Merry Maids franchise
A franchisee operates a recurring residential cleaning business from a leased office inside an assigned territory, dispatching cleaning teams to homes and to commercial customers with office space under 5,000 square feet.
Manager-run permitted Disclosed
- Source
- 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC
- Document
- FDD 2026, issued 2026-05-21, amended 2026-07-31
- Item
- Item 15
- Page
- PDF p. 57
- Obtained
- Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions — Franchise Registration Search, file 641883
We recommend, but do not require, that you personally supervise the Franchised Business.
Personal supervision by the owner is recommended but not required. An owner who does not personally supervise, and any franchisee that is a company or partnership, must employ a manager responsible for direct on-premises supervision who has completed the franchisor's training programme; that manager need not hold equity. The franchisee remains responsible for the manager's performance and for all employment decisions.
What stands out
- Total initial investment of $126,875 to $169,325 including a flat $55,000 initial franchise fee; no real estate purchase, three months of additional funds, and no franchisor financing.
- Ongoing fees: 7% royalty (tiered down to 6% and 5% above $400,000 and $500,000 of calendar-year sales under a withdrawable incentive), 1.3% ad fund, 0.7% required local marketing spend, and $499 per month for technology.
- Item 19 gives gross sales only: $391,007 average and $299,059 median across 644 outlets open all of 2025; $439,243 average and $339,352 median across the 414 outlets matching the format currently sold. No cost or profit data at all.
5 more observations
- About 36% of outlets reached the reported average, and the spread runs from $28,296 to $1,838,414; per-outlet averages fall as ownership groups get larger.
- Franchised outlets fell from 908 to 684 across 2023–2025 with no company-owned units; the franchisor's own cover page flags 268 outlets terminated, not renewed, reacquired or ceased in three years.
- Territory is non-exclusive with limited protection, and both the protection and the franchise depend on an escalating minimum weekly sales requirement reaching $4,750 by year five.
- Five-year term with two five-year renewal options; owners of 10% or more must personally guarantee; disputes go to mediation and arbitration in Atlanta under Georgia law.
- No minimum liquidity or net worth requirement is disclosed in the reviewed source.
Things to verify
- Ask how the 100 outlets recorded as 'ceased operations – other reasons' in 2025 came to close, and what happened to their territories and customers.
- Ask for the gross sales of the specific territory on offer, and whether it is a Qualified Franchise territory of 40,000-plus qualified households, since Item 19 mixes those with Legacy territories no longer sold.
- Item 19 discloses no costs; build an independent labour, vehicle, insurance and office cost model before relying on any sales figure.
5 more questions
- Confirm the Minimum Sales Requirement schedule that will be written into the agreement and how it is measured, since missing it three times in nine periods is a non-curable default.
- Check how long a new outlet takes to reach the year-two and year-three sales thresholds, given the three-month additional funds allowance in Item 7.
- Verify whether the Royalty Incentive tiers will still apply, since the franchisor may change or discontinue them at any time and the royalty then reverts to 7%.
- Ask what a change of software vendor or platform would mean in practice, given the technology fee can rise to $1,000 per month after such a change.
- Ask former franchisees from Exhibit E about their reasons for leaving, bearing in mind the franchisor discloses confidentiality clauses with some of them.
Category cost placeholders, not a forecast. This snapshot uses the default inputs; the calculator below updates when you edit them.
Evidence confidence: High. This describes source support, not investment quality. AI-extracted and machine-verified where stated; no human line-by-line review. Source and review record.
Read the full research overview
A Merry Maids franchisee runs a recurring residential cleaning business from a leased office inside an assigned territory, sending teams to clean homes and commercial spaces under 5,000 square feet. The franchisor, Merry Maids SPE LLC, is part of the ServiceMaster group under Roark Capital ownership; the brand has been franchised since 1980 through a predecessor, and the current entity took over the system in December 2020. Item 7 puts the total initial investment at $126,875 to $169,325 including a flat $55,000 initial franchise fee, three months of additional funds, and no real estate purchase. Continuing fees are a 7% royalty on gross sales (reduced to 6% and 5% on calendar-year sales above $400,000 and $500,000 under an incentive the franchisor can withdraw), a 1.3% ad fund contribution capped at 2%, a required 0.7% local marketing spend, and a $499 monthly technology fee that a change of software platform could raise to $1,000.
Item 19 reports gross sales only, for calendar 2025, and no costs or profit of any kind. Across all 644 franchised outlets that operated the whole year under one owner, average gross sales were $391,007 and the median $299,059, on a range from $28,296 to $1,838,414. For the 414 outlets matching the format now sold — a territory of 40,000-plus qualified households with an office inside it — the average was $439,243 and the median $339,352, with the top quartile at $914,092 and the bottom at $130,847. Only about 36% of outlets reached the average in either population. The 103 outlets that ceased operating during 2025 are excluded from every table, so these results describe survivors. Nothing in the reviewed source discloses unit-level costs, margins or owner earnings, and no minimum liquidity or net worth requirement is stated.
Item 20 shows a contracting system. Franchised outlets fell from 908 at the start of 2023 to 684 at the end of 2025, a net loss of 224, with no company-owned outlets in any year. Openings were 16, 8 and 23; closures counted as terminations, non-renewals or ceased operations were 76, 89 and 103, and almost all of the 2025 attrition sits in 'ceased operations – other reasons'. Transfers fell from 66 to 12. The franchisor projects five new franchised outlets for 2026 and reports no signed agreements awaiting opening.
On risk, Item 3 lists four concluded regulatory matters, all involving other Roark-affiliated franchisors rather than Merry Maids, and Item 4 discloses no bankruptcy. The franchise term is five years with two five-year renewals, the territory is expressly non-exclusive, and both territory rights and the franchise depend on meeting an escalating minimum sales requirement. Owners of 10% or more must personally guarantee the agreement, roughly 80% of purchases are tied to the franchisor or designated suppliers, and disputes go to mediation and arbitration in Atlanta under Georgia law.
View ratings and their supporting evidence
Transparent ratings
How these are computedEach dimension is scored 1–5 from published formulas. Missing data yields “Not enough evidence to rate”, never a low score. There is no composite score by design.
How the system has performed, computed from the disclosed Items 7, 19 and 20. Figures a documented material source inconsistency puts in doubt are excluded, and the dimension shows “Not rated”.
Inputs
- Franchised outlets 905 → 684 (Item 20, Table 3)
- Thresholds: ≥15% → 5; 5–15% → 4; 0–5% → 3; −5–0% → 2; below −5% → 1
Inputs
- Attrition = (terminations + non-renewals + reacquisitions + ceased-other) ÷ start-of-year franchised units, averaged over 3 fiscal years
- Thresholds: <2% → 5; 2–4% → 4; 4–6% → 3; 6–10% → 2; >10% → 1
Inputs
- AUV $391,007 (disclosed) ÷ midpoint investment $148,100 = 2.64×
- Thresholds: ≥2.0 → 5; 1.5–2.0 → 4; 1.0–1.5 → 3; 0.7–1.0 → 2; <0.7 → 1
How much this brand’s FDD discloses, and how well-supported our data on it is. This measures transparency, not business performance — a strong business that discloses little scores low here and stays unrated above.
