Top 10 Indoor Home Service Franchises To Watch in 2020

The indoor home service segment offers a unique and prosperous opportunity for franchisors, franchisees and franchisee candidates alike thanks to built-in elements to the business model like recurring revenue. ABC News recently explained Americans are working longer hours, leading to less time to spare their private life. As such, it’s understandable why more and more people are turning to home service brands to free up the time and energy that would otherwise have to be dedicated to what are often reoccurring—and seemingly neverending—indoor home improvement and maintenance tasks.

In order to ensure that clients are comfortable opening their homes to the service professionals of any given brand, franchisors need to establish a set model, specific and successful processes and proper training infrastructure for franchisees and staff. 

Here are 10 in-home service franchises to watch in 2020 that are taking the industry by storm.

Green Home Solutions*

Locations: 150-plus

Investment range: $56,100 to $124,100

Franchise opportunity website: https://www.greenhomesolutions.com/

Green Home Solutions is a leading indoor air quality and mold remediation services franchise offering mold elimination, odor solutions, mold pre-testing and moisture crawl space encapsulation for both commercial and residential properties. The brand provides comprehensive indoor air assessments, treatments and analysis services that don’t just mask the problem, but target and resolve it at its source. 

What you can learn from this brand: In addition to a lucrative franchising opportunity, Green Home Solutions offers its own products, including a product registered with the Environmental Protection Agency that is proven to kill mold. Green Home Solutions’ knowledge of and expertise in the use of planet-friendly treatments, rather than harsh chemicals, is based on scientific research and years of experience, appealing to a growing demand for eco-friendly options. 

AdvantaClean

Locations: 225-plus

Investment range: $99,650 to $231,500

Franchise opportunity website: https://www.advantacleanfranchise.com/

AdvantaClean was founded in 1994 in Winter Park, Florida as a contracting business specializing in emergency loss mitigation services and structural home and building repairs. The original partners created the company after responding to Hurricane Andrew, which ravaged South Florida in August of 1992. Since beginning to franchise in 2009, the company has become a national leader in light environmental services. AdvantaClean maintains a full suite of offerings for residential, commercial, institutional and governmental properties, including essential services like emergency water removal, mold removal and air duct cleaning.

What you can learn from this brand: In 2016, AdvantaClean partnered with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® to help the world better understand, treat and defeat childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. AdvantaClean also helps communities through partnerships with local hospitals, providing free residential cleanup and repair services to families who have children with cancer and/or weakened immune systems. 

The Glass Guru

Locations: 87

Investment range: $67,050 to $184,000

Franchise opportunity website: https://theglassgurufranchise.com/

In 2002, The Glass Guru founders Dan and Joy Frey of Granite Bay, California learned of a new process being utilized in Canada to restore the visible and thermal qualities of failed dual-pane windows without replacing the glass. Recognizing the need and market potential for this process as a green and money-saving alternative to replacement, they formed The Glass Guru, becoming the first company in the U.S. to offer foggy window repair.

What you can learn from this brand: The Glass Guru is a great example of a franchise concept finding its niche and sticking with it. While the brand started with its signature foggy window repair service, its services have expanded immensely over the years. With the addition of new services comes the addition of customers, leading The Glass Guru to enjoy a large customer pool of residential and commercial clients alike, as the brand boasts high earnings potential at a low point of entry and ROI to match.

Chem-Dry

Locations: 3,000-plus

Investment range: $67,645 to $178,907

Franchise opportunity website: https://chemdryfranchise.com/

Within the massive carpet cleaning market, Chem-Dry is the leading carpet and upholstery cleaning franchise. With carpet taking up more than 52%of all residential floor coverings in the U.S., Chem-Dry gives franchisees an opportunity to provide a much-needed service to their own communities. Since its founding in 1977, Chem-Dry has used a patented method of Hot Carbonating Extraction to attack dirt, dust, oils and allergens in carpet fibers and on hard surfaces.

What you can learn from this brand: Chem-Dry is a prime example of how to maintain the quality of a business model over decades and how to prioritize longevity in order to appeal to the modern consumers’ desire for emotional connections with passionate brands. Entrepreneur Magazine has rated Chem-Dry the top carpet cleaning franchise for 31 years in a row. Year after year, Chem-Dry's franchise system earns one of the highest ratings in Franchise Business Review's annual franchisee satisfaction survey.

CertaPro Painters®

Locations: 350

Investment range: $133,250 to $169,500

Franchise opportunity website: https://certapro.com/franchise

In 1992, CertaPro Painters® was founded with the goal of making residential and commercial painting services easier and more convenient for homeowners and business owners. Today, CertaPro Painters® is the largest residential painting contractor in North America, with locally owned and operated franchises that take pride in bringing personalized service to customers in every region.

