Sell HVAC company data to AI: what buyers want from HVAC, plumbing and electrical contractors

Why AI companies want HVAC and plumbing company data

AI labs are training agents to do real work, and they need examples of decisions with results attached. A service company produces those all day. A homeowner calls about a furnace that will not light. A CSR books the call, a dispatcher assigns it, a technician writes up the symptom and the diagnosis, a comfort advisor presents three options, the customer picks one or none, and the invoice and any callback close the loop. That chain, from first call to whether the fix held, is the kind of record a lab cannot make on its own.

Three things make a trades company stand out:

• The records connect. A job number in ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro ties the call, the ticket, the estimate, the photos, the invoice and the membership together. Buyers rank linked records with outcomes highest; one data marketplace lists its value factors as years of history, how connected your systems are and whether the data shows outcomes (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).
• Outcomes are everywhere. Every estimate sold or did not. Every membership renewed or lapsed. Every repair held or came back as a callback. One buyer program asks for records that carry outcomes, such as won or lost, resolved or escalated, completed or corrected (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).
• The volume is high and multimodal. By our estimate a 60-person residential shop runs thousands of jobs a month, each with notes and photos. Images of real equipment in real attics and crawlspaces are hard for a lab to find anywhere else.

Buyers say so in their own words. One marketplace announced a $50 million program for skilled-trades records and asks for “service records, repair histories, job-site photos, equipment manuals, training videos”. Another buyer program lists “Field and frontline records: Work orders, inspection notes, dispatch logs” (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory). If you want the short version for your company, our HVAC, plumbing and electrical overview lays out the records and the buyers on one page.

AI buyers that name HVAC, plumbing and the trades

These are the programs in our registry whose own pages name HVAC, the trades, field services or home services, shown by type. Each cell is the program's own published term; our buyer directory lists the programs and links to where each says so.

A few notes on reading the table. Buyer program H names “Field Services (HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical)” word for word and calls 40+ employees its preferred starting point. Buyer program E has an HVAC line that reads “Dispatch, scheduling and invoicing records. Count office staff, not technicians,” lists ServiceTitan and Jobber among the systems it takes, and places HVAC in a fast-close tier it describes as lower offers and quick deals. Marketplace A runs the skilled-trades program and lists plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, landscaping, pest control, garage doors, solar and security companies (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).

Others name the records rather than the trade. Buyer program K publishes guides for ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, FieldEdge, AccuLynx, JobNimbus and CompanyCam, and its track-record page shows a closed roofing deal at $450K and a solar deal at $275K, each a perpetual exclusive license. Buyer program C lists ServiceTitan among its sources, and Buyer program D asks for estimates, service histories and dispatch calendars (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory). Our directory of buyer programs has every program we track.

What HVAC, plumbing and electrical records AI buyers value

The pattern across buyers is simple: they want what your people wrote, decided and resolved. What a vendor supplied, and what identifies a household, usually stays out. Here is how that maps to a service company.

Two record types need a closer look before they go in. Price books are partly yours and partly a vendor's: your own labor hours and prices are yours, but licensed price-book content is not (more below). Commercial inspection reports may sit under a customer's confidentiality terms, and reports from federal sites can carry Controlled Unclassified Information.

Roofing, solar and commercial service: how the sub-trades differ

Most of this page is written for residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical shops, but buyers that name the trades reach further. One marketplace's trades program lists roofing, landscaping, pest control, garage doors, solar installers and security companies alongside the core trades (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory). Each sub-trade has its own systems and its own catches.