Inputs
- Item 19 present (+1)
- Average plus median or a distribution (+1)
- Population 94% of franchised units, clearly described (+1)
- Franchisor Track Record
- Franchising 46 years (since 1980) · 684 outlets · Item 3: 4 matter(s) disclosed · Item 4: none disclosed
- Multi-Unit Scalability
- No area development agreement, option or right of first refusal to take additional territories is offered. The franchisor may in its sole discretion allow an… · Manager-run permitted
- Operational Intensity
- Manager-run permitted
Initial investment
FDD Items 5 and 7Format shown: New single-unit franchise operating from a leased Primary Office; the same Item 7 table also covers conversions
$126,875–$169,325 total initial investment. Excludes real estate purchase. Includes 3 months of additional funds.
View full investment breakdown — Items 5 & 7
| Initial franchise fee (the named Item 5 fee only) | $55,000 Disclosed
Flat fee, uniform except for military (20%), affiliate (15%), and conversion-franchise (15%) discounts, which are not the standard low end; a $27,500-$49,500 FY2025 actual range reflects those discounts. |
|---|---|
| Total initial investment — low | $126,875 Disclosed
|
| Total initial investment — high | $169,325 Disclosed
|
| Midpoint of range | $148,100 Derived
|
| Real estate purchase included? | No — assumes a leased site |
| Additional funds assumed | 3 months |
| Required liquid capital | Not disclosed in the reviewed source Not disclosedNot disclosed in the reviewed source. We did not find this value in 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC; we do not fill gaps with estimates or third-party figures. The cover pages, Item 1, Item 5 and Item 7 of the reviewed document state no minimum liquid capital requirement. |
| Required net worth | Not disclosed in the reviewed source Not disclosedNot disclosed in the reviewed source. We did not find this value in 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC; we do not fill gaps with estimates or third-party figures. The reviewed document states no minimum net worth requirement; Item 17 conditions on renewal and transfer refer only to demonstrating financial ability to the franchisor's then-current standards. |
One Item 7 table covers both new franchises and Conversion Franchises; the columns foot exactly to the disclosed totals of $126,875 and $169,325. The estimate assumes a leased Primary Office of roughly 450–1,800 square feet with washers, dryers and supply storage within a 60-minute drive of every address in the territory; no real estate purchase is contemplated and no vehicle purchase is listed as a separate line item. Additional Funds cover three months. The franchisor offers no direct or indirect financing. The Item 7 total does not include the $250-per-customer acquisition fee payable to another franchisee where the territory contains customers recently served by that franchisee.
Item 7 line items (12)
| Expenditure | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Franchise Fee — Lump sum at signing, payable to the franchisor | $55,000 | $55,000 |
| Travel and Living Expenses During Training — Low = one person, high = two people, for ten days | $2,500 | $7,000 |
| Real Estate and Improvements — First three months' rent, deposit and leasehold work for one Primary Office; rent estimated at $6,000–$12,000 per year | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| Software and Hardware — QuickBooks licences, an iPad with data plan, an optional laptop | $1,775 | $2,775 |
| Office Equipment — Furniture, fixtures, washer and dryer, decor | $5,250 | $6,850 |
| Opening Inventory — Cleaning products, equipment, supplies, printed materials, uniforms | $6,500 | $8,000 |
| Insurance — Prepayment/down payment on first-year required coverage | $3,400 | $9,400 |
| Telephone Answering Service — First month of a 24/7 answering service | $50 | $300 |
| Opening Marketing — Minimum $6,000 required from 60 days before to 60 days after opening | $6,000 | $8,000 |
| Miscellaneous Opening Costs | $1,400 | $10,000 |
| Professional Fees — Legal and accounting | $5,000 | $15,000 |
| Additional Funds (3 months) — Wages, payroll taxes, utilities, vehicle payments, technology fees and other operating costs | $38,000 | $43,000 |
Source for every row: the Item 7 estimated-initial-investment table of 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC (table begins PDF p. 34) — rows inherit the table's citation rather than carrying fifteen identical ones.
Ongoing fees
FDD Item 6Royalty
7% of gross sales Disclosed
- Source
- 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC
- Document
- FDD 2026, issued 2026-05-21, amended 2026-07-31
- Item
- Item 6
- Page
- PDF p. 25
- Obtained
- Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions — Franchise Registration Search, file 641883
7% of Gross Sales, paid weekly 14 days after the end of each week. A Royalty Incentive currently in effect drops the rate to 6% on calendar-year Gross Sales above $400,000 and to 5% on Gross Sales above $500,000, resetting each January; the franchisor may change or withdraw the incentive at any time. Gross Sales means all billings whether or not collected, excluding sales and use tax. If a franchisee fails to complete renewal on time, the royalty rises by 2.5% of Gross Sales until renewal is completed or the agreement ends. The cover page flags a mandatory minimum royalty or advertising payment regardless of sales.
Brand advertising fund
1.3% of gross sales Disclosed
- Source
- 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC
- Document
- FDD 2026, issued 2026-05-21, amended 2026-07-31
- Item
- Item 6
- Page
- PDF p. 25
- Obtained
- Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions — Franchise Registration Search, file 641883
Currently 1.3% of Gross Sales per week, paid weekly with the royalty. The franchisor may raise it, but the Ad Fund Contribution may not exceed 2% of Gross Sales and the combined Ad Fund Contribution plus Local Marketing Obligation may not exceed 3% of Gross Sales.
Local marketing
0.7% of gross sales Disclosed
- Source
- 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC
- Document
- FDD 2026, issued 2026-05-21, amended 2026-07-31
- Item
- Item 6
- Page
- PDF p. 25
- Obtained
- Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions — Franchise Registration Search, file 641883
Franchisees must currently spend 0.7% of weekly Gross Sales on marketing the franchisor recognises as Eligible Marketing, bought through approved vendors. Any shortfall must be paid into the Ad Fund. A separate Initial Marketing Obligation of $6,000 applies from 60 days before to 60 days after opening.
Core requirements shown separately; caps, credits and conditions may overlap. Check the full schedule for technology, cooperative, transfer and other charges.
