Crawl Space Ninja Franchise Cost, Revenue & Review 2026
- Investment
- $211K – $457K
- Disclosed sales
- $1.1M
- gross sales, not profit
- SBA charge-off
- Under 10 loans (5)
Data from FDD filing + SBA 7(a) records
Analysis by FranchiseVerdict Research · Methodology
Crawl Space Ninja is a home services franchise providing crawl space encapsulation, moisture control, and insulation. Franchisees run local operations, managing consultations, crews, and installation within a territory.
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026
A Crawl Space Ninja franchise requires a total initial investment of $211K – $457K, including a $59K franchise fee and an ongoing 7.0% royalty[2]. Per the 2025 FDD, average revenue per franchisee was $1.1M. This franchisor reports Item 19 per franchisee rather than per outlet, so the figure is not comparable with per-outlet averages[2]. FranchiseVerdict grade: B (Above average), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Run a live ROI scan →
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: · Data extracted: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: medium - issued 12 to 24 months ago; a newer filing is likely on file
Evidence: strong✓ Investment (Item 7)✓ Item 19 status✓ Units and owners (Item 20)✗ SBA loan coverage✓ Litigation (Item 3)✓ Financial statements (Item 21)✓ Franchisor identityhow this is scored5 of 8 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing; the rest are marked “Not cited” beside the figure.
Overview
- Investment
- $211K – $457K
- 78th pct Home Services
- Avg gross sales
- $1.1M
- Per franchisee, not per outlet
- Royalty
- 7.0%
- 48th pct Home Services
- Units
- 18
- 28th pct Home Services
- SBA charge-off
- N/A
Quick verdict · Home Services · color = vs category peers
Green = favorable by >10% vs Home Services median · No shading = within ±10% · Red = unfavorable by >10% · Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a)
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Not financial advice. Methodology
Bottom line
- COSTTotal investment $211K – $457K including a $59K franchise fee, 7.0% ongoing royalty.
- RETURNSAverage revenue per franchisee of $1.1M/year (median $1.1M). Averaged per franchisee, not per outlet - not comparable with per-outlet figures.
- RISKVerdict B (Above average), verdict score 64/100 (higher is better).
- GROWTHNegative: net -2 franchised outlets in the latest year (0 opened, 2 closed) (Item 20).
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- Crawlspace Ninja Franchising LLC
- Parent company
- HTI Intermediate, LLC
- FDD Item 1, page 6 of the 2025 FDD
- Ultimate parent
- HT Investors, LLC
- FDD Item 1, page 6 of the 2025 FDD
- CEO title
- Managing Member
- Michael Church
- Incorporated in
- TN
- HQ
- 6011 Ridan Drive, Knoxville, TN 37909
- Auditor
- A&G, LLP
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $3.3M
- vs $3.7M prior year
Affiliated brands
- Midwest Diversified Technologies U
- Crawlspace Ninja IP
- IAQS Operations
- Indoor Air Quality Specialists
Other brands the franchisor or its parent operates (Item 1).
Overview
About
- CEO
- Michael Church
- Headquarters
- TN
- Founded
- 2018
- FDD year
- 2025
- States available
- 5
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost runs 98% above the typical home services franchise.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7
Full Item 7 breakdown14 line items
Initial investment breakdown
| Line item | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Franchise Fee | $59K | $59K | |
| Design and Architectural Fees | $0 | $3K | |
| Construction, Leasehold Improvements | $0 | $20K | |
| Furniture and Fixtures | $3K | $10K | |
| Equipment (Including Vehicle) | $60K | $223K | |
| Technology Hardware/Software, Office Equipment, and Supplies | $4K | $8K | |
| Initial Inventory Package | $20K | $30K | |
| Utility and Security Deposits | $500 | $2K | |
| Insurance Deposits and Premiums | $2K | $8K | |
| Pre-opening Travel and Training Expense | $5K | $10K | |
| Initial Launch Marketing | $15K | $15K | |
| Professional Fees | $1K | $8K | |
| Business Permits and Licenses | $2K | $3K | |
| Additional Operating Funds - 3 Months | $40K | $60K | |
| Total initial investment | $211K | $457K |
Line items extracted from FDD Item 7. Ranges reflect the franchisor's stated low and high per line. Total is the sum of line-item lows / highs — actual costs may fall outside this range depending on market and build-out scope.
