descriptionThe Franchise Dossier
FDD Sourced
Independent analysis. Not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Right at Home. All figures sourced from public FDD filings.
Franchise dossier · Senior care (in-home)

Owning a Right at Home: what actually happens

VERDICT · AN ASSET
One of the better-disclosed home care franchises and a sellable business at maturity, but the FDD's own numbers show a multi-year ramp that an undercapitalized owner will not survive.
You'd pocket / yr*
$70K–$250K
1 unit · before your salary
Your time
30–55 hrs/wk
semi-absentee OK
Becomes an asset at
~1 unit
real wealth: 2-3 territories
Agreement term
10 yrs
then renewal
Year one, honestly

Year one is the slow part and the FDD says so: offices in months 13-24 averaged about $405,672 in net billings, a quarter of the system average. You lease a small office, clear state licensing, hire a scheduler or care manager, and then sell hours of care one client at a time while recruiting caregivers in a labor market with very high turnover. With a disclosed gross margin near 44% and fixed office costs, a sub-$500K office loses money, so plan on funding 12-24 months of losses beyond the Item 7 range. The owner is the salesperson and the on-call backup throughout.

Where each sales dollar goes
Supplies / goods ~1%Labor ~66%Rent ~2%Franchisor fees ~7%Other opex ~15%Left before debt & you ~13%

Illustrative split for a typical unit (industry estimate). The green slice is store cash flow before your loan payment and before paying yourself a salary — not profit.

If you want out

Mature home care offices sell: revenue is recurring hourly care, existing multi-territory franchisees and outside acquirers buy them, and pricing is typically a multiple of earnings in the 3-5x range (industry estimate, not from the FDD). A 10-year renewable term supports resale. Transfers require franchisor approval and a fee, and an office still in its ramp, below roughly $700K in billings, has little to sell beyond its license and client list.

Smart for

Patient, well-capitalized operators who value unusually detailed disclosure (revenue plus cost ratios) and will work the business full time for the first three years.

Dumb for

Anyone underwriting the deal on the $1.74M average, or without the reserves to carry an office that bills about $400K in its second year.

The disclosure it's built on

The verdict above is our read of the numbers Right at Home files with regulators — here they are, cited.

Right at HomeFDD 2025
Item 5 · Initial franchise fee
$49,500
Item 7 · Initial investment
$92,100 – $165,309
Item 6 · Royalty
5% of net billings
Item 6 · Ad / brand fund
2% brand fund (1% above $1M) + 1-2% local
Item 19 · Avg unit revenue
$1,739,357
Item 20 · US units (~2024)
539
SOURCEFranchiseInvestorData (2025 FDD, FY2024 data): $49,500 fee, $92,100-$165,309 Item 7, 5% royalty, 2% brand fund, Item 19 average $1,739,357 and median $1,341,639, cost ratios, 539 US franchised locations. Fee, royalty, brand fund and 10-year renewable term are high confidence (also Entrepreneur Franchise 500 listing, Franzy, 1851 Franchise). Item 7 range is medium confidence for the 2025 filing: Franzy shows $88,700-$160,725 (2024 FDD) and Entrepreneur and 1851 Franchise show $94,330-$176,239 (2026 FDD). Item 19 average is medium confidence: the median is repeated by a second source, the average by one detailed source; 1851 Franchise confirms the same structure for the 2026 FDD ($1,836,498 average, $1,334,579 median, 390 offices). Franzy's $2.53M figure and FranchisePayback's claim of no Item 19 conflict and were not used. Brand fund steps to 1% on weekly net billings above the first $1M tier per 1851 Franchise.
The catch

The gap between the average ($1.74M) and the median ($1.34M) and the second-year figure ($405,672 average for offices in months 13-24) is the story: this is a slow build, and the published numbers are dominated by long-established offices. The fee stack is also more than the 5% royalty: add a 2% brand marketing fee and a required 1-2% local advertising spend, and 8-9% of billings is committed before you pay a caregiver. Item 19 does disclose a 44% gross margin, so after fees, office payroll near 12% and overhead, the room left for the owner is real but not wide.

*How to read these numbers. Disclosed (2025 FDD via FDD summaries and Entrepreneur): fee, Item 7 range, 5% royalty, 2% brand fund, 10-year term, Item 19 average and median net billings, 44.43% gross margin, 11.80% office payroll, 2.54% marketing. Cost structure rolls caregiver pay (about 56% of billings, the inverse of the disclosed gross margin) and office payroll into labor. Take-home, hours, ramp length and resale multiples are ESTIMATES; the take-home range describes a mature office near the median, and years one and two are typically at or below zero. — "You'd pocket" is estimated owner cash flow for one average unit before a salary for your own full-time work, so it is not take-home pay. Averages are not promises; your unit could earn far less. This is analysis, not advice — read the current FDD in full and talk to current and former franchisees before you commit.

Seriously considering Right at Home?

Pressure-test the affordability, then read the full FDD and validate Item 19 (or its absence) with existing franchisees. When we add vetted franchise-consultant and financing partners, they'll be clearly disclosed here and never change our analysis.

Run a rough affordability check →