Home Instead franchise unit economics
Home Instead franchisees run a non-medical in-home senior care agency, billing caregiver hours for companionship, personal care and household help.
Home Instead franchise at a glance
Home Instead’s Item 19 reports 2025 gross sales and client hours served for 611 US franchised businesses, with counts by years in the system.
Home Instead franchisees averaged $2,750,876 of sales in 2025, with a median of $2,352,451, according to Item 19 of Home Instead’s 2026 FDD, issued 29 April 2026. The 611 in that group are 98%* of Home Instead’s 626 locations. Fees paid to Home Instead come to about 7%* of sales. A Home Instead franchise costs $92,640 to $350,550 to open.
- Home Instead charges a royalty of 5% of sales, a 2% brand fund contribution and a $500 monthly technology fee.
- Work out Home Instead's fees at your own sales with the minimum fee calculator.
- The average, median and highest-billing Home Instead offices all bill within 70 cents an hour of each other.
These figures come from Home Instead's 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, as the brand reported them, and were read by Averan Advisors.
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Talk to Averan → Move your books and accounting to Averan →- The average, median and largest Home Instead offices all bill about $34.50 an hour. That is $34.53 at the average, $34.09 at the median, $34.76 at the largest office in the system.
- The average office sells 1,532 client hours a week. That is about 51 caregivers working 30 hours each. The median office sells 1,327.
- Two thirds of the network has been running over twenty years. 411 of 611 offices, and only 31 are under five years old.
- An office past twenty years averages roughly $3.1m against $571,000 in its first two. About 1,400 more client hours a week, built one client at a time.
- Fees take 7.2% of the average office's revenue. That is a 5% royalty, a 2% marketing fund and $6,000 of technology fee.
How much does a Home Instead franchise make?
The average Home Instead unit reported $2,750,876 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $2,352,451. The brand’s disclosure document discloses revenue and not profit, so what an owner keeps depends on the cost structure set out below. Fees come off the top first, at about 7% of sales across royalty, brand fund and the rest of the stack. Revenue is not income. Rent, wages, cost of goods and the franchise fees all come out before an owner is paid. The figures for the highest-selling and lowest-selling businesses are below.
Hours
Gross sales and client hours, 2025
| Gross sales | Client hours served | Revenue per hour | Hours per week | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average office | $2,750,876 | 79,658 | $34.53 | 1,532 |
| Median office | $2,352,451 | 69,017 | $34.09 | 1,327 |
| Largest office | $13,070,342 | 376,064 | $34.76 | 7,232 |
| Smallest office | $38,465 | 893 | $43.07 | 17 |
Gross sales and client hours as the brand reported it.
The biggest office in the system charges 23 cents an hour more than the average one. That is $34.76 against $34.53, on nearly five times the volume. Whatever scale buys in this business, pricing power is plainly outside it. An office billing $13 million is doing exactly what an office billing $2.7 million does, 376,064 times instead of 79,658.
1,532 hours a week is about 51 caregivers working 30 hours each. The same hours are about 38 caregivers working 40 hours each. Every additional caregiver who stays is worth roughly $54,000 a year at 30 hours a week. Every one who leaves takes the same amount with them until you replace both the caregiver and the client.
The smallest office in the system bills $43.07 an hour and stays the smallest. 893 hours a year is 17 a week, a single client, part time. Charging nine dollars an hour above the system rate produced $38,465 of revenue. Rate is the lever that looks available and delivers least.
Top performers
What separates the top Home Instead performers
Home Instead publishes a range for its offices instead of grouped averages. The largest of the 611 Home Instead franchised offices operating all of 2025 had $13,070,342 of gross sales. The smallest Home Instead office in that group had $38,465. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees. The middle location sold $2,352,451. The average was $2,750,876. More than half the system is below the number the brand quotes.
Decided before you open
- Site and trade area.The largest Home Instead office sells 339.8× the smallest one. Catchment, daytime population and neighboring businesses affect where a location falls.
- Territory.This model sells from a territory, with no storefront. Population density sets how much driving sits between jobs.
- Opening cost range.Opening costs $92,640 to $350,550, a 3.8× range inside one brand.
Live operating levers
- Billed hours.You pay for every hour worked and bill only the hours a client accepts. Track hours worked against hours billed, and the rate charged against the rate paid.
Context you underwrite around
- Locations included.These figures cover 611 of 626 locations. Locations open less than the full year, brand-owned, or not meeting the reporting criteria are excluded.
- What the filing does not include.Item 19 publishes no profit or cost data for franchised locations, no attainment figure. Ask the franchisor or current owners for cost and profit figures.