Item 7 · what it costs to open + operate
The Vitals
- Total investment
- $211K – $457K
- Bottom third — review vs category
- Liquid capital req'd
- $40K – $60K
- Bottom third — review vs category
- Franchise fee
- $59K – $59K
- Middle of category vs category
- Royalty
- 7.0%
- Set by a formula · typical 6–8%
- Ad fund
- 1.0%
- typical 3–5%
- Total fee load
- 8.0%
- vs 9–13% typical
Ongoing fees · Item 6
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 7.0% of gross sales |
| Marketing / ad fund | 1.0% |
| Technology fee | $2K |
| Transfer fee | $15K |
| Renewal fee | $5K |
| Inventory (initial) | $20K – $30K |
| Total fee load | 8.0% of rev |
What do units actually make?
Average unit sales run 94% above the home services norm.
Averaged per franchisee, not per outlet - not comparable with per-outlet figures
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19
Single-unit · not modelled
Returns at a glance
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit, and the operating costs that turn one into the other are in no filing. We publish no modelled return for Crawl Space Ninja until someone supplies them — yours, in the models below.
—
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
Total invested capital · disclosed
$384K
Item 7 initial investment plus working capital, as filed — the one figure here that needs no assumption.
ROI & LBO modelsSingle-unit · 25-unit portfolio · editable
What one unit earns on your invested capital
Model A · Single-Unit Return
Computes unlevered return on invested capital (ROIC) for a single franchise unit, read against the 30–60% reference band · Yale SOM, Post-MBA Path Exhibit 2 (2023). Below that band a passive index fund likely outperforms; above it the franchisor has pricing power you're subsidizing.
Note: Item 19 revenue is what the franchisor discloses, and it is the top line only — gross sales are not profit. No FDD discloses the operating costs that turn one into the other, so those fields start empty and nothing is modelled until you supply them from your own lease quote, labor market and build-out budget.
Returns model · single-unit ROIC
What would one Crawl Space Ninja unit return on the cash you put in?
Illustrative category typicals — not sourced to any filing, survey or sample. Replace them with figures from franchisee validation calls before you rely on the output.
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
Your modelled return on total invested capital, before any debt financing.
—
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
What 25 units return when you use SBA financing
Model B · Return on Equity: Debt-Financed Acquisition
Models a 25-unit portfolio acquisition financed with an SBA 7(a) loan. Shows equity IRR (your return on cash invested), DSCR (how safely the cash flow covers debt service), and the capital stack (SBA + seller + equity breakdown).
This is the “search fund” or “entrepreneurship through acquisition” scenario: you buy an existing multi-unit operator, use leverage to amplify returns, and either operate or hire management. The 25-unit size is the typical minimum for an SBA-backed franchise portfolio acquisition to pencil as a full-time income.
What “return on equity” means here: if you put in $500K of your own cash and the business generates enough EBITDA to pay down debt and grow, your equity IRR is the annual return on that $500K, including the value created when you eventually sell. Target IRR for a search fund is typically 25–35%.
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
A 25-unit return is built on a per-unit EBITDA. Fill in the operating costs in Model A above and this model runs on that figure, or take the whole scenario to the full ROI workbench, where the portfolio and LBO models accept your own per-unit economics directly.
These models are for research and scenario planning only. Not investment advice. Actual results depend on your specific location, management, and market conditions. Consult a franchise attorney and accountant before signing any franchise agreement.
Item 19 · Source: 2025 FDD
Financial Performance
Averaged per franchisee, not per outlet - not comparable with per-outlet figures
- Avg gross sales
- $1.1M
- Per franchisee, per year — not per outlet
- Median gross sales
- $1.1M
- Per franchisee, not per outlet
Gross sales are revenue before expenses — not profit. Actual owner earnings depend on rent, labor, royalties, marketing fees, and debt service.
- Item 19 type
- gross sales tiers
- Sample size
- 12 franchisees
- vs category median 32 · small
- Range (low → high)
- $233K→$3.3MCited, not corroborated — printed on page 46 of the 2025 FDD. Nothing else in our record independently restates or re-derives it.