What you can learn from this brand: According to the National Association of Home Builders and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 3% of young adults are interested in a career in the construction trades, even though the jobs make up 6% of the total workforce. Recently, CertaPro Painters® has aimed at combating this by building a 31,000-square-foot headquarters in the suburbs of Philadelphia with a focus on creating a world-class training environment for painters, franchisees and their associate roles in sales and production. The training facility, nicknamed Certa City, is designed to provide young painters with opportunities to work at one of the brand’s local franchise locations.

TWO MEN AND A TRUCK*®

Locations: 349

Investment range: $178,000 to $555,500

Franchise opportunity website: https://franchise.twomenandatruck.com/

TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® is the largest franchised moving company both domestically and internationally, with 349 national locations and 2,534 trucks operating in the U.S. The company has performed more than 6 million moves since its inception in 1985 and, in total, operates more than 380 locations and 2,700 trucks. The brand has seen consistent monthly growth dating back to December 2009 and more than 82 consecutive months of record growth. 

What you can learn from this brand: Since day one, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® has put its franchisees above everything else. To stand out in the segment, the company does not take kickbacks from vendors, investing any money made back into its franchise system. Every year, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK®’s Mary Ellen Sheets Moving People Forward® Scholarship Program provides managers an opportunity to transition into successful franchisees by awarding a $50,000 scholarship toward opening their first franchise.

Molly Maid

Locations: 450-plus

Investment range: $89,200 to $137,200

Franchise opportunity website: https://franchise.mollymaid.com/

In 1984, Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame member David McKinnon brought Molly Maid from Canada to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to give busy American homeowners a reliable, professional and affordable solution to messy houses. Today, there are more than 450 individually owned franchise locations across the U.S., providing an array of services including regular cleaning, occasional cleaning and move-in and move-out cleaning. 

What you can learn from this brand: The brand provides extensive cleaning tips on its website for anyone to read and emphasizes a personalized home-cleaning approach for each of its clients. In order to appeal to the growing demand for sustainable services within the segment, Molly Maid makes efforts to keep its operations eco-friendly and aims to strike a balance between cleaning and disinfecting the home while also protecting the environment.

Footprints Floors*

Locations: 10-plus

Investment range: $65,500 to $91,600

Franchise opportunity website: https://footprintsfranchise.com/

Since 2008, Footprints Floors has taken the standard idea of a flooring company and reinvented it to be a simpler, more efficient and extremely cost-effective franchise model. The indoor home care concept's services include hardwood, vinyl, tile, laminate and restorations. From small repairs to large refinishing and installation projects, Footprints Floors prides itself on offering top quality workmanship at a fair price. 

What you can learn from this brand: Unlike most of its competitors, Footprints Floors franchisees do not need any type of showroom, mobile or brick-and-mortar establishment. The home-based concept lets franchise owners oversee the business from a management standpoint and hire subcontractors to perform all flooring installation and restoration jobs, which results in very low overhead costs and lucrative margins.

Screenmobile

Locations: 120-plus

Investment range: $83,794 to $164,240

Franchise opportunity website: https://franchise.screenmobile.com/

Screenmobile is the nation’s largest mobile window screen repair business, with over 100 franchise owners and growing. The brand specializes in window, door and patio porch screen, and solar shading products. With no national competitors, franchise owners have enjoyed years of growth and success as members of the leading screen repair franchise in the industry for over 35 years. 

What you can learn from this brand: Screenmobile knows its product and prides itself on providing top-notch customer service, ensuring that clients think of them when they think of screen doors. The brand has taken advantage of the growing trend of mobile-based services with vans that allow for the screen services to be done directly on-site, including measuring and installing screens in one visit. The company makes sure to dominate its market by providing a variety of screen services, including golf ball screens, sun control screens, roll-down insect screens and retractable screen doors.

Home Clean Heroes*

Locations: 2

Investment range: $83,295 to 132,588

Franchise opportunity website: www.homecleanheroesfranchise.com

This young-but-growing franchise is on its way to setting a new standard in home cleaning services a modern approach to the notoriously unreliable cleaning industry that includes refreshingly simple scheduling and easy operations. A part of Buzz Franchise Brands’ portfolio, Home Clean Heroes provides franchisees with a wealth of business experience and a strong support infrastructure.

What you can learn from this brand: In addition to the strong corporate structure provided by its parent company, Home Clean Heroes recently announced its “Charter League”—an opportunity for the first five franchisees who sign on to the company to save $20,000 (lowering the franchise fee from $30,000 to $10,000), as well as receive additional coaching and assistance as they launch their business.