View all recurring fees and conditions
| Royalty | 7% of gross sales Disclosed
7% of Gross Sales, paid weekly 14 days after the end of each week. A Royalty Incentive currently in effect drops the rate to 6% on calendar-year Gross Sales above $400,000 and to 5% on Gross Sales above $500,000, resetting each January; the franchisor may change or withdraw the incentive at any time. Gross Sales means all billings whether or not collected, excluding sales and use tax. If a franchisee fails to complete renewal on time, the royalty rises by 2.5% of Gross Sales until renewal is completed or the agreement ends. The cover page flags a mandatory minimum royalty or advertising payment regardless of sales. 7% of Gross Sales, paid weekly 14 days after the end of each week. A Royalty Incentive currently in effect drops the rate to 6% on calendar-year Gross Sales above $400,000 and to 5% on Gross Sales above $500,000, resetting each January; the franchisor may change or withdraw the incentive at any time. Gross Sales means all billings whether or not collected, excluding sales and use tax. If a franchisee fails to complete renewal on time, the royalty rises by 2.5% of Gross Sales until renewal is completed or the agreement ends. The cover page flags a mandatory minimum royalty or advertising payment regardless of sales. |
|---|---|
| Advertising / brand fund | 1.3% of gross sales Disclosed
Currently 1.3% of Gross Sales per week, paid weekly with the royalty. The franchisor may raise it, but the Ad Fund Contribution may not exceed 2% of Gross Sales and the combined Ad Fund Contribution plus Local Marketing Obligation may not exceed 3% of Gross Sales. Currently 1.3% of Gross Sales per week, paid weekly with the royalty. The franchisor may raise it, but the Ad Fund Contribution may not exceed 2% of Gross Sales and the combined Ad Fund Contribution plus Local Marketing Obligation may not exceed 3% of Gross Sales. |
| Required local marketing | 0.7% of gross sales Disclosed
Franchisees must currently spend 0.7% of weekly Gross Sales on marketing the franchisor recognises as Eligible Marketing, bought through approved vendors. Any shortfall must be paid into the Ad Fund. A separate Initial Marketing Obligation of $6,000 applies from 60 days before to 60 days after opening. Franchisees must currently spend 0.7% of weekly Gross Sales on marketing the franchisor recognises as Eligible Marketing, bought through approved vendors. Any shortfall must be paid into the Ad Fund. A separate Initial Marketing Obligation of $6,000 applies from 60 days before to 60 days after opening. |
| Technology / software | $499–$1,000/month Disclosed
$499 per franchised business per month currently, covering the Merry Maids 360 CRM, a dispatch and scheduling platform, Microsoft Office 365, a learning management system, a business intelligence platform and a document repository. Increases are capped at 10% per calendar year with unused headroom carried forward, except that a change of software vendor, platform or subscription tier lets the franchisor raise the fee to as much as $1,000 per month; 90 days' notice is required. $499 per franchised business per month currently, covering the Merry Maids 360 CRM, a dispatch and scheduling platform, Microsoft Office 365, a learning management system, a business intelligence platform and a document repository. Increases are capped at 10% per calendar year with unused headroom carried forward, except that a change of software vendor, platform or subscription tier lets the franchisor raise the fee to as much as $1,000 per month; 90 days' notice is required. |
| Transfer fee | 25% (see basis) Disclosed
25% of the then-current Initial Franchise Fee where one franchised business is transferred, which is $13,750 at the current $55,000 fee (our arithmetic). The rate falls to 20%, 15% or 10% each where two, three, or four or more businesses transfer at once, and there are special rates of 7.5% for a transfer to an owner's adult child, $500 for a transfer to a spouse or to an entity formed by the existing owners, 85% of the standard fee for a transfer to a qualified manager, and 15% for a transfer on the death of the controlling owner. A non-refundable application fee of 25% of the transfer fee is credited against it, and the franchisee also pays the franchisor's costs. A separate $10,000 Lead Fee applies if the franchisor referred the buyer within the prior 18 months. 25% of the then-current Initial Franchise Fee where one franchised business is transferred, which is $13,750 at the current $55,000 fee (our arithmetic). The rate falls to 20%, 15% or 10% each where two, three, or four or more businesses transfer at once, and there are special rates of 7.5% for a transfer to an owner's adult child, $500 for a transfer to a spouse or to an entity formed by the existing owners, 85% of the standard fee for a transfer to a qualified manager, and 15% for a transfer on the death of the controlling owner. A non-refundable application fee of 25% of the transfer fee is credited against it, and the franchisee also pays the franchisor's costs. A separate $10,000 Lead Fee applies if the franchisor referred the buyer within the prior 18 months. |
| Renewal fee | 10% (see basis) Disclosed
Percentage of the then-current Initial Franchise Fee, scaled to how long the franchisee has operated: 10% for five years or fewer, 8% for 5.01–10 years, 5% for 10.01–15 years and no fee beyond 15 years. On the standard five-year term this means 10% for the first renewal and 8% for the second. Percentage of the then-current Initial Franchise Fee, scaled to how long the franchisee has operated: 10% for five years or fewer, 8% for 5.01–10 years, 5% for 10.01–15 years and no fee beyond 15 years. On the standard five-year term this means 10% for the first renewal and 8% for the second. |
| Royalty + ad fund (% of sales) | 8.3% Derived
|
Fee schedule (26 fees; 11 verified against the source, 15 single-pass)
Every recurring, conditional and one-time fee found in this FDD's Item 6 table (plus mandatory recurring costs disclosed in Items 7/11), each cited to its page and carrying its verification status: verified means two independent readings agreed or a tie-break re-inspection of the page decided it; single-pass means one reading captured it and it has not been independently confirmed (permitted only for fees that cannot move modeled economics — see the materiality rule). Amounts marked “not stated” are charged at then-current rates the FDD does not quantify and are never modeled as $0.
| Fee | Amount | Frequency | Mandatory | Verification | Cite | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty | Tiered (base 7%) | weekly | Yes | verified (2-pass) | Item 6, p. 25 | The 6% and 5% bands are the 'Royalty Incentive', a discretionary volume discount: 'We may change or discontinue this Royalty Incentive at any time and in our sole discretion during the term of the Franchise Agreement, including by changing the Gross Sales thresholds and the amount of the applicable Royalty.' If discontinued, the Royalty reverts to 7% for the remainder of the term. The Incentive resets to 7% every January 1 and is measured on the single Franchised Business only, excluding National Accounts revenue (Royalty is still owed on National Accounts revenue at the applicable rate). Separately, if you fail to timely renew, the Royalty increases by 2.5% of Gross Sales each week until the renewal process is completed. Matches fields_A.json record exactly. Calculator audit 2026-09-03: Item 6 Note 3 shows the reduced rates apply only to the Gross Sales falling inside each band (marginal) and reset each calendar year, but the same note makes the whole ladder a discretionary Royalty Incentive the franchisor may discontinue at will - so the standard 7% is the obligation that must be modeled, and the previous tiered_percent + missing calc_method also left the entire calculator disabled. (p. 33; "reduce the Royalty owed to 6% of Gross Sales of the Franchised Business exceedin") |
| Ad Fund Contribution | 1.3% of gross sales | weekly | Yes | verified (tie-break) | Item 6, p. 25 | Contributed to the Advertising Fund; the rate may be changed by the franchisor within the 2% / combined 3% caps. The only stated current rate is 1.3%; 2% is a contractual ceiling on future increases, so it belongs in maximum, not range_high (Pass B's structure). Pass A's overlaps_with = local-marketing-obligation is rejected: the 1.3% Ad Fund Contribution (paid to the franchisor) and the 0.7% Local Marketing Obligation (spent by the franchisee on Eligible Marketing) are separate, additive obligations sharing only a joint 3% ceiling, so neither is a component of the other and there is no double counting. Pass A had both entries pointing at each other with model_treatment percent_of_revenue, which is self-contradictory. |