- Cohort dispersion (min → max)
- Reporting year
- 2024
- Fiscal year the figures cover
- Source filing
- FDD 2025
- Disclosed in the 2025 filing, covering 2024
- Transparency
- 6 / 10
- vs category median 4 / 10 · above
Compared against 319 Home Services brands
Operator outlook
What the numbers say
Data-driven interpretation of this brand's financial disclosures, fee structure, and system trajectory.
Unit economics
The average franchisee generates $1.1M/year in gross sales.
Fee burden
Total ongoing fee load of 8.0% (near the Home Services median).
Disclosure
Transparency score 6/10 — this franchisor discloses detailed breakdowns (quartiles, segments, or cohort data). Buyers can model unit economics with higher confidence.
Operator retention
System contracting at -5.9% CAGR over 3 years. Investigate whether closures are franchisor-driven consolidation or franchisee exits.
Source: FDD Item 19 financial performance representations and publicly filed FDD data. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Verify all figures with the franchisor and current franchisees before making any investment decision.
vs Home Services medians
How Crawl Space Ninja Compares
Per franchisee, not per outlet - the category median is per-outlet only, so no comparison is shown
Category median of published Home Services brands that report the figure; the middle half spans the 25th to 75th percentile and n counts the brands behind it. Medians are used because a few very large systems pull an average far from the typical brand. Revenue is disclosed gross sales, not profit.
Is the system healthy?
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20
Unit growth
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
- Total units
- 18
- Opened
- 0
- Last reporting year
- Closed
- 2
- Terminated
- 2
- Franchisor ended the franchise (per Item 20)
- Non-renewed
- 0
- Term expired, not renewed (per Item 20)
- Turnover rate
- 11.1%
- Company-owned
- 2
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 89%
- vs corporate-owned
- Net growth (3-yr)
- -5.9%
- Net unit change over 3 years
- 3-yr CAGR
- -5.9%
- Compounded over last 3 years
Last fiscal year · Item 20 exits and transfers
- Terminated
- 2
- Not renewed
- 0
- Transferred
- 2
- Reacquired
- 0
- Franchisor bought back
- Signed, not yet open
- 0
- 0.00 per open outlet · Item 20 Table 5
- Projected new
- 0
- Franchisor's next-year forecast
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 12 · 5 states reported
The Territory Map
FDD Item 12 reports the state count, but the specific list isn't in our current data. The map will appear once we re-extract from the FDD or enough franchisee contacts are available.
5
states with franchisees (per FDD Item 12)
SBA loan performance
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA loan disclosures. This brand has only 5 7(a) loans on file; statistical reliability is limited below 10 loans.
- Total loans
- 5
- Loan volume
- $676K
- Median loan
- $150K
- 50th percentile
- Charge-off rate
- Under 10 loans (5)
- Insufficient SBA coverage: 5 loans, rate hidden below 10
Historical SBA 7(a) lending data, not predictive of future performance. How SBA charge-off rates are calculated
- Repayment rate (PIF)
- Under 10 loans (5)
- 5-yr charge-off
- Under 10 loans (5)
- Loans approved 2021+
- Active lenders
- 3
- Defaults
- N/A
Explore lender portfolios on Bank Reports or regional data on State Reports.
What could kill this investment?
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Risk analysis
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 4, 8, 16, 21
Risk & Legal
Declining franchise system with opaque financial representations and aggressive royalty structure creates material risk despite solid unit-level economics.
Litigation (Item 3)
Subject: officers or affiliates. The franchisor is not a named party in these cases.
No litigation required to be disclosed in Item 3.
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · A&G, LLP
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
Audited statements (A&G, LLP, dated April 25, 2025) for fiscal years ended Dec 31, 2024/2023/2022. 2024 total revenues $3,303,435 comprised of franchise fee $172,946, royalty $830,133, product $2,033,573, brand development fund $139,510, other $127,273. Total liabilities = current liabilities $122,478 + long-term deferred revenue $325,975.