• Roofing. Records usually live in AccuLynx or JobNimbus, with photos in CompanyCam. Roofing is one of the few trades with a published closed deal: one buyer program lists a roofing company license at $450K, as a perpetual exclusive license (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory). Check your platform first. JobNimbus says the customer retains its data (§6.1) but bars licensing or selling “information or materials obtained through the Services” (§5.4) (source: JobNimbus Terms of Service (updated Sept 23, 2026)), so records exported from it may need JobNimbus's written consent. Aerial measurement reports from outside providers usually come out.
• Solar. Design, permitting and interconnection files are linked records with clear approve-or-reject outcomes, and the same buyer program lists a solar deal at $275K (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory). Solar installers also have far more office staff than a service shop (sales, design, permitting), so office-only headcount gates are easier to clear. Loan and lease paperwork from finance partners, and credit data, usually stay out.
• Commercial mechanical and service. BuildOps and ServiceTrade hold work orders, preventive maintenance schedules, inspections and quotes for building owners. Both say the contractor owns its data (source: BuildOps Terms of Service (updated May 28, 2026), ServiceTrade MSA (Aug 10, 2026)), and both have short windows after termination: 30 days on written notice at BuildOps (§5(d)) and 30 days at ServiceTrade (11.c). Commercial customer contracts often carry confidentiality terms, so those records get read line by line.
• Fire, life safety and security. Inspection reports with pass or fail results are strong records. Alarm event logs, camera footage and client security designs describe a client's premises and stay out, and work on federal sites can carry Controlled Unclassified Information.
• Pest control, lawn and landscaping. Route sheets, treatment records and service agreements look much like HVAC memberships: recurring visits with renewals and cancellations. Platforms differ, so read your own terms before you export.

Which sub-trade you are in changes the routes more than the records. A 30-person pest control company and a 30-person roofing company may fit different programs, which is part of why comparing offers matters.

Who qualifies for field service data licensing

Headcount gates are where most trades companies win or lose a buyer, because most of your people work in trucks, not at desks.

Technicians and office staff

Federal staffing data shows why the office-only gate is hard for the trades. For building equipment contractors (NAICS 2382), the BLS puts office and administrative support at 10.2% of jobs, management at 5.8%, business and financial roles at 5.0% and sales at 2.2%, against 52.2% in construction trades and 19.2% in installation and repair (source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (NAICS 2382)). That is roughly a quarter of the workforce at a desk. By our estimate, a shop needs about 80+ total employees to reach 20 office staff. A 25 to 40 person shop can still fit the programs that count all full-time staff, and solar installers, with large sales, design and permitting teams, often clear office-only gates with fewer people.

Years of history on one platform

In our view the strongest candidates have 10+ years in business and 5+ years on one field service platform, so that tickets, calls, estimates and photos are digital and linked. Records that are mostly on paper, or on a platform adopted in the last year or two, are thinner. If you migrated from FieldEdge or Successware to ServiceTitan and kept the old database, that archive may still count, as long as you can export it.

How many trades companies fit, for context

Census business counts for 2022 show 7,360 plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors (NAICS 238220) with 20 to 49 employees, 2,055 with 50 to 99 and 806 with 100 to 199. Electrical contractors (NAICS 238210) number 5,222, 1,653 and 702 in the same bands, and roofing contractors 1,510, 466 and 164 (source: Census, Statistics of US Businesses 2022, detailed sizes). ServiceTitan reported about 10,800 active customers at its January 2026 fiscal year-end (source: ServiceTitan Q4 FY2026 earnings call (Mar 12, 2026)). The point is simple: a 50 to 200 person shop with a decade on one platform is in a fairly small group. The trades company page shows how Regulr reviews a shop of that size.

What buyers advertise paying for plumbing and HVAC company data

No buyer publishes a price for trades data specifically. What exists are each program's general ranges. A few that matter for a service company:

• Buyer program H: “$10K to $1M+” as an illustrative value per partnership, scaling with cadence, with partnerships designed for recurring revenue (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).
• Buyer program E: $100K to $5M advertised, with indicative offers in its FAQ of $200K to $500K for 20 to 49 US office staff, $400K to $900K for 50 to 149, and $800K+ for 150+. Its own materials place HVAC in the fast-close tier with lower offers (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).
• Marketplace A: “$250K+ Typical company deal” (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).
• Buyer program K: $100K to $2M+, with published roofing ($450K) and solar ($275K) deals, both perpetual exclusive licenses (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).

Treat estimators with care. Broker A's example for a 100-person, 10-year firm ($385K to $895K) and Buyer program C's ($383,083 to $896,969) are nearly identical (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory), so they are not independent valuations. What actually moves a trades company's price is years on one platform, records that link by job number, outcomes in the data, and how much has to be excluded. Our data value checker walks through those factors.