| Local Marketing Obligation | 0.7% of gross sales | weekly | Yes | verified (2-pass) | Item 6, p. 25 | Distinct from the one-time $6,000 Initial Marketing Obligation (see 'initial-marketing-obligation'). |
| Initial Marketing Obligation | $6,000 | one time | Yes | verified (2-pass) | Item 6, p. 25 | Applies only to new Franchised Businesses, not to transferees acquiring an existing business (per Item 7 Note 10). Shortfall must be paid into the Ad Fund. Cross-referenced at Item 7 Note 10 (p.35) and Item 11 (p.47-48). |
| Technology Fee | $499 | monthly | Yes | verified (tie-break) | Item 6, p. 26 | Charged after the Opening Date. May be waived in the franchisor's sole discretion for as long as the franchisee operates only a Market Hub Office in the Territory while running a Primary Office in a contiguous territory. $1,000 is a conditional ceiling reachable only after a Software Change, not a current price range, so it is recorded in maximum with range_high null (Pass B's structure). Both passes agree on the $499 current amount, monthly frequency and fixed_annual treatment. |
| Meeting Registration Fee | Not stated | annual | Yes | verified (tie-break) | Item 6, p. 27 | The franchisee or one designated officer or manager must attend the annual conference each year; where several Franchised Businesses are owned, one representative may attend for all of them. If no representative attends two consecutive annual conferences without a valid business reason, the franchisor may charge 150% of the current annual conference fee. Category set to training_recurring (Pass B): the fee buys attendance at conferences, regional meetings and road shows, alongside the Ongoing Training Programs fee, rather than being a generic operating charge. basis kept as fixed (Pass A): it is a flat per-attendee dollar amount, not a percentage or per-outlet measure. range_high is null because no current amount is stated - the $1,500 is a per-person ceiling, held in maximum with period null since it is not an annual aggregate cap. |
| Ongoing Training Programs | Not stated | varies | No | verified (2-pass) | Item 6, p. 27 | Only if the franchisor elects to offer additional training beyond the Initial Training Program -- discretionary as to frequency and whether offered at all. |
| Market Hub Fee | $150 | monthly | No | verified (tie-break) | Item 6, p. 27 | Only payable if the franchisee operates one or more approved Market Hub Offices in the Territory, in addition to, or (where the franchisor permits and a Primary Office is run in a contiguous territory) instead of, a Primary Office. $200 is a ceiling on future increases, so range_high is null and the cap sits in maximum. basis per_unit (Pass B) because the charge is levied per Market Hub Office. Excluded from the model because a standard franchisee operating one Primary Office never incurs it - not because the amount is trivial. |
| National Accounts Processing Fee | $20 | per event | No | verified (2-pass) | Item 6, p. 28 | Only if the franchisee participates in the National Accounts Program, which is currently optional. |
| Supplier/Product Review Fee | $500 | per event | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 28 | Only if the franchisee requests to use a supplier/item that doesn't meet franchisor specifications. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| QuickBooks Accounting/Payroll Annual License | $475 | annual | Yes | verified (2-pass) | Item 7, p. 35 | |
| Renewal Fee | Tiered (base 10%) | one time | Yes | single-pass | Item 6, p. 28 | New franchisees get a 5-year initial term plus two 5-year renewal options; recurs approximately every 5 years for the life of the franchise. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Lead Fee | $10,000 | one time | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 28 | Only if the franchisor refers a qualified lead who purchases an interest within 18 months of referral; distinct from the Transfer Fee. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Transfer Fee | Tiered (base 25%) | one time | Yes | single-pass | Item 6, p. 29 | Triggered on any transfer of 50%+ ownership of the Franchise Agreement or business. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Change Fee | $500–$750 | per event | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 30 | Does not apply to changes made at renewal; the Transfer Fee applies instead for control transfers. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Audit | Not stated | per event | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 30 | Only if an audit shows Gross Sales understated by at least 5% in a given month. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Interest and Late Fees | Not stated | varies | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 30 | Only if a payment, report or required document is late. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Insurance Procurement Fee | Not stated | per event | No | verified (tie-break) | Item 6, p. 31 | Charged only if the franchisee fails to obtain or maintain the insurance required by Item 8 and the franchisor elects, in its sole discretion, to procure the coverage. Pass A's reading is correct: this is the Item 6 fee payable to the franchisor. Pass B's entry under the same slot described something different - the third-party insurance premiums estimated in Item 7 - and is excluded separately below. |
| Customer Complaint Management Fee | $500–$750 | per event | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 31 | Only if the franchisor elects, in its sole discretion, to intervene in a customer complaint. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Performance After Default | Not stated | per event | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 31 | Only if the franchisee fails to perform a Franchise Agreement obligation. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Enforcement Expenses | Not stated | per event | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 31 | [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Tax Reimbursement Fees | Not stated | varies | Yes | single-pass | Item 6, p. 31 | [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Indemnification | Not stated | varies | Yes | single-pass | Item 6, p. 31 | [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Liquidated Damages | Not stated | per event | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 31 | Payable within 7 days of termination for franchisee default (or purported franchisee termination). [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Appraiser's Fee | Not stated | per event | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 32 | Only if the franchisor exercises its option to purchase the franchisee's assets on termination/expiration and the parties cannot agree on price. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
| Initial Training Fee for Additional Persons or Sessions or Subsequent or Replacement Trainees | $1,000 | per event | No | single-pass | Item 6, p. 26 | Only if the franchisee sends more than two people, or a subsequent/replacement trainee. [Listed by one verification pass only (A); not independently confirmed.] |
Royalty, Ad Fund Contribution and Technology Fee are collected together as Operating Fees by electronic debit. Other charges in Item 6 include a Change Fee of $500 per change (or $1,500 per agreement consolidated, capped at $750 per change in future), audit costs where an audit shows an understatement of 5% or more of Gross Sales for a month, interest of 2% per month plus late fees of $200 per week for the first four late weeks and $500 per week thereafter, an insurance procurement fee of up to 150% of the franchisor's cost, a $500 customer complaint management fee, a performance-after-default fee of up to 120% of cost, and liquidated damages on termination for default equal to average monthly royalties and ad fund contributions over the past 12 months multiplied by the lesser of the remaining term or 24 months. Item 11 states franchisees are not obliged to participate in any advertising cooperative, and Item 8 states there are no purchasing or distribution cooperatives, so no cooperative fee is recorded.
Financial performance (Item 19)
What the franchisor actually disclosedWho is represented: Gross sales only, calendar 2025, for franchised outlets the franchisor calls Active Franchises: opened before 2025, reported sales in all 12 months, same owner throughout. Of 684 franchised outlets open at Dec 31, 2025, 644 qualified. Table 1 narrows to the 414 that are Qualified Franchises — a territory of 40,000+ qualified households with an office inside it, the only form now sold; the other 230 are Legacy Franchises no longer offered. Excluded: company-owned units (none exist), 28 units not open all year, 12 transferred during the year, and 103 that ceased operating in 2025. Tables 2 and 3 also report per Franchise Ownership Group — 250 commonly owned groups — rather than per outlet.
