Cleaning
The Maids Franchise
A residential house-cleaning franchise sold by Territory (approximately 90,000-150,000 households each), with franchisees able to purchase multiple contiguous Territories under one Franchise Agreement. Incorporated in Nebraska in 1979, converted to an LLC in 2020, and acquired the same year by The Maids Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Gladstone Management Corp.; headquarters relocated from Omaha, NE to Irving, TX by this FDD's issuance. Franchised outlet count grew in both years shown, while company-owned outlets fell as several were sold to franchisees.
Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from The Maids's own filing.
What it costs to open
From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.
Franchise fee
$60,000
Total to open
$117,720–$141,200
Ongoing royalty
Not a %-of-revenue fee -- see FDD
What you'd actually spend, over time
The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.
Defaulted to a rough cleaning industry average, not a figure from The Maids's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Startup investment (royalty not included -- see below)
$117,720 – $141,200
The Maids doesn't charge a straightforward percentage-of-revenue royalty -- its FDD describes a different ongoing-fee structure instead. That cost isn't included in the total above; check the FDD directly for the real terms before using this figure to compare against other franchises.
When would you break even?
Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. The Maids's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical cleaning profit margin (~20%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.
Defaulted to a general cleaning industry benchmark, not a figure from The Maids's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.
At that profit, you'd break even in about
1.5–1.8 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: The Maids is opening more locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.
Is The Maids actually growing?
Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:
Locations opened vs. closed, by year
GrowingFrom Item 20 of The Maids's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 375 | 369 | -6 |
| 2024 | 369 | 385 | +16 |
| 2025 | 385 | 394 | +9 |
Most recent year (2025): gained 9 franchised units, ending the year at 394 total.
What you're actually signing up for
The cost and growth numbers above are only part of the picture. These three FDD items are the ones a prospective franchisee tends to weigh most heavily once they're past the sticker price.
Training & ongoing support (Item 11)
SMART Start Training totals a minimum of 100 hours (80 classroom/webinar, 20+ on-the-job) across managerial, marketing, operations, and software topics, run out of the Irving, TX headquarters and taking roughly 5-7 weeks including the separate SMART Start Set-Up phase; sessions run only 6-8 times a year.
Territory protection (Item 12)
A protected Designated Market Area defined by zip codes and sized to roughly 90,000-150,000 households per Territory (reconfigured methodology as of August 2025) -- The Maids won't operate there itself or license another franchisee to, absent an uncured breach, but reserves the right to compete through other channels.
Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)
10-year term with two 5-year renewal options (9 months' notice required). No arbitration -- disputes go through mediation, then litigation, both in Dallas County, TX under Texas law (headquarters relocated from Nebraska to Texas since the company's founding). Non-compete after termination is 18 months within 20 miles of the Designated Market Area or any other The Maids territory.
How The Maids compares to other Cleaning franchises
Across the 7 cleaning franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $113,364–$157,614, with royalties averaging around 7.3% of gross sales (based on the 6 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).
Keep going
- The Maids and Merry Maids are both cleaning franchises; The Maids's total investment starts about $9,160 lower than Merry Maids's. Merry Maids Franchise
- The Maids and ecomaids are both cleaning franchises; The Maids's total investment starts about $11,429 lower than ecomaids's. ecomaids Franchise
Where this came from: California DFPI Post-Effectiveness Amendment, dfpi id 508628, App ID APP00005840, filed 6/2/2026, effective 6/25/2026; FDD issue date January 18, 2026, as amended May 12, 2026. A separate, older DFPI entity (dfpi id 652983, The Maids International, Inc.) has filed nothing since 2020 and was not used. Item 5: Initial Franchise Fee is set by the number of Territories purchased -- $60,000 for one, up to $190,000 for five, $20,000 for each additional contiguous Territory beyond that -- $60,000 (single Territory) used here. Item 6: the Continuing License Fee (royalty) is a reverse sliding scale by weekly Gross Revenues -- 6.9% under $6,730/week, stepping down to 3.9% at $134,616/week and up (reverts to 6.9% flat during any uncured default) -- so royaltyPercent is set to null rather than a single misleading number, following the 7-Eleven/Kona Ice precedent; a Technology Innovation Fund Fee (0.25%) and Marketing Fund Fee (2%) also apply, both of Gross Revenues. Item 7 Total (single Territory, Table A): $117,720-$141,200. Item 20 Table No. 1 confirmed (fiscal years ended September 30). Item 19 discloses a financial performance representation (average revenue per clean and per customer, from 97 Franchised Outlets operating in 338 Territories as of the issuance date -- not 369, which is Item 20's combined franchised-plus-company-owned Territory count as of fiscal year-end 9/30/2025); not reproduced here -- read Item 19 directly. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-06-25. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.
If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.