ServiceTitan data and AI: what your field service software says

Your field service platform holds most of the value, so its terms matter. The terms we read on October 18, 2026 mostly say the contractor owns its records. The catches are in export windows, scraping bans and AI clauses.

• ServiceTitan. “Customer owns and retains all right, title, and interest in and to all Customer Data” (§8(a)), and ServiceTitan “will not (1) use Customer Data to train AI models for the benefit of any third party” (§10). It keeps data no longer than 60 days after termination, with export on request and “service fees may apply” (§5(e)), and its terms bar using an AI agent to scrape or extract data (§7(i)) (source: ServiceTitan Terms of Use (updated Sept 16, 2026)).
• Housecall Pro. “Individual customer data entered or imported by Pros shall remain the property of the Pro.” The same terms say your user data may be used to train Housecall Pro's own AI models. On termination Housecall Pro “may retain your information” but has “no obligation to do so,” and we found no export clause (source: Housecall Pro Terms of Service (modified 07/01/2026)).
• Jobber. The terms have no clause saying the customer owns its data, grant Jobber a “perpetual, irrevocable” license to user content (§6.1), bar scraping and data mining (§5.1(18)), and contain no express export right (source: Jobber Terms of Service (updated Sept 22, 2026)).
• FieldEdge. FieldEdge links to Xplor's US SaaS terms, version 1.2, under which all licenses end and the client stops using the solution on termination (§13.3.1) (source: Xplor US SaaS Terms v1.2 (FieldEdge)).
• Others. CompanyCam says customer data is “owned exclusively by Customer” (§6.1) and makes it available for six months after the final term (§11.4(d)) (source: CompanyCam Terms (updated Aug 14, 2026)). BuildOps exports on written notice within 30 days of termination (§5(d)) (source: BuildOps Terms of Service (updated May 28, 2026)), ServiceTrade allows 30 days (11.c) (source: ServiceTrade MSA (Aug 10, 2026)), and FieldPulse allows 60 (§24.8) (source: FieldPulse Terms of Service). JobNimbus says the customer retains its data (§6.1) but bars licensing or selling “information or materials obtained through the Services” (§5.4) (source: JobNimbus Terms of Service (updated Sept 23, 2026)).

The practical rule: run your own export with each platform's reports and tools while you are still a subscriber, and never route a licensing extract through a scraper. Our guide to ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro and Jobber data ownership, export and AI terms goes clause by clause and covers what each export includes.

If you are a franchisee: whose data is it?

Franchise ownership is the single biggest trap in this category. ServiceTitan's terms say that for a franchise business, “your franchisor, and not you, owns all Customer Data,” and that the franchisee agrees “not to seek any mass export of Customer Data related to your franchise business(es)” without the franchisor's consent (§10) (source: ServiceTitan Terms of Use (updated Sept 16, 2026)). Franchise agreements commonly say the same thing about customer lists and operating records.

Buyers follow that line. Buyer program E does not accept franchisees whose franchisor owns the systems (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory). If you own a franchised HVAC or plumbing location, the route to a data license runs through your franchisor's written consent, or through a deal the franchisor makes for the whole system. Independent shops that left a franchise years ago should check what the exit terms said about records from the franchise period.

What usually stays out of an HVAC or plumbing data license

Most of what stays out falls into four groups. Our guide to customer lists, call recordings and what stays out goes through each.

• Homeowner identity. Names, addresses, phones, emails, gate and lockbox codes, pets and occupancy notes, and health notes typed into tickets are removed or replaced with tokens. A license is not a sale of your customer list, and buyers typically exclude consumer contact lists outright.
• Call audio. California's Penal Code 632 requires the consent of all parties to record a confidential communication (source: California Penal Code 632 (FindLaw)), and Illinois lists a “voiceprint” as a biometric identifier (source: 740 ILCS 14/10, Illinois BIPA definitions). ServiceTitan's terms say transcripts and summaries from its phone system are not available for export (source: ServiceTitan Terms of Use (updated Sept 16, 2026)). CallRail's terms say you own your service data, recordings and transcripts included, while call statistics such as volume and handle times are CallRail's usage data (source: CallRail Terms of Use (Aug 2026)).
• Other people's content. Licensed price-book content, coaching programs you subscribe to, manufacturer warranty portal data, and aerial roof reports belong to their publishers.
• Sensitive sites and staff. Security alarm logs and camera footage, row-level payroll and technician performance, and reports from government facilities stay out.