Years open
Sales by years in the system
| Years in system | Offices | Share of network | Estimated average sales | Estimated hours per week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 14 | 2.3% | $571,000 | 318 |
| 3 to 4 | 17 | 2.8% | $1,162,000 | 647 |
| 5 to 7 | 21 | 3.4% | $2,012,000 | 1,120 |
| 8 to 10 | 25 | 4.1% | $2,670,000 | 1,487 |
| 11 to 15 | 40 | 6.5% | $2,338,000 | 1,302 |
| 16 to 20 | 83 | 13.6% | $2,614,000 | 1,456 |
| 21 to 25 | 193 | 31.6% | $3,110,000 | 1,732 |
| 26 and over | 218 | 35.7% | $3,156,000 | 1,758 |
The brand reported the office counts and the years-open groups, from its own table of sales against years in the system.
Revenue rises from about $571,000 in years one and two to $2,012,000 in years five to seven. Home Instead offices bill roughly $571,000 in years one and two, $1,162,000 in years three and four, and $2,012,000 in years five to seven. In hours that is 318 a week rising to 1,120, call it 24 caregivers added over six years. After that the curve flattens and the remaining twenty years add about another 600 hours a week.
Every office under five years old sits below $1.5 million. All 31 offices in their first four years sit in the $1,000,000 to $1,499,999 group or below. No office reaches the higher groups in its first four years. Plan the cash to reach year five.
Two thirds of the network is over twenty years old. 411 of 611 offices, and 218 have been running more than 26 years. Benchmarking yourself against the $2,750,876 system average means measuring a young office against a network of twenty-year-old ones. Compare an office with others of the same age.
Businesses by gross sales group
| Gross sales | Offices | Share |
|---|---|---|
| $7,500,000 and over | 15 | 3% |
| $4,500,000 to $7,499,999 | 65 | 11% |
| $3,000,000 to $4,499,999 | 118 | 19% |
| $2,000,000 to $2,999,999 | 187 | 31% |
| $1,500,000 to $1,999,999 | 99 | 16% |
| $1,000,000 to $1,499,999 | 76 | 12% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 39 | 6% |
| Under $500,000 | 12 | 2% |
As the brand reported it.
Nearly a third of the network sits between $2 million and $3 million. More Home Instead offices sit in that group than in any other, at about 1,400 client hours a week. A third of the system is above $3 million and 8% below $1 million.
Fifteen offices bill over $7.5 million. At the system rate that is more than 4,100 hours a week, or something like 140 caregivers. Those offices are run differently from the 187 in the middle group. The hourly rate says they earn the same per hour for it.
Discounts available
- Home Instead takes 20% off the fee (to $43,200) for honorably discharged U.S. Armed Forces veterans who do not already own a Home Instead franchise, under VetFran.
From Item 5 of the Home Instead 2026 FDD. The costs on this page use the full initial franchise fee for one unit, before any discount.
Fees and the network
What the fees come to
| Gross sales | Royalty at 5% | Marketing fund at 2% | Technology | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $500,000 | $25,000 | $10,000 | $6,000 | $41,000 | 8.2% |
| $1,000,000 | $50,000 | $20,000 | $6,000 | $76,000 | 7.6% |
| $2,352,451 (median) | $117,623 | $47,049 | $6,000 | $170,672 | 7.3% |
| $2,750,876 (average) | $137,544 | $55,018 | $6,000 | $198,561 | 7.2% |
We applied the disclosed rates.
Fees total 7.2% of revenue at the average office. The schedule leaves out any required local advertising spend or percentage-based cooperative, and the technology fee is a rounding error at this revenue. Compare that with the wellness studio brands, where fixed fees alone run $28,000 to $31,000 against revenue a tenth the size.
That means the fee schedule is beside the point here. Every dollar that matters sits in the gap between what you bill a client per hour and what you pay a caregiver per hour. That gap is yours to measure. At an hourly rate of $34.53, one dollar an hour of wage across 79,658 hours is $79,658 a year.
The network of locations
| Year | Start | Opened | Terminations | Reacquired | Ceased other | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 614 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 616 |
| 2024 | 616 | 17 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 619 |
| 2025 | 619 | 17 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 626 |
As the brand reported it.
The network grew by twelve offices in three years. That is 614 to 626. This is a mature system where almost all the activity is inside existing territories. That matches a network two thirds of which is over twenty years old.
Openings run at 17 a year against a 626-office base. So buying an established Home Instead office is the realistic route to scale.
