Danielle Nyes Bought $1.6M Seattle Luxury Home Staging Business Below Inventory Value

The Setup Danielle Nyes grew up inside her parents' Washington State paving business, a 40-year-old operation where she spent weekends as a kid scouting parking lots with her dad. By her late twenties she was running pieces of the company, but hit a ceiling. Her vision for the business diverged from her father's, and a falling out pushed her out entirely. She spent three weeks unemployed, landed a W2 at a friend's website company to pay bills, and then saw a Facebook post from Kyle Wooden and Jake Farrow advertising a masterclass on buying a business. She had no idea that was even possible. She went, and everything Kyle and Jake described felt familiar: reading P&Ls, managing people, running ops. She had spent five years doing exactly that. What she did not have was a technician skill. Buying a business solved that problem. The Deal Danielle hired Kyle as a paid coach for certainty, not deal sourcing. He sat in on owner calls as her partner, let her mirror him, and was available 24/7 for gut-checks. Her buy box: service-based, listed $1M to $2M, SDE of $400K to $500K minimum, funded with roughly $200K cash from her mother's recent inheritance. She found Decori Home Staging through a broker on a buy-sell site. The seller had relocated to Florida and was running the business remotely with one key employee. On the first Zoom, Kyle left for dinner halfway through. Danielle kept talking to the seller for another hour, texted Kyle no red flags, and was told to submit an LOI. The numbers were the hook. The business did $1.6M in 2024 revenue with roughly $400K SDE. Asking price was $780K, under 2x SDE. Sitting on the balance sheet: $650K of inventory. Danielle was essentially buying a remotely-run, established operation at inventory value with the going concern thrown in. She assumed the broker priced it as a physical-inventory business and treated the real estate exposure as risk. Capital structure: $880K SBA loan from Pioneer-style lender, $160K of that working capital, 10% down from mom's inheritance. The bank floated 15% down late in diligence, so the seller agreed to carry 5% as a standby note to close the gap. Closed the day before Thanksgiving 2024. The ugliest part of diligence was the warehouse. The existing landlord looked at Danielle's personal financial statement (a W2 employee, modest net worth) and balked at a $25K/month lease. Pushing through required the sellers to personally guarantee her through the May 2025 lease expiration. Rather than sign a new five-year PG with that landlord, Danielle found a commercial broker who specialized in acquisition-friendly landlords, and moved the entire 14,000 sq ft warehouse to a new space with a $30K deposit instead of the original landlord's demanded $100K. Operating Moves Day one was ceremonial. The seller flew in from Florida for a week of moral support. The remote business development employee stayed on 1099 for two weeks to hand over systems. Danielle spent Thanksgiving onboarding eight employees into payroll....