The service line

JUNK REMOVAL FRANCHISE

A junk removal franchise licenses you a brand, a truck-based operating system, and a protected territory to haul furniture, appliances, debris, and estate clear-outs for residential and commercial customers.

Junk + Moving
Franchise at a glance
Franchise fee
$65,000
Total investment
$193K–$345K
Net worth required
$200,000
Veterans
$3,750 per concept
The investment

WHAT DOES A JUNK REMOVAL FRANCHISE COST?

The franchise fee is the smallest part. Trucks and working capital do the heavy lifting.

$35K
Single-concept franchise fee

Junk removal on its own. Combined junk and moving is $65,000.

$193K–$345K
Total initial investment

Combined model. Truck count is the biggest variable.

$3,750
Veterans and first responders

Off the initial franchise fee, per concept.

Some College Hunks Hauling Junk businesses have earned these amounts. Your individual results may differ. There is no assurance you will earn as much.

The model

HOW DOES A JUNK REMOVAL FRANCHISE ACTUALLY RUN?

You own a territory. The daily job of the owner is not hauling.

Customers inside your territory book through the brand’s national marketing and call center. Your crew arrives in a branded truck, quotes on site by volume, hauls the load, and routes it to a transfer station, donation partner, or recycler. You bill the customer, pay a royalty on sales, and keep the rest.

WHAT DOES THE OWNER ACTUALLY DO?

  • Staffing. Recruiting and keeping crews is the binding constraint in this business, more than demand.
  • Scheduling and routing. Truck utilization is the main lever on margin. An idle truck still costs you.
  • Local sales. Property managers, realtors, contractors, and senior-move managers generate repeat commercial volume that consumer jobs do not.
  • Quality control. Reviews drive local search, and local search drives the phone.

WHY DOES THE CATEGORY HOLD UP?

Demand is generated by events people cannot postpone indefinitely. A house sells and has to be cleared. A parent moves into assisted living. A tenant leaves a unit full of furniture. A contractor needs debris gone before the next trade shows up. None of that is a purchase decision anyone enjoys deferring for long.

The work also resists automation in a way that matters for a long-hold asset. Software can book the job, price it, and route the truck. It cannot carry the load out of a basement.

JUNK ALONE, OR JUNK PLUS MOVING?

This is the decision that most changes your economics, and it is worth thinking through before you pick a fee tier. A junk-only territory gives a customer one reason to call you. A combined territory lets you serve the same household across two related needs, often in the same week: the family clearing out the garage is frequently the family relocating out of the house.

Both lines share the same dispatch, back office, and local marketing spend. The practical effect is better asset utilization and less seasonal concentration. Moving demand peaks in summer. Junk removal runs steadier across the year and picks up around estate transitions and post-holiday clear-outs.

What the system has produced

Item 19 of the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document reports average gross sales by how long a location has been open: $730,493 across 25 stores at 13 to 36 months, $1,126,072 across 37 stores at 37 to 60 months, and $1,999,230 across 82 stores at more than 60 months. Some College Hunks Hauling Junk businesses have earned these amounts. Your individual results may differ. There is no assurance you will earn as much.

The useful signal is the shape, not any single figure. Revenue builds with tenure as the territory matures and repeat and referral work compounds. For the full cost breakdown see investment and costs, or step back to the category view in home services franchise opportunities.

Talk to a human

Heather runs franchise development. A 20-minute call answers more than any brochure.

Veterans

Qualifying veterans and first responders receive $3,750 off the initial franchise fee per concept, or $7,500 when both concepts are purchased together.

Diligence

HOW DO YOU EVALUATE A JUNK REMOVAL FRANCHISE?

01

Confirm the territory is open

Strong unit economics do not help if the market you want is taken. Check availability before anything else.

02

Read Item 7 against Item 19

One is what you put in, the other is what the system has produced. Underwrite on both, not on a headline fee.

03

Compare royalty over ten years

A low franchise fee paired with a high royalty costs more across the life of the agreement than the reverse.

FIND OUT IF YOUR TERRITORY IS OPEN.

If junk removal fits how you want to spend your time, the next step is disclosure, not a deposit.

Locker Room

Junk removal franchise questions.

Profitability depends on your territory, truck utilization, labor costs, and how well you control the ramp, and no franchisor can promise it. What is disclosed is gross sales, not profit. Item 19 of the current FDD reports system average gross sales of $1,554,610 across 144 franchised locations. Some College Hunks Hauling Junk businesses have earned these amounts. Your individual results may differ. There is no assurance you will earn as much.

Junk hauling generally does not require a trade license, though you will need standard business licensing, commercial vehicle registration, insurance, and compliance with local waste-transport and disposal rules. Requirements vary by state and municipality, so confirm locally before you launch.

Most operators launch with one to two trucks and add capacity as the schedule fills. Truck count is the single biggest variable inside the total initial investment range, which is a large part of why that range spans as widely as it does.

An independent hauler keeps all revenue and pays no royalty, but builds demand, brand, systems, and hiring processes alone. A franchise trades a fee and an ongoing royalty for national marketing, booking infrastructure, training, and a proven operating model. The tradeoff is control and margin against speed and support.

Multi-territory ownership is common in home services once an operator has a first location running steadily. Ask about multi-unit development terms during the disclosure process, and about what performance a franchisor expects before approving a second territory.