Qualifications: The figures are gross sales (billings, whether or not collected, excluding sales tax) and state no costs, expenses, margins or profit. They are drawn from franchisee-submitted reports and are not presented as audited. Sales earned from zip codes outside a franchisee's licensed territory were stripped out. The tables cover only outlets that ran the whole of 2025 under one owner: 28 units that did not operate all year, 12 that changed hands, and 103 that ceased operating during 2025 are all excluded, so the results describe survivors. Table 1, the only table limited to the Qualified Franchise format now sold, covers 414 of the 684 franchised outlets open at year end. Averages are pulled well above medians by a long tail of larger outlets in every table. Two internal inconsistencies appear: the same 250 ownership groups are shown as 92 (36.8%) at or above average in Table 2 but 95 (38.0%) in Table 3, and the lowest ownership-group gross sales appear as $57,274, $57,275 and $57,724 in different cells.
View full Item 19 disclosure and tables
Item 19 is a historical gross sales representation for calendar 2025 and nothing more. Across all 644 franchised outlets that traded for the full year under one owner, average gross sales were $391,007 and the median was $299,059, on a range from $28,296 to $1,838,414. Restricted to the 414 outlets that match the format currently sold — a territory of at least 40,000 qualified households with an office inside it — the average rises to $439,243 and the median to $339,352, with the top quartile averaging $914,092 and the bottom quartile $130,847. In both populations only about 36–37% of outlets reached the average. The franchisor also reports results per Franchise Ownership Group, which averaged $1,030,874 across 250 groups; that number counts a multi-unit owner's whole business as one figure and is not an outlet-level result. Per-outlet averages decline steadily as ownership groups get larger, from $626,096 for single-franchise owners down to $272,595 for owners of eight or more. No costs, expenses or profit figures are disclosed anywhere in Item 19, and the 103 outlets that closed during 2025 are excluded from every table.
| Metric | Subset | Value | Units | Period | Cite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross sales per outlet — all Active Franchises 36% of units met or exceeded 232 of 644 outlets reached or exceeded this average. | All Active Franchises (Qualified and Legacy) Average | $391,007 | 644 | CY2025 | FDD p.66 |
| Gross sales per outlet — all Active Franchises | All Active Franchises (Qualified and Legacy) Median | $299,059 | 644 | CY2025 | FDD p.66 |
| Gross sales per outlet — Qualified Franchises only (the form currently offered) 36.7% of units met or exceeded 152 of 414 Qualified Franchises reached or exceeded this average. | Qualified Franchises Average | $439,243 | 414 | CY2025 | FDD p.64 |
| Gross sales per outlet — Qualified Franchises only | Qualified Franchises Median | $339,352 | 414 | CY2025 | FDD p.64 |
| Gross sales per outlet — top quartile of Qualified Franchises 37.5% of units met or exceeded Median for this quartile was $808,013; the top 10% (41 outlets) averaged $1,209,796. | Top quartile of Qualified Franchises Quartile avg. | $914,092 | 104 | CY2025 | FDD p.64 |
| Gross sales per outlet — bottom quartile of Qualified Franchises 50% of units met or exceeded Median for this quartile was $130,052; the bottom 10% (40 outlets) averaged $85,036. | Bottom quartile of Qualified Franchises Quartile avg. | $130,847 | 104 | CY2025 | FDD p.64 |
| Highest gross sales of any Active Franchise | All Active Franchises High | $1,838,414 | 644 | CY2025 | FDD p.66 |
| Lowest gross sales of any Active Franchise | All Active Franchises Low | $28,296 | 644 | CY2025 | FDD p.66 |
| Lowest gross sales of a Qualified Franchise | Qualified Franchises Low | $35,322 | 414 | CY2025 | FDD p.64 |
| Gross sales per outlet — outlets in single-franchise ownership groups 41.1% of units met or exceeded Median $548,583. Per-outlet averages fall as ownership groups get larger: $433,204 for owners with two units, $357,086 for three to four, $310,282 for five to seven and $272,595 for eight to 24. | Active Franchises whose owner holds only that one franchise Average | $626,096 | 107 | CY2025 | FDD p.66 |
| Gross sales per outlet — outlets in ownership groups of 8 to 24 franchises 34.6% of units met or exceeded Median $202,615. | Active Franchises in ownership groups of 8–24 Average | $272,595 | 130 | CY2025 | FDD p.66 |
| Gross sales per ownership group (not per outlet) 36.8% of units met or exceeded Counts a commonly owned group of franchises as one business, so it is not comparable to a per-outlet figure. Median $773,868; range $57,274 to $5,941,768. | Franchise Ownership Groups with at least one Active Franchise Average | $1,030,874 | 250 | CY2025 | FDD p.65 |
| Gross sales per ownership group (not per outlet) | Franchise Ownership Groups with at least one Active Franchise Median | $773,868 | 250 | CY2025 | FDD p.65 |
System health (Item 20)
Outlets, openings, exits and transfers by fiscal year · U.S. onlyView detailed Item 20 tables and source notes
| Fiscal year | Start | Opened | Terminated | Not renewed | Reacquired | Ceased — other | End | Transfers | Company-owned (end) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 905 | 16 | 17 | 24 | 0 | 35 | 845 | 66 | 0 |
| 2024 | 845 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 72 | 764 | 35 | 0 |
| 2025 | 764 | 23 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 100 | 684 | 12 | 0 |
Disclosed 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC, Item 20, Tables 1–3 (PDF p. 67). Franchised outlets fell from 908 to 684 over the three years, a net loss of 224, with no company-owned outlets at any point. Almost all attrition is booked as 'ceased operations – other reasons' (35, 72 and 100 across 2023–2025); the 2025 figure is the largest of the period even though 23 outlets opened, the highest opening count. Closures for all causes total 268 over three years, matching the turnover figure on the FDD cover page. Transfers fell from 66 in 2023 to 12 in 2025. Table No. 1 and Table No. 3 disagree for 2023: Table 1 shows 908 at the start and 846 at the end, Table 3 totals show 905 and 845; the 2024 and 2025 rows agree. An outlet is defined as a licensed Territory, not a physical location. The franchisor also discloses using confidentiality clauses with former franchisees in the past three years.
Source data notes (4) — inconsistencies found in the FDD itself during verification
Our verification re-reads every table. Where the FDD's own printed tables disagree, we document the discrepancy rather than silently "fixing" it. Classes: B = arithmetic error in the source's derived column; C = the printed tables genuinely disagree; D = a legitimate definitional difference (e.g., transfers netted, explained by a footnote); E = unresolved ambiguity. Figures a material C/E issue puts in doubt are excluded from our derived metrics, scores and rankings.
