Senior living placement franchise finance
Averan read the 2026 FDDs of five senior living placement brands.
The median brand here reports average revenue of $275,654 an unit. Percentage fees at the median brand come to 12% of sales. The median cost to open runs $85,255 to $109,239.
Find a senior living placement brand
5 brands in this guide, each from its own 2026 FDD. Open one, or pick two and compare them.
The brands in this group
Each brand has its own business model breakdown, with every figure set out against the brand’s disclosure document it comes from.
- Amada Senior Care Revenue by group · Who pays the bill, the insurer or the patient set against a royalty charged on billings
- Assisted Living Locators TWO revenue tables - Gross Invoiced Revenue and Gross Collected Revenue - each split into all franchisees plus subsets by territories owned (1, 2, 3, 4), with lowest, highest, median, average and attainment
- CarePatrolyears open-group-plus-three-year-pnl · Years-open group by territory and by owner, a $5,238 average placement fee. Three full years of consolidated profit statements
- Oasis Senior Advisors Revenue by group · Declining royalty ladder whose lower rungs nobody in the network reaches
- Senior Care Authority Revenue by group · Per-area royalty minimum governing most of the network for four and a half years
The figures, brand by brand
| Measure | Median | Brands | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sales per unit | $275,654 | 4 of 5 | Median of each brand’s disclosed average |
| Median sales per unit | $240,556 | 4 of 5 | Median of each brand’s disclosed median |
| Initial franchise fee | $51,200 | 4 of 5 | |
| Royalty | 8% | 5 of 5 | Headline rate |
| Brand or advertising fund | 1.5% | 4 of 5 | |
| Percentage fees, all in | 12% | 5 of 5 | Royalty, funds and local marketing set as a share of sales |
| Cost to open, low | $85,255 | 5 of 5 | |
| Cost to open, high | $109,239 | 5 of 5 | |
| Profit margin | Fewer than three disclose | 1 of 5 | Each brand’s own profit line; definitions differ |
| Labor, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 1 of 5 | |
| Building costs, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 0 of 5 | |
| Unit growth, 2025 | 7% | 5 of 5 | (End − start) ÷ start |
| Customers lost, 2025 | 6.8% | 4 of 5 | Terminated, non-renewed, reacquired and ceased, ÷ opening units; transfers excluded |
Each figure is the median of the brands that disclose it, and the Brands column counts them.
How we calculated this
Revenue is each brand's own reported figure on its own unit basis, so the median describes the group and no single brand. Growth and customers lost are our calculations from each brand's outlet table. Where fewer than three brands disclose a figure, no benchmark is shown.
The model
The business model the top performers in senior living placement are running
What the top performers can do that others cannot
4 of the 5 brands here sell a hire. Rostering against demand is the constraint: wages run 36.8% of sales at the middle brand, more than any other line.
What the customer is buying
The customer buys a placement paid on a fee. At 1 of them the model is different: the customer buys care or labour billed by the hour, which asks something else of the owner. A location at the middle brand sells $275,654 a year; the top group sells $465,173. The offer is the same at both ends of that range, so the difference is volume rather than product.
Who the customer is, and how often they come back
This is an acquisition business. Each job is won again, so lead flow, the close rate and what the average job is worth decide the year. A median 37% of locations reach their own brand’s average, so most of the system is below the number the brand advertises, and the gap is usually a demand gap rather than an effort gap. The top group sells $465,173 against $67,820 at the bottom. Trade area and site set that range before an owner takes a booking.
How the money works
Opening costs $63,089 to $438,440 across the group, and inside one brand the top of the range is typically 1.3 times the bottom. At the middle brand the cost stack runs wages 36.8%, cost of sales 10.8%, franchise fees 12.0% of sales. What is left runs 29.1% at the middle brand, which is $135,551 a year at the top group and $19,763 at the bottom. The percentage barely moves between them; the dollars do. 3 of these brands publish how a new location builds up, so the first year can be read out of the document instead of guessed at.
Also disclosed across this group: $0, $1,579,524, $2,757, $222,762, 137.5, 9.0.
Top performers
These are the things that separate top performers in senior living placement
At the typical senior living placement brand, the best group of locations sells $465,173 a year. The worst group sells $67,820. That is $397,353 more a year, 6.9 times over, for the same brand on the same agreement. Across these brands, a median of 37% of locations reach their own brand’s average. The average describes the top of a system, not the middle. 5 of the 5 brands here publish bands; the rest disclose no spread at all.
Decided before you open
- What it costs to open.Opening costs run $63,089 to $438,440 across the group, and the top of a single brand’s range is typically 1.3 times its bottom. The top group sells $465,173 a year against a build that tops out at $438,440, so at the heavy end of the range a location sells $1.06 for every dollar it cost to open. A build that heavy takes years of sales to recover, so the site has to be right the first time.
- What a location sells.Average sales run $275,654 at the middle brand and $465,173 at the top group. Format and site decide most of that before an owner does anything, which is why the same operator produces different results in different trade areas.
Live operating levers
- 4 of the 5 brands here get paid on a placement.The fee is earned when someone is hired and it can be lost again if that person leaves inside the guarantee period, so a placement that does not stick costs the firm twice. Volume matters, but so does who gets put forward. They are Assisted Living Locators, CarePatrol, Oasis Senior Advisors, Senior Care Authority.
