What Is a Franchise Disclosure Document? All 23 Items

Every franchisor selling in the United States has to hand you the same document, in the same order, before you can sign: a franchise disclosure document, 23 numbered Items long. The FTC Franchise Rule requires it to be in your hands at least 14 calendar days before you pay any money or sign any binding agreement. Those 23 Items are where a brand’s fees, litigation history, territory rules, closure counts and earnings claims all live.

When do you get the FDD, and what does the 14-day rule mean?

You get it at least 14 calendar days before you sign or pay, and the count is calendar days, not business days. Most franchisors deliver it soon after an introductory call, which means you usually receive it long before you are anywhere near a decision. The waiting period exists so nobody can put a document in front of you and a pen beside it in the same meeting.

Two details buyers miss. First, the clock restarts if the franchisor makes unilateral material changes to the agreement after handing it to you. Second, signing the receipt page at the back is not agreeing to anything. It only confirms the date you received the document, and that date is what protects your review window.

What do the 23 Items of a franchise disclosure document cover?

The 23 Items are grouped into blocks, and once you see the blocks the document stops feeling like 200 pages of legal text. Each block answers one buyer question.

Because every brand uses the same numbering, two disclosure documents open side by side are directly comparable. That is the real power of the format, and it is why a serious buyer reads three or four FDDs before choosing one.

Which Items should you read first?

Start with Item 20, then Item 19, then Item 3. Item 20 carries the outlet tables: how many locations opened, transferred, closed or were terminated in each of the last three years, plus contact information for franchisees who left the system. Those tables are the closest thing to an unfiltered performance review, and the former-franchisee list is the only place a franchisor is required to help you reach people with no reason to sell you anything.

Item 19 comes next because it is where earnings claims must live. Item 3 comes third because a pattern of franchisee litigation tells you how the relationship behaves when something goes wrong. After those three, read Item 12 for territory, Item 17 for renewal and termination, and Item 7 to see the full range of what opening actually takes rather than the fee alone. Our breakdown of how franchise fees compare to the Item 7 total walks through why those two numbers rank differently across brands.

What does Item 19 tell you that the other Items cannot?

Item 19 is the only place in the entire document where a franchisor may state what its locations earn. If a brand has no Item 19, it cannot legally tell you a revenue or profit figure in a brochure, on a call, or at a discovery day. Providing one is optional, so a blank Item 19 is a fact worth asking about rather than an automatic red flag.

When a brand does provide figures, read the population behind them: how many locations are represented, whether the number is an average or a median, how the brand groups locations by tenure, and what the definition of any earnings measure excludes. Our plain-English guide to reading Item 19 goes through those traps one at a time, and the Item 19 revenue picture shows the disclosed figures in context.

Why would a franchise not be offered in your state?

Several states require a franchisor to register its disclosure document with a state regulator before it may offer or sell a franchise there, and registration is renewed on a cycle. Until a brand completes that filing, it cannot legally make you an offer in that state no matter how strong local demand looks. Buyers often read a pause in a state as a signal about the market, when it is a filing status.

College Hunks Hauling Junk® is not currently offering franchises in Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island or Washington. Every other state is open, and territory availability is tracked market by market on the available territories map.

What should you do with the FDD once you have it?

Read it twice, then verify it against people. The first pass is for structure and surprises. The second is for the exhibits at the back, where the franchise agreement itself sits, along with the audited financial statements and any state-specific addenda. The plain-English summaries inside the Items are helpful, and the contract language in the exhibits is what governs.

Then call franchisees. Use the current-owner list and the former-owner list from Item 20, and ask both groups the same questions so the answers are comparable. Our list of questions to ask a franchisor before you buy in works just as well on a validation call with an owner. Have a franchise attorney and an accountant review the document before you sign; the 14-day window exists precisely so there is time for that.

How does College Hunks Hauling Junk approach disclosure?

College Hunks Hauling Junk® and College Hunks Moving® are offered together as a two-in-one home services franchise, and the 2026 disclosure document reflects that structure. The initial franchise fee is $75,000 for the combined junk removal and moving concepts in one zone, and the estimated total initial investment for that combined build runs $193,100 to $345,500. Ongoing fees are a 7% royalty, a 2% brand development fee and a 1% technology fee, all disclosed in Item 6.

On the earnings side, the 2026 Item 19 reports on 149 outlets, which is 90% of the 165 outlets in the system at the end of 2025. The percentage of the system a brand chooses to report on is itself a disclosure signal, and it is a fair question to put to any franchisor. Item 15 also states plainly that the owner is required to take part in the day to day operation of the business, which is what an owner-operator model means in practice. The full franchise requirements and process and the complete investment breakdown sit alongside the document.

Talk it through with someone who reads these for a living

If you are weighing whether a College Hunks Hauling Junk® franchise fits your goals, talk to our Franchise Development team and see whether a territory is still open in your market. Bring your questions about any Item in the document, including the ones you would rather ask bluntly. We read every inquiry and there is no pressure, just answers.

Disclosures

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.