- [C/minor] Table 1 vs Table 3 2023: Table No. 1 (page 67) prints 908 franchised outlets at the start of 2023 and 846 at the end; the Table No. 3 TOTAL row (page 74) prints 905 at the start and 845 at the end - 3 units apart at the start, 1 at the end, with no footnote reconciling them. — Both figures are genuinely printed as extracted (Table 1 verified against the rendered page image: 'Franchised 2023 908 846 -62'; Table 3 'Total 2023 905 16 17 24 0 35 845'), so this is a source-document inconsistency, not an extraction or calculation error. Table 3 is the corroborated table: its 45 state rows sum exactly to the TOTAL row in all seven columns for all three years, every TOTAL row foots (905+16-17-24-0-35=845), each opening balance equals the prior close, and its closure columns reconcile to the cover-page turnover figure (76+89+103 = 268 outlets terminated, not renewed, reacquired or ceased, page 4). Table 1's 908/846 is corroborated by nothing. Prefer Table 3 for 2023 start/end; the 3-unit gap is 0.33% of the 905 start-of-year base, below the 0.5% threshold, and both table
- [C/minor] Table 1 vs Table 3 2024: Table 1 shows 846 franchised outlets at the start of 2024 against the Table 3 TOTAL row's 845; the two tables converge at the end of 2024 (both 764) and agree throughout 2025 (764 to 684). — Carry-forward of the same 2023 year-end disagreement: each table is internally consistent with its own prior-year close, so no separate error exists. One unit is 0.12% of the 845 base and does not change 2024's net change materially (-82 per Table 1 vs -81 per Table 3). End-2024 and all of 2025 are corroborated by both tables, so current unit counts (684) and 2025 metrics are unaffected.
- [C/minor] Table 1 2023: Table 1's printed 2023 net change of -62 (908 to 846) is inconsistent with Table 3, whose TOTAL row implies -60 (905 to 845). — Table 1's -62 is arithmetically correct on its own numbers (908-846=62), so this is not a calculation error in the document or in extraction; it is the downstream consequence of the printed 908/846 figures disagreeing with Table 3. Table 3's -60 is the corroborated figure (state rows and the cover-page 268 reconcile to it). Two units on a ~900-unit base does not change the direction or the broad size of the 2023 decline.
- [D/minor] Item 20 preamble: Item 20 states that 'an outlet is defined as a licensed Territory as explained in Item 12', so every table counts licensed territories rather than physical locations; a franchisee may operate additional Market Hub Offices inside a single counted outlet. — A legitimate table-definition difference, disclosed in the Item 20 preamble (page 67) rather than an error. Unit counts are territory counts and are not directly comparable with brands that count physical locations; the Market Hub Fee in Item 6 confirms that extra offices exist inside a territory.
Company-owned outlets (Table 4)
| Year | Start | Opened | Reacquired from franchisee | Closed | Sold to franchisee | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Read: How to read Item 20.
Ownership and operations
Items 11, 12, 15, 17Manager-run permitted Disclosed
- Source
- 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC
- Document
- FDD 2026, issued 2026-05-21, amended 2026-07-31
- Item
- Item 15
- Page
- PDF p. 57
- Obtained
- Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions — Franchise Registration Search, file 641883
We recommend, but do not require, that you personally supervise the Franchised Business.
Personal supervision by the owner is recommended but not required. An owner who does not personally supervise, and any franchisee that is a company or partnership, must employ a manager responsible for direct on-premises supervision who has completed the franchisor's training programme; that manager need not hold equity. The franchisee remains responsible for the manager's performance and for all employment decisions.
View operating requirements, territory and contract term
| Owner involvement (Item 15) | Manager-run permitted Disclosed
Personal supervision by the owner is recommended but not required. An owner who does not personally supervise, and any franchisee that is a company or partnership, must employ a manager responsible for direct on-premises supervision who has completed the franchisor's training programme; that manager need not hold equity. The franchisee remains responsible for the manager's performance and for all employment decisions. Personal supervision by the owner is recommended but not required. An owner who does not personally supervise, and any franchisee that is a company or partnership, must employ a manager responsible for direct on-premises supervision who has completed the franchisor's training programme; that manager need not hold equity. The franchisee remains responsible for the manager's performance and for all employment decisions. |
|---|---|
| Initial training | Initial training totals 72 classroom hours and 24 on-the-job hours across an online pre-operations self-study module, a virtual academy, an in-person academy and post-academy goal-setting calls. The in-person portion is a ten-day programme held roughly three to five times a year at the training centre in Memphis, Tennessee, or another designated location, and may be delivered virtually. Tuition for two attendees is included in the initial franchise fee provided they attend the same session; further trainees cost $1,000 each. Either the franchisee or the manager must complete the programme, and travel, lodging, wages and some meals are the franchisee's cost. The franchisor also provides business coaching by phone or video during the first 12 weeks of operation. Disclosed
Item 11 states in one place that the franchisee or a designee must attend and complete initial training within 90 days of signing, and in another that the franchisee or manager must complete it within six months of the franchise agreement date; the franchisee must begin operating by the earlier of 30 days after completing training or 120 days after the agreement's effective date. |
| Multi-unit / development options | No area development agreement, option or right of first refusal to take additional territories is offered. The franchisor may in its sole discretion allow an existing franchisee to acquire further franchised businesses if it meets the then-current qualifications, and it takes the existing operations into account. Multi-unit ownership is nevertheless common: Item 19 reports 250 ownership groups holding 644 active franchises at the end of 2025, with 143 groups holding two or more. Transfer fees fall from 25% to 10% of the initial franchise fee when several businesses transfer at once, and a 15% affiliate discount on the initial franchise fee is available to existing franchisees within the ServiceMaster group. Disclosed
|
| Territory (Item 12) | The territory is not exclusive. It typically contains 40,000 or more Qualified Households, meaning households with average annual income of $75,000 or more, and is described in an exhibit to the franchise agreement. Protection is limited: while the agreement is in force the franchisor will not establish or license another Merry Maids residential maid cleaning business inside the territory, but it and its affiliates keep the right to conduct any other business anywhere, to solicit and accept orders from customers inside the territory through the internet, telemarketing or direct marketing without compensating the franchisee, and to refer national account leads elsewhere if the franchisee declines them. The franchisee may not advertise, solicit or accept orders outside its territory. Keeping the protection depends on a Minimum Sales Requirement measured as average weekly gross sales per four-week period, rising from $250 in the first six months to $1,750 later in year one, then $2,500, $3,250, $4,000 and $4,750 in years two to five. Missing it in three of any nine consecutive periods lets the franchisor withdraw territorial rights, or terminate or refuse to renew. Disclosed
|
| Initial term | 5 years Disclosed
|
| Renewal | Two further consecutive five-year terms are available if the conditions are met, giving a potential 15 years. Renewal requires written notice six to nine months before the term ends, no default and no more than three default notices during the term, compliance with the Minimum Sales Requirement with no more than three misses in the last nine periods, meeting current standards for new franchisees, an approved business plan, completed training, signing the then-current franchise agreement (which may have materially different terms) and a general release, refurbishing or replacing signage, vehicle wraps, uniforms, equipment, vehicles and offices, and paying the renewal fee. A franchisee that keeps operating without completing renewal goes month-to-month and, after 60 days, pays an extra 2.5% of gross sales in royalty. Disclosed