None of this empties the dataset. Take out the homeowner details, the audio and the vendor content, and what remains (tickets, notes, estimates, dispatch, memberships, equipment histories, photos and SOPs) is the part buyers say they want. You approve the scope, and each exclusion is named in the contract.

If you are selling your HVAC, plumbing or electrical company

Trades companies are changing hands fast. Capstone Partners counted 92 HVAC services transactions year to date in its July 2026 update, with private equity add-ons making up 41.3% of deals (source: Capstone Partners, HVAC Services M&A Update (Jul 27, 2026)). If a sale is on your horizon, a data license is one more contract an acquirer will read in diligence. Exclusivity is the term to watch: one buyer program requires 24 months of seller exclusivity, and another's published deals are perpetual exclusive licenses (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).

Licensing before a sale can turn an archive into cash the acquirer does not pay you for. After a sale to a platform, the platform decides. Our guide to selling an HVAC or plumbing business and licensing the records first covers timing, multiples and the questions an acquirer will ask.

How a field service data licensing deal runs, step by step

1. Inventory. List your systems (field service platform, phone system, accounting, photo app, email, chat, shared drives), how many years each holds, and roughly how many jobs a month you run. Nothing leaves your systems at this stage.
2. Check the rights. Confirm you are not a franchisee whose franchisor owns the data, note any platform clauses that limit exports, and set aside licensed price-book and coaching content.
3. Scope. Decide what is in and what is out. Call audio, consumer contact lists, payroll and security footage are the usual exclusions. You approve the scope, and it is written into the contract.
4. De-identification. Homeowner names, addresses, phones and emails, technician names, and faces, house numbers and plates in photos are masked or replaced with consistent tokens, so a job still links end to end without naming anyone. One buyer program says a specialist PII partner strips identifying fields before it or any lab sees the records (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).
5. Offers. Buyers review a sample or a description and make an offer. One program says it makes an offer within one to two weeks of intake (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).
6. Terms. Price, payment schedule, exact scope, exclusivity, permitted uses, deletion at the end of the term, and the warranties you give about your rights to the records.
7. Delivery and payment. The records go from your systems to the buyer you chose. With Regulr, they never pass through us. Payment timing varies: one buyer program pays net 30 to 60 days after the data is approved, and another pays the business 30 to 60 days after acceptance (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory).

The best position is more than one written offer, because buyers price the same records differently and their terms differ even more. That comparison is the work Regulr does for the seller. To see how your company would come out, start with the HVAC, plumbing and electrical page and see what your service records could qualify for.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Vendor terms, the Illinois statute, Census counts and the Capstone update were read on their own pages on October 18, 2026. Program terms were checked on October 15, 2026; our buyer directory lists the programs and links to their published terms. BLS staffing shares and the ServiceTitan customer count come from our October 15 category research, which checked them that day.

1. program terms, Regulr buyer directory
2. ServiceTitan Terms of Use (updated Sept 16, 2026)
3. Housecall Pro Terms of Service (modified 07/01/2026)
4. Jobber Terms of Service (updated Sept 22, 2026)
5. Xplor US SaaS Terms v1.2 (FieldEdge)
6. CompanyCam Terms (updated Aug 14, 2026)
7. BuildOps Terms of Service (updated May 28, 2026)
8. ServiceTrade MSA (Aug 10, 2026)
9. FieldPulse Terms of Service
10. JobNimbus Terms of Service (updated Sept 23, 2026)
11. CallRail Terms of Use (Aug 2026)
12. California Penal Code 632 (FindLaw)
13. 740 ILCS 14/10, Illinois BIPA definitions
14. Census, Statistics of US Businesses 2022, detailed sizes
15. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (NAICS 2382)
16. ServiceTitan Q4 FY2026 earnings call (Mar 12, 2026)
17. Capstone Partners, HVAC Services M&A Update (Jul 27, 2026)