I recently owned several Handyman Matters franchises. I bought my franchises from 2 other owners who were struggling and wanted out. I bought them for pennies on the dollar of what they spent buying the franchises. When I purchased them, Handyman Matters charged little to nothing for "transfer fees". After about a year and $110,000 spent, I realized that this business model has serious problems and that it does not work in cold-climate areas. I decided to sell my territories. I was directed by the franchise toward a buyer that they found. I spoke with this potential buyer for about a month and he was interested in buying my territory.
Then they dropped the bomb on me that this guy came with a business broker who would charge me 40% of the total sale price. Oh, and Handyman Matters corporate was going to charge me $24,000 in transfer fees. What a crock. I got on the phone with Andy Bell about these two issues and he basically told me "then don't sell it". I was dead broke after losing over $100k in this piece of crap franchise, and I had found one person in the world who was interested in buying it, and he told me "don't sell it then". I ended up walking away from the sale with about $14k, Handyman Matters made $24k, and their worthless broker made $27k.
The $24k that Handyman Matters took from me basically had no expenses attached to it, and even though I was in a financially desperate situation, they still charged the full amount to me. I find that to be totally unethical. I would highly recommend to anyone considering buying this franchise to study the numbers very closely. Very few franchisees make money and if you want to sell it down the road for a profit, good luck. They'll tell you about a couple who have, but the sun shines on a dogs a* every now and again. Get the numbers and profits that owners are making and ask around at how easy or hard it is to make that money and decide from that. Don't let Careyanne or Andy with his charming smile and smurf-like ways endear you.
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