Moving Company Franchise: What to Look For Before You Buy

A moving company franchise gives you a recognized brand and an operating system for a local service business, in exchange for an upfront fee and a share of your sales for the life of the agreement. The ones worth owning separate on four questions: where the calls actually come from, whether you get one revenue line or two, how the territory is drawn, and what the ongoing fees buy you. Answer those four and a long list of moving franchises gets short in a hurry.

Here is how to evaluate one, using College Hunks Hauling Junk® and College Hunks Moving® figures from the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document as the worked example.

What do you actually buy with a moving company franchise?

You buy a licensed brand, an operating playbook, and the franchisor’s support infrastructure for a defined territory. You do not buy a business that runs itself. Moving is an owner-operator model at every credible franchisor in the category, which means you are hiring crews, setting standards, and running the profit and loss statement yourself.

What varies brand to brand is how much of the hard part the franchisor takes off your plate. Some hand you a manual, a logo, and a supplier list. Others run centralized booking, assign you coaches, and buy national media that reaches customers before they ever open a search bar. That gap shapes how your first three years feel, and it rarely shows up in a fee comparison.

Where do the moving jobs actually come from?

Demand generation is the difference between a franchise and an expensive logo license. Ask any moving franchisor exactly who answers the phone, who books the job, and what that service costs you as a percentage of the sale.

College Hunks runs a National Sales & Loyalty Center that books and dispatches thousands of jobs each week, so owners spend the day leading crews instead of chasing calls. It is not free, and the structure is disclosed: 5% on moving appointments and 6% on junk appointments the center books, with no fee on jobs you generate yourself or that customers book online. Every owner also gets two dedicated people for the life of the franchise, a Marketing Coach and a Franchise Business Coach, and the brand carries roughly $30 million a year in national media exposure. That is the part of how the franchise model works that a fee table will never show you.

Should you buy one revenue line or two?

Most moving franchises sell you one service. A two-in-one model sells two under a single fee and a single technology stack, and the reason that matters is timing: moving demand and junk removal demand do not peak on the same calendar. Demand also cycles both ways. When the market expands, people move up. When it contracts, people downsize and declutter.

The cost of adding the second line is smaller than most buyers expect. A single-concept franchise fee runs $55,000 and the combined junk plus moving fee is $75,000. Look at the Item 7 total investment ranges, though: moving only estimates $211,600 to $335,500, while the combined junk and moving build estimates $203,100 to $355,500. The combined range starts lower than the moving-only range.

What does a moving company franchise cost to open and run?

Ongoing fees are where a franchise agreement quietly sets your ceiling, so read the whole stack rather than the royalty line alone. Here is the College Hunks structure from Items 5, 6, and 7 of the 2026 FDD.

Two line items carry a large share of that Item 7 range: pre-opening ramp-up advertising at $26,000 to $36,000, and three months of working capital at $75,000 to $125,000. Qualified U.S. veterans holding 51% or greater ownership take $7,500 off the initial fee. Site selection and lease negotiation are not services the franchisor provides, so budget your own time and advisors. The line-by-line version lives in the full investment breakdown.

How is the territory drawn, and can you add more?

Territory design sets your addressable demand more firmly than any marketing decision you will make later. College Hunks zones run approximately 300,000 to 400,000 in population, with fractional zones priced at $20,000 per additional 100,000 people, and a starting zone typically supports a team of 8 to 10 employees.

That zone size matters to two very different buyers. It puts a metro within reach of a multi-zone plan, and roughly 70% of the system already owns more than one territory. It also makes a market of 300,000 people a complete business in its own right rather than a fraction of somebody’s minimum. Territories are open across most states, with a small set of registration states where no offer is currently made, so check territory availability before you get attached to a map.

What do locations in the system actually generate?

Item 19 of a Franchise Disclosure Document is the only place a franchisor may share financial performance, and it rewards reading closely rather than skimming for the biggest number. One caveat for a moving-side buyer in particular: College Hunks reports Item 19 at the location level, covering both service lines together, not moving revenue in isolation.

In 2025, 144 franchised locations reported average gross revenue of $1,554,610 and a median of $1,127,776. The highest location reported $10,862,580 and the lowest reported $295,134. That gap between average and median is the honest part of the picture, and the tenure breakdown explains most of it.

Read the EBITDA column carefully. Per the FDD, EBITDA here excludes truck payments, owner compensation, and other discretionary expenses, so it is not take-home pay. What the table does show is a business that builds with time, and the 60-month cohort is the largest group in the system. More context sits on the Item 19 revenue picture.

What should you ask before you sign a moving franchise agreement?

Bring the same five questions to every brand on your shortlist and the real differences surface fast.

• Who books the job, and what percentage of that sale do I pay for it?
• What sits inside the Item 7 range, and what did owners who opened last year actually spend?
• What does the full ongoing fee stack total, including local advertising minimums?
• How many zones can I hold, and what does adding the next one cost?
• What does initial training cover, and what support continues after opening day?

For reference, College Hunks initial training runs roughly 5 to 15 days for up to two management people, with field visits, refresher training, and both coaches continuing afterward. You can see the rest of the franchise requirements and process and what the training and support owners get covers.

Then call current owners and ask them the same five questions. Validation calls are the piece of due diligence no brochure substitutes for, and any franchisor worth your capital hands you the full owner list in the disclosure document.

Is a moving company franchise the right fit for you?

If you’re weighing whether a College Hunks Hauling Junk® franchise fits your goals, talk to our Franchise Development team and see if your market is still open. We read every inquiry and there’s no pressure, just answers.

Financial information shared in this content is drawn from Item 19 of the 2026 CHHJ Franchising, L.L.C. Franchise Disclosure Document (Issuance Date: April 30, 2026). See Item 19 for material assumptions, the underlying data set, and full required disclosures. Past performance does not guarantee future results. New franchisees may earn less.

This information is not an offer to sell or solicitation to buy a franchise. A franchise offering can only be made through the delivery of a Franchise Disclosure Document. Certain states regulate the offer and sale of franchises; if you are a resident of one of these states, we will not offer you a franchise unless we have complied with applicable pre-sale registration and disclosure requirements in your state.

College Hunks Hauling Junk®, College Hunks Moving®, and the H.U.N.K.S logo are registered trademarks of CHHJ Franchising, L.L.C. © 2026 CHHJ Franchising, L.L.C. All rights reserved.