- 3 of the 5 brands here publish how a new location builds up.Where a brand shows its first year month by month, an owner can see when sales finally cover the costs and how much cash has to be put in before that point arrives. Where a brand does not show it, that curve has to be guessed at, and the guess is usually optimistic. They are Amada Senior Care, CarePatrol, Senior Care Authority.
- 2 of the 5 brands here run a recurring plan.A plan turns a business that waits for the phone to ring into one that knows roughly what next month looks like, and that predictability is what lets an owner staff properly. It is built by asking the customer to book the next visit before they walk out, not by spending more on marketing afterwards. They are Amada Senior Care, Oasis Senior Advisors.
- Wages. Same labor market, different result.Wages run 36.8% of sales at the middle brand and 36.8% to 36.8% across the 1 that disclose it. These brands hire from the same pool at the same rates, so a 0-point spread is not a pay-rate gap. It is scheduling and productivity: rostering against booked demand hour by hour, managing sales per paid hour as the number, and keeping enough of the pay variable that the line falls when the week is quiet. On the top group’s $465,173 of sales, a point of wages is $4,652 a year; on the bottom group’s $67,820 it is $678. The same discipline is worth more where the volume already is.
- Cost of what you sell. The line that compounds.Products and materials take 10.8% of sales at the middle brand, 10.8% to 10.8% across the 1 that disclose it. Buying on the brand program rather than locally, holding the price list instead of discounting to close, and counting waste weekly are what separate the ends of that range, and each of them compounds with volume, which is why the gap widens as a location grows.
- What is left at the end. Where the gap comes from.Of the 1 brands that publish a profit line, the middle one keeps 29.1% of sales, from 29.1% to 29.1%. The cost lines above move by a few points between the best and worst locations while sales move by multiples, so the top performers are not running a cheaper business. They are running the same cost base over more revenue. Hold that 29.1% margin steady and the top group earns $135,551 against $19,763 at the bottom, a difference of $115,789 a year that comes from volume alone.
- What the brand charges. The line that works backwards.Fees run a median 12.0% of sales across 5 brands, from 6.0% to 17.8%. Where a minimum sits underneath the percentage, the weakest location pays the highest effective rate, so the fee line costs most exactly where it can least be afforded. The top performers clear the minimum early and stop thinking about it. At $465,173 the fees cost $55,821 a year; at $67,820 they cost $8,138. The percentage is the same and the burden is not.
Context you underwrite around
- How many brands show a ramp.3 of 5 filings in this group show how a new location builds up. For the rest the first year has to be assumed, and the assumption is usually wrong in the same direction.
Operating levers
What each brand’s top performers actually work on
The levers the filing supports, brand by brand. Three to five each, read from that brand’s own 2026 FDD. Filter by type of business, or open a brand for the figures underneath.
5 brands
Amada Senior Care
Senior living placement
- Billed hours, the operating driver. This model bills on billed hours. The owner pays for every hour worked and bills only the hours a client accepts, so the job is to keep those two close and to protect the gap between the rate charged and the rate paid. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking. A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 6.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Assisted Living Locators
Senior living placement
- Placements, the operating driver. This model bills on placements. The fee is earned when someone is hired and lost again if they leave inside the guarantee, so a placement that does not stick costs the firm twice. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 14.2% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
CarePatrol
Senior living placement
- Wages, the dominant line. Wages take 36.8% of sales, against 29.1% kept at the end. Staff productivity, scheduling against demand hour by hour, and the balance of base pay to commission are where this is won. Small movements here move the result more than anything else, because nothing else in the structure is that large.
- Placements, the operating driver. This model bills on placements. The fee is earned when someone is hired and lost again if they leave inside the guarantee, so a placement that does not stick costs the firm twice. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 17.8% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Oasis Senior Advisors
Senior living placement
- Placements, the operating driver. This model bills on placements. The fee is earned when someone is hired and lost again if they leave inside the guarantee, so a placement that does not stick costs the firm twice. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking. A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 12.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Senior Care Authority
Senior living placement
- Placements, the operating driver. This model bills on placements. The fee is earned when someone is hired and lost again if they leave inside the guarantee, so a placement that does not stick costs the firm twice. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 8.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
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?How royalty, ad fund and minimums actually work on a monthly statement.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?A 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- My payroll percentage keeps climbing. Is that a payroll problem?Usually it is a revenue problem wearing a payroll costume.
- I run several locations. Which ones actually make money?Location-level contribution, and what it takes to see it.
- How much of Item 19 can I rely on?What a financial performance representation does and does not tell you.
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Finance Diagnostic 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. 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 agency.
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast, and reporting, so you know where you stand against the twenty-one brands above.
Request the reviewWhere these figures come from
Every figure here comes from the brands' 2026 FDDs and is unaudited by us. We are unaffiliated with the brands. The medians, growth and customers lost figures are our own calculations. The figures describe past performance at other businesses. They are not a projection of your results. This page is an educational summary and is not an offer to sell a franchise or financial, legal or tax advice. All trademarks belong to their owners. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.