Business models / Home Inspection Business / Own a franchise

A home inspection business franchise, or your own?

Three franchise brands run a home inspection business. Here they are beside the independent version of the same business, with each brand’s fees as it publishes them and worked out in dollars. A brand can bring customers an independent has to earn one by one. The question is whether it brings in more than it costs.

Typical for a home inspection business: $120k to $600k in sales, and the owner keeps 18% to 30% after paying for its own marketing. Change either to your own numbers.

Work each brand out at

How the two sides are counted

  • Sales. A brand’s name brings customers an independent wins one at a time, so each brand is worked out at the sales it reports where we have them, and at yours where we don’t.
  • Marketing. On your own you pay for all of it, about 5.5% of sales here. The ad fund does part of that job, so it is counted once, not twice.
  • Survival. New franchised businesses were about 5 to 6 points more likely to make it through their first two years in Census data, and about half of all new businesses close within five years. It is not in the dollars; each brand’s details give the sources.

Your own home inspection business and each brand, side by side

The independent version

Your own home inspection business

Built and run under your own name

Cost to open
$40k to $121k
Annual sales
$270ktypical
Franchise fee
None
Royalty + ad fund
Noneall marketing is yours
$64,800
The owner keeps in a year, after about $15k of marketing
Taking new owners

WIN Home Inspection

Home inspection

Total investment
$41k to $50k
Avg. annual sales
$270k
Franchise fee
$19k
Royalty + ad fund
In the details
The fee is not a simple share of sales, so it is not worked out in dollars. The details show it as the brand words it.
Taking new owners

HouseMaster

Home inspection

Total investment
$74k to $131k
Avg. annual sales
$139k to $697k
Franchise fee
Not listed
Royalty + ad fund
6.25% to 7.75% of sales
$68k to $74k
The owner keeps in a year at $418k in sales (what it reports), after $26k to $32k to the brand
$3k to $9k more a year than on your own
Taking new owners

Pillar To Post Home Inspectors

Home inspection

Total investment
$102k to $132k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$59k
Royalty + ad fund
7% + 4% of sales
$46k
The owner keeps in a year at $270k in sales (your sales), after $30k to the brand
$19k less a year than on your own

Before you sign: what to read in the disclosure document

Every franchisor must give you its Franchise Disclosure Document at least 14 days before you sign or pay. These are the parts that answer the questions above.

  • Items 5 to 7, the fees and the investment. The franchise fee, every other fee (technology, training, transfer, renewal), and the full opening budget, including working capital.
  • Item 19, what owners earn. Whether the brand states owner sales or earnings at all, and for which units. Put its figures in the boxes above in place of the typical ones.
  • Item 20, units opened, closed and sold. How many owners left in each of the last three years, and a list of current and former owners you can call.
  • Item 12, the territory. Whether you get a protected area, and what the brand can open or sell inside it.
  • Item 21, the franchisor’s own finances. Whether the company behind the brand is in good health.

smbnest is a self-assessment tool, not individualized advice. Fees are as each brand publishes them on its franchising page and in its disclosure document, reviewed in the month shown, and change; the figures in dollars are worked out at the sales you enter and are not a forecast. We never take a cut of your deal or a fee from a franchisor. Before you sign, speak with a franchise attorney and a qualified financial adviser, and call owners from the disclosure document.