How much do gas stations sell for?

Buyers start with monthly gallons for the last two to three years, by grade and diesel if you sell it. A steady or rising trend is worth more than a big number that is sliding.

Then they look at margin per gallon: what you sell for minus what you pay. Fuel is high volume and thin margin. NACS, the convenience-store trade group, puts the average markup at about 35 to 40 cents a gallon over the past five years, and says a retailer keeps about a third of that as pretax profit after costs like card fees and delivery (NACS, Feb 2025). Your street, your competition and your supply deal decide where you land.

How you sell fuel matters too. If you buy and own the fuel, buyers look at your margin. If you are on a commission or consignment deal where the supplier owns the fuel and sets the price, buyers look at the commission you earn, which is a smaller but steadier line.

The store usually earns a much better margin than the pumps, so buyers spend real time here. Expect them to ask for POS reports by category: tobacco, beer and wine, packaged drinks, snacks, food service, and so on.

• A store with strong food service or high-margin categories is worth more than one leaning on cigarettes alone.
• Inside sales on the POS should line up with the sales on your tax returns. When they don’t, buyers and lenders go with the tax returns.
• Shrink, and how you control it, comes up in due diligence.

Small lines add up, and buyers will pay for them if they are documented:

• Lottery commissions and ATM income
• Car wash, air and vacuum
• Rent from a tenant, such as a quick-service restaurant in the building
• Propane, ice, money orders and other services
• Rebates and incentives from your supplier or vendors, if they continue after a sale

Income that stops when you leave, such as a one-time rebate or a deal tied to you personally, does not count toward the price.

SDE (seller’s discretionary earnings) is the profit one owner-operator takes home. It starts with your net profit and adds back your own salary, interest, depreciation, and one-time or personal expenses run through the business.

The add-backs have to be real and provable. Cash you didn’t report does not count, because the buyer’s lender only lends against what is on the tax returns.

If you own the land and building, they are valued separately and added on top. An appraiser looks at the location, traffic, lot size and building, and what the site is worth as a fuel station.

Equipment also moves the price. Buyers price in the age and condition of tanks, lines, dispensers, the canopy and the POS. Tanks near the end of their life, or older dispensers that need upgrades, become a cost the buyer subtracts. More on that in selling with old tanks or environmental issues.

• Gallons or inside sales falling year over year
• A supply contract with heavy minimums, money owed back if it ends early, or a supplier right of first refusal (see your supply contract when you sell)
• An open environmental case or missing tank records
• A short lease the buyer can’t extend (see real estate vs. leased)
• Books that don’t match the POS, or income you can’t document
• A new competitor opening nearby

Most of these can be fixed, or at least explained, before you go to market. That is where a good pre-sale review pays for itself.