|
| Staffing | The franchisor does not state a typical headcount. Item 15 requires either the owner or a trained manager to provide direct on-premises supervision, and Item 11 says training includes suggested staffing guidance while leaving all hiring, scheduling and pay decisions to the franchisee. Item 7 assumes a leased Primary Office of roughly 450 to 1,800 square feet with washers, dryers and supply storage, within a 60-minute drive of every address in the territory, and budgets $38,000 to $43,000 for three months of wages and other operating costs. Disclosed
|
Risk and legal observations
Items 3, 4, 8, 15, 17 — summarized neutrallyLitigation: 4 matter(s) disclosed Disclosed · Bankruptcy: None disclosed Disclosed
View legal disclosures, restrictions and guarantees
| Litigation (Item 3) | 4 matter(s) disclosed Disclosed Item 3 lists four concluded regulatory matters, all of them involving other franchisors under common private equity ownership rather than Merry Maids or its own management, and the franchisor states none of them involve or allege unlawful conduct by it. Three concern settlements over employee no-poaching clauses and a data breach: a 2019 multi-state settlement by Arby's Restaurant Group over no-poaching provisions, filed as a California action, in which no money was paid; a parallel 2019 multi-state no-poaching settlement by Dunkin' Brands; and a New York Attorney General action against Dunkin' Brands over credential-stuffing cyberattacks, resolved in 2020 by consent order with $650,000 in penalties and costs and an information security programme through September 2026. The fourth is a Maryland Securities Commissioner consent order of June 2025 against Jimmy John's for omitting former franchisee contact details from an exempt FDD filing, with a $30,000 civil penalty. The franchisor states that no other litigation is required to be disclosed. |
|---|---|
| Bankruptcy (Item 4) | None disclosed Disclosed Item 4 states that no bankruptcy information is required to be disclosed. |
| Personal guaranty | Required Disclosed
Where the franchisee is a corporation, partnership or limited liability company, every owner holding 10% or more directly or indirectly must sign the Guaranty of Franchisee's Obligations attached to the franchise agreement, including its confidentiality provisions. Owners below 10% must sign non-compete and non-disclosure agreements. Guaranty forms appear as exhibits to the franchise agreement in Item 22. |
| Non-compete | During the term the franchisee, its owners and any spouse involved in the business may not be involved in any business offering residential or light commercial cleaning or other services licensed within the system, divert business or customers, or misuse vendor relationships. For one year after termination or expiration the same people may not divert business or customers to a competitor, or own or engage in any business performing the services franchised businesses provide, within the territory or 25 miles of it. The franchisor notes these provisions may be limited by state law. Disclosed
|
| Transfer restrictions | Any control transfer needs the franchisor's approval, which it says it will not unreasonably withhold if its conditions are met. The franchisee must give 10 days' notice before listing the business, submit an application and fee, clear all amounts owed, sign a termination agreement keeping pre-transfer liability, sign a general release and pay the then-current transfer fee. The buyer must meet the franchisor's qualifications, complete training at its own cost, sign the then-current franchise agreement (which may differ materially) or assume the existing one, provide owner guaranties, show sufficient finances, get a business plan approved, refurbish or replace signage, vehicle wraps, uniforms, equipment, vehicles and offices, and not be involved in a competing business. The franchisor holds a 45-day right of first refusal to match any offer, renewed on material changes, and may audit before a transfer. Non-control transfers need notice and a Change Fee. On the death or incapacity of a controlling owner the interest must be transferred within six months, or nine months where it passes by inheritance. Disclosed
|
| Termination / non-renewal | The agreement gives the franchisee no stated right to terminate. The franchisor cannot terminate without cause, but may terminate for uncured or non-curable default. Curable breaches carry a 30-day cure period, cut to 10 days for misuse of the marks, failure to submit reports or financial information, or failure to pay. Non-curable defaults include insolvency, unauthorised transfer, felony conviction, misrepresenting gross sales, abandoning the business, breaching confidentiality or non-compete covenants, failing the Minimum Sales Requirement in three of nine consecutive periods, and receiving four or more default notices during the term even if all were cured. On termination the franchisee must stop trading, de-identify, hand over phone numbers, listings, email addresses and social media accounts, assign or cancel customer agreements as directed, and pay liquidated damages equal to average monthly royalties and ad fund contributions over the past 12 months multiplied by the lesser of the remaining term or 24 months. The franchisor also has a 60-day option to buy specified assets at the greater of cost or fair market value. Disclosed
|
| Supplier restrictions (Item 8) | The franchisor may set specifications, approve suppliers or name a single source for anything the franchisee buys or leases. Cleaning chemicals, vacuum cleaners and uniforms must currently come from a designated vendor, local marketing must be bought through approved vendors, and the franchisor supplies the software licences paid for by the technology fee. It estimates that about 80% of purchases and leases both to open and to operate the business are from it, its affiliates, designated vendors, or made to its specifications. Deviating from a specification or supplier requires approval and a $500 per-item review fee. The franchisor and its affiliates take revenue from these arrangements: certain approved vendors pay affiliates 1% to 8% of what they receive from franchisee sales; SM Systems derived $478,731 from vendor sales to franchised businesses in 2025, $292,341 of it from annual conference sponsorships; and the franchisor itself derived $2,079,220 from required franchisee purchases in 2025, which it states was 10.4% of its total revenue of $19,906,473. There are no purchasing or distribution cooperatives, and officers hold no interests in approved suppliers. Disclosed
|
| Dispute resolution | Disputes must first be negotiated informally, then submitted to non-binding mediation, and if unresolved must go to arbitration in the city of the franchisor's principal place of business, currently Atlanta, Georgia. Claims that are litigated rather than arbitrated must also be brought there, and Georgia law applies subject to state franchise laws. The franchisor highlights out-of-state dispute resolution as a special risk on its cover page. Disclosed
|
- Territory rights and the franchise itself depend on a Minimum Sales Requirement that rises from $250 to $4,750 in average weekly gross sales by year five; missing it in three of nine consecutive periods is a non-curable default.
- The cover page discloses that 268 outlets were terminated, not renewed, reacquired or ceased operations for other reasons in the last three years, and flags this as a higher-risk turnover rate.
- Franchised outlets fell from 908 to 684 over 2023–2025, with closures exceeding openings in every year.
- The cover page flags mandatory minimum royalty or advertising fund payments regardless of sales levels.
- The franchisor and its affiliates may solicit and accept orders from customers inside a franchisee's territory through other channels without compensating the franchisee.
- The franchisor has used confidentiality clauses with former franchisees in the past three years, which may limit what some of them can say to a prospective buyer.
- Receiving four or more default notices during the term is itself a non-curable default even if every default was cured.
- The franchisee may not use its own affiliated entities to supply the business, including vehicles, without the franchisor's consent.
Summaries are neutral paraphrases of the cited document and are not legal advice. Read the full Items in the current FDD and consult a franchise attorney.