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
- Franchisor sells you products: Yes
- Kickbacks from required suppliers: No
- Must buy proprietary products: Yes
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
- Can negotiate own supplier terms: No
Score breakdown · what drove the 64 / 100 verdict
- 01MEDUnit count declined 11.1% YoY (22 units) indicating system contraction and potential franchisee struggles
- 02MINORHigh initial investment ($210k-$457k) paired with declining unit count suggests ROI challenges and franchisee attrition
- 03MINORMinimum Performance Requirement royalty structure is vague — unclear what threshold triggers this and how it impacts cash flow
- 04MINOR5-year term is relatively short; rebuilding customer base takes time in service businesses, creating renewal risk
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 8.0% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before rent and labor.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12, 15, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
| Initial term | 5 years |
|---|---|
| Renewal term | 10 years |
| Allowed renewalsℹ | 2 |
| Territory type | Protected territory |
| Protected territory | Yes |
| Exclusive territoryℹ | No |
| Online sales rightsℹ | Restricted |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Hire a manager? | Allowed |
| Owner-operator | Required |
| Non-compete (years)ℹ | 2 years |
| Non-compete (miles)ℹ | 25 mi |
| Right of first refusalℹ | Yes |
| RoFR response window | 30 days |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 5 days |
| Termination groundsℹ | 2 |
| Curable defaultsℹ | 1 |
| Mandatory arbitration | Yes |
| Arbitration location | Knoxville, TN |
| Jury trial waiver | Yes |
| Governing law | TN |
| Litigation count | 0 |
View Item 3 litigation summary
No litigation required to be disclosed in Item 3.
Items 10, 11
Training & Operations
- Classroom training
- 110 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 72 hrs
- Training location
- Knoxville, TN and franchisee's location
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Time to open
- 3 mo
- From signing to launch
- Site selection
- franchisee with franchisor approval
- Franchisor financing
- Not offered
- Item 10
- POS system
- MarketSharp
- Operating tech stack
Items 5 & 11
Franchisor Support
Technology: MarketSharp
Item 20 · call current owners
Franchisee Contacts
10 owners to call
Name · phone · city · state. Extracted from FDD Item 20
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to open a Crawl Space Ninja franchise?
The total investment to open a Crawl Space Ninja franchise ranges from $211K – $457K, with an initial franchise fee of $59K. This includes real estate, equipment, inventory, and working capital as disclosed in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
What do Crawl Space Ninja franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the Crawl Space Ninja FDD, the average gross sales per unit is $1.1M. The median is $1.1M. Important context: Averaged per franchisee, not per outlet - not comparable with per-outlet figures. Note: this is gross revenue, not profit. Actual owner earnings vary based on location, operating costs, and management.
Who owns Crawl Space Ninja?
Crawl Space Ninja is franchised by Crawlspace Ninja Franchising LLC. Its parent company is HTI Intermediate, LLC. The ultimate parent named in the FDD is HT Investors, LLC. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the Crawl Space Ninja FDD?
The FDD section where a franchisor may disclose financial performance of its outlets. Disclosure is optional and formats vary; figures are typically gross sales, which is revenue before expenses, not profit. FranchiseVerdict extracts these figures directly from the Crawl Space Ninja FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is Crawl Space Ninja's franchise failure rate?
SBA 7(a) loan charge-off data is not available for Crawl Space Ninja (fewer than 10 loans on file). Charge-off rates are one way to gauge franchise risk, but not all franchise loans go through the SBA program. We recommend reviewing turnover and closure data in the FDD and speaking with current franchisees.
How many Crawl Space Ninja franchise locations are there?
As of their most recent FDD filing, Crawl Space Ninja has 18 total units in the United States, including 16 franchised units and 2 company-owned units.
Is Crawl Space Ninja a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict rates Crawl Space Ninja as a B-grade franchise with a verdict score of 64 out of 100 (higher is better). The grade is a deterministic score built from six weighted dimensions — financial health, unit economics, unit growth, scale, legal, and transparency — then calibrated against SBA loan charge-off rates and FDD age. Transparency is one of the six, so a filing that discloses less scores lower on that dimension than one that discloses more. Our rating is based solely on publicly available FDD and government data; we recommend speaking with current franchisees before making any investment decision. This is not investment advice.
Data sourced from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) FOIA records. Not financial advice.
For franchisors
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Data extracted from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) loan disclosures (FOIA). This information is provided for research purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Verify all figures with the franchisor's current Franchise Disclosure Document before making any investment decision.