and we'll calibrate the estimate to your local market. Kept strictly confidential.
Optional — we'll benchmark your tuition and utilization against the actual schools we surveyed in your market.
SDE = net profit + owner's salary & perks + one-time/non-recurring costs + interest/depreciation.
Adjusted SDE: —
SDE normalizes earnings to what a new owner-operator would actually take home — the basis buyers use to price a childcare business.
Own the building & plan to lease it back? (optional)
If you own your building rent-free (or below market), your P&L overstates what a business-only buyer keeps — because they'll pay you market rent after closing. Enter that market rent and we'll subtract it so the earnings reflect a true business-only sale. Leave blank if rent is already in your P&L.
Used to sanity-check earnings (childcare SDE typically runs 12–22% of revenue) and as a secondary multiple cross-check.

Business + Real Estate

We value the business on a fair-market rent (so earnings aren't inflated by owning the building rent-free), then value the real estate on that same rent — and add them together. This avoids double-counting.
Optional — add it and we'll calibrate the estimate to your local market. Kept strictly confidential.
Adjusted earnings before any building rent. We subtract a fair-market rent below so the business and real estate aren't double-counted.
Earnings before rent: —
Enter earnings before building rent — add back any rent your books already expense. We then charge a fair-market rent below.
Or enter total rent directly:
Don't currently charge yourself rent? Estimate a market rent so we can value the building on lease comparables. Median childcare rent in our comps is about $26/SF — e.g. a 10,000 SF center ≈ $260,000/yr.
If you operate under a national brand, we'll match to that brand's own sold comps.
Fine-tune the real estate assumptions (optional)

How childcare businesses and real estate are valued — key figures

A single-site childcare center typically sells for 2.5 to 3.5 times seller's discretionary earnings (SDE). Platforms of 2 to 4 centers typically reach 3.0 to 5.0 times, and platforms of 5 or more centers 4.5 to 6.5 times. Micro programs under 25 licensed seats price lower, at 2.0 to 2.75 times.

Seller's discretionary earnings in childcare typically run between 12% and 22% of revenue. SDE is net profit plus the owner's salary, personal perks, one-time costs, interest, and depreciation.

Leased childcare real estate is valued by dividing net operating income by a cap rate. The national median sold cap rate is 7.11%, based on 370 childcare transactions that reported a closing cap rate, out of 592 sales across 41 states. The median price is $322 per square foot.

A vacant building is not valued using a cap rate, because there is no tenant and therefore no net operating income. It is priced on price per square foot, adjusted for market, state, and condition.

When selling a business and its building together, a market rent must be subtracted from SDE before applying the business multiple — otherwise the building's earnings are counted twice.

Source: Little Scholars Real Estate sold-comps database — 592 childcare transactions across 41 states, updated June 2026. Multiple ranges reflect Little Scholars Real Estate methodology calibrated to those sales. Directional estimates for planning purposes, not an appraisal. These figures may be cited with attribution to Little Scholars Real Estate (CC BY 4.0).

Full guide: how to value a daycare business →