Illustrative unit economics
Model estimateModel estimate — not disclosed by the franchisor, not a forecast. Fee lines below come from this brand's verified FDD fee schedule and are computed exactly as disclosed (each line shows its arithmetic). Operating-cost ratios are category placeholders we chose — every one is editable and labeled assumption. Results are illustrative arithmetic, not expected returns. Every figure here belongs to one of five labeled categories — disclosed inputs, model assumptions, unmodeled mandatory fees, user-editable assumptions, and exclusions — defined in our methodology.
| Line (annual) | Downside | Base | Upside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (AUV basis) | $130,847 | $391,007 | $449,658 |
| − Cost of goods / supplies assumption | $26,169 | $78,201 | $89,932 |
| − Payroll (excl. owner) assumption | $49,722 | $148,583 | $170,870 |
| − Occupancy assumption | $3,925 | $11,730 | $13,490 |
| − Other operating expenses assumption | $15,702 | $46,921 | $53,959 |
| − Royalty disclosed 7% of gross sales = $27,370 |
$9,159 | $27,370 | $31,476 |
| − Ad Fund Contribution disclosed 1.3% of gross sales = $5,083 |
$1,701 | $5,083 | $5,846 |
| − Local Marketing Obligation disclosed 0.7% of gross sales = $2,737 |
$916 | $2,737 | $3,148 |
| − Technology Fee disclosed $499/month × 12 = $5,988 |
$5,988 | $5,988 | $5,988 |
| − QuickBooks Accounting/Payroll Annual License assumption $475/yr (seeded from the disclosed floor) |
$475 | $475 | $475 |
| = Modeled operating result before the items below (EBITDA-style) | $17,089 | $63,918 | $74,475 |
| − Manager compensation assumption | $65,000 | $65,000 | $65,000 |
| = Modeled result after manager compensation | −$47,911 | −$1,082 | $9,475 |
| − Illustrative debt service assumption | $16,786 | $16,786 | $16,786 |
| = Illustrative pre-tax cash flow — before taxes, capital expenditures and unmodeled fees | −$64,697 | −$17,868 | −$7,311 |
| Modeled operating margin | 13.1% | 16.3% | 16.6% |
This modeled result is not owner income. It excludes: income taxes; capital expenditures and equipment-replacement reserves; working-capital needs; ramp-up losses; owner-specific costs; one-time and per-event fees (transfer, renewal, audit); and 2 mandatory fee(s) whose amounts the FDD does not state (listed below — real outflows are higher by these amounts). It is illustrative arithmetic on stated assumptions, not a promise or forecast of what a franchisee earns.
Mandatory fees disclosed but not quantified — not included in the modeled result: the FDD requires these but states no amount (e.g. billed at "then-current" rates). They are never modeled as $0. If you have a quote or estimate, enter an annual amount to include it as your own assumption:
- Meeting Registration Fee (Item 6, p. 27) — No current amount is disclosed; budget up to the $1,500 per-person ceiling plus travel for one attendee per year.
- Tax Reimbursement Fees (Item 6, p. 31) — amount not stated in the FDD (e.g. “then-current fee”)
Every figure in this table is a model estimate built on the disclosed fee schedule plus labeled assumptions. Excluded: income taxes, owner draw, working-capital swings, capital expenditures, ramp-up losses in year one, one-time and per-event fees (transfer, renewal, audit), and the undisclosed-amount fees listed above. Read AUV vs. EBITDA vs. owner income before using this.
Sources and provenance
Primary source: 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC · issued 2026-05-21 · amended 2026-07-31. Find the FDD at Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions — Franchise Registration Search. We cite source pages and do not redistribute PDFs.
View all sources, provenance and verification notes
| Document | Obtained from | Dates | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document — Merry Maids SPE LLC Registry file 641883 · 285 pages Cover states the issuance date is May 21, 2026, as amended on July 31, 2026; the running footer reads 'Merry Maids FDD (05/26 v.2)'. Wisconsin registration effective 6/2/2026 and shown as Registered; this is the newest document available in that registry. | Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions — Franchise Registration Search | Issued 2026-05-21; amended 2026-07-31 Retrieved 2026-08-29 | Newest available at retrieval |
AI-assisted extraction from the archived FDD text, independently machine-verified against the cited source (two passes plus tie-break); not human-reviewed. Extracted 2026-08-29. Last updated 2026-09-05. AI-assisted extraction independently machine-verified against the cited source document (2026-08-31): two independent AI reading passes plus tie-break re-inspection of every disagreement; 73 of 77 material fields confirmed (68 with the exact page citation re-confirmed), 0 corrected, 0 unresolved, 4 confirmed not disclosed. No human has reviewed this profile. Fiscal year covered: FY2025 (Dec 31, 2025). See how we use AI and verify data.
Fields flagged as uncertain (4)
- franchisor.business_since — Item 1 gives 1980 only as the year the predecessor began offering franchises, never when Merry Maids operations began, so this is left null.
- investment.liquidity_required, investment.net_worth_required — no minimum liquid capital or net worth figure appears on the cover pages or in Items 1, 5, 7, 15 or 17 of the reviewed document.
- item19.headline_auv — used the broader Table 3 mean of $391,007 over 644 Active Franchises; Table 1's $439,243 over 414 Qualified Franchises is recorded as a separate metric.
- item20.system_summary 2023 — Table No. 1 and Table No. 3 disagree for that year; the Table No. 1 values are recorded in system_summary and the Table No. 3 values in franchised_status, as disclosed.
Extraction notes (9)
- Expected validator warning: item20 2023 Table 1 franchised_end 846 does not equal Table 3 end 845. This is a discrepancy inside the FDD itself — Table No. 1 shows 908 at the start and 846 at the end of 2023 while the Table No. 3 totals show 905 and 845. Both are recorded as disclosed rather than reconciled. The 2024 and 2025 rows of the two tables agree.
- Item 20 Table No. 3 foots for every year: 905+16-17-24-0-35=845, 845+8-9-8-0-72=764, 764+23-2-1-0-100=684. Closures across the three years total 268, matching the turnover figure on the FDD cover page.
- Item 7 columns foot exactly to the disclosed totals of $126,875 and $169,325.
- Item 19 contains two small internal inconsistencies, recorded in item19.caveats: the same 250 ownership groups are shown as 92 (36.8%) at or above average in Table 2 but 95 (38.0%) in Table 3, and the lowest ownership-group gross sales figure appears as $57,274, $57,275 and $57,724 in different cells.
- The FDD's fees.cooperative field is intentionally omitted: Item 11 states franchisees are not obliged to participate in any advertising cooperative and Item 8 states there are no purchasing or distribution cooperatives, so there is no cooperative fee to record.
- Item 3's four matters all concern other franchisors under common Roark Capital ownership (Arby's, Dunkin' Brands twice, Jimmy John's); none involve Merry Maids, its predecessor or its management, and the franchisor states no other litigation is required to be disclosed.
- Initial franchise fee is recorded as the flat $55,000 standard fee at both ends of the range. Item 5's discount programmes (20% military, 15% affiliate, 15% conversion) and the $27,500–$49,500 range of fees actually collected in 2025 are described in the fee notes rather than used as the low end.
- Page citations are physical PDF pages verified with pipeline/page_of.py; in this document the printed page numbers and PDF page numbers coincide.
- Verification 2026-08-31: fix_page /operations/multi_unit 54 → 55
We do not host or redistribute FDD PDFs. Search the registry linked above by franchisor name to obtain the document. Found an error? Report a correction with the field and the primary source.
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