Questions we get asked
How much does a Home Instead franchise make?
Home Instead franchisees averaged $2,750,876 of sales in 2025, with a median of $2,352,451, according to Item 19 of Home Instead’s 2026 FDD, issued 29 April 2026. The 611 in that group are 98%* of Home Instead’s 626 locations. Fees paid to Home Instead come to about 7%* of sales. A Home Instead franchise costs $92,640 to $350,550 to open.
What is a Home Instead office actually worth per hour?
About $34.50, and the rate changes little with size. The average office bills $34.53, the median $34.09 and the largest in the system $34.76. So revenue is a straight function of hours sold: 79,658 a year at the average office, 69,017 at the median. Track hours weekly and the dollars follow.
How many caregivers does the average office need at Home Instead?
A Home Instead office needs about 51 caregivers at 30 hours a week, or 38 at 40 hours, to cover 1,532 client hours weekly. The median office needs about 44 at 30 hours. Each caregiver working 30 hours a week is worth roughly $54,000 of annual revenue at the system hourly rate. That is the number to set recruiting and retention spend against.
What should my Home Instead office be billing at my age?
Offices average about $571,000 in years one and two, $1,162,000 in years three and four, $2,012,000 in years five to seven, and about $3.1 million past twenty years. Every one of the 31 offices under five years old bills below $1.5 million. Measuring a three-year-old office against the $2,750,876 system average compares it with a network two thirds of which is over twenty years old.
What does Home Instead cost me?
Home Instead charges a 5% royalty, a 2% marketing fund contribution and $500 a month of technology fee, $198,561 a year at the average office, or 7.2% of sales. The schedule leaves out any required local advertising spend or mandatory cooperative. The technology fee can rise by up to 25% a year on 60 days' notice. By the standards of the brands in this series, that is a light schedule. What is left depends on the gap between the hourly rate charged and the hourly wage paid.
Who does bookkeeping for a Home Instead franchise?
Wages are the business, so the close has to reconcile scheduled hours, worked hours and billed hours every period. One hour of overtime billed at the normal rate costs the whole of that hour's profit. Gross Sales for royalty excludes reimbursed caregiver mileage and out-of-pocket expenses, which means those flows need separating from service revenue at the point of entry. Private-pay receivables and any Medicaid or long-term-care-insurance billing age very differently and want tracking apart. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.
- The filing gives no profit figure. The filing reports sales and not earnings, so what an owner keeps is not disclosed.
- The filing breaks out no cost lines. Wages, rent and cost of goods are not broken out, so margin cannot be rebuilt from the document.
- The filing gives no attainment figure. The filing does not say how many locations reached the average it publishes.
Questions worth putting to Home Instead
The filing answers what it answers. These are the gaps an owner or a buyer should close directly.
- What do locations at the median spend on wages and rent as a share of sales? The filing reports sales only.
- Which factors does Home Instead see in its highest-selling locations, such as trade area, years open and size?
- How long does a new location take to reach the average you publish, and what does the build-up look like month by month?
- At what level of sales do the minimum charges stop applying and the percentage take over?
- How many Home Instead locations closed, were sold, or changed hands last year, and why?
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Numbers Check runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. It checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
Launch the diagnostic →Run these numbers against your own office.
We review your unit economics, cash forecast and reporting, so you know where you stand against your own cohort.
Talk to AveranWhere these figures come from.
Every figure here comes from Home Instead, Inc.’s 2026 FDD and is unaudited by us. We are unaffiliated with the brand. Calculations of our own are labeled where they appear, the figures describe past performance at other businesses and are not a projection of yours. This page is an educational summary. It is not an offer to sell a franchise, and it is not financial, legal or tax advice. Home Instead® is a registered trademark of its owner. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.
These figures come from the brand's disclosure. They are not a forecast, an offer to sell a franchise or advice. Source: Home Instead, Inc., 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, issued 29 April 2026.
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Home Instead reads against the rest of the non-medical home care group: Assisting Hands Home Care · CareBuilders At Home · Caring Senior Service · ComForCare · Comfort Keepers · Executive Home Care. The non-medical home care guide compares all of them on the same figures.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?It works out the sales level where a minimum fee stops applying.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?It builds a 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- My payroll percentage keeps climbing. Is that a payroll problem?It shows how to tell whether payroll is rising or revenue is falling.
- Do I need a bookkeeper, a controller, or a CFO?It explains what each role owns and when the next hire pays for itself.
- Revenue was the highest it has been. Why did profit not move?It traces where the extra revenue went, line by line.