Richard’s Painting Franchise Cost, Revenue & Review 2026
- Investment
- $60K – $110K
- Disclosed sales
- $274K
- gross sales, not profit
- SBA charge-off
- Under 10 loans (2)
Data from FDD filing + SBA 7(a) records
Analysis by FranchiseVerdict Research · Methodology
Richard's Painting is a home services franchise offering residential and commercial interior and exterior painting. Franchisees run local operations, managing sales estimates, painting crews, and customer accounts.
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026
A Richard’s Painting franchise requires a total initial investment of $60K – $110K, including a $5K – $40K franchise fee and an ongoing 5.0% royalty[2]. Per the 2025 FDD, average unit revenue was $274K[2]. FranchiseVerdict grade: A (Strongest tier), 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 scored6 of 7 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing; the rest are marked “Not cited” beside the figure.
Overview
- Investment
- $60K – $110K
- 12th pct Home Services
- Avg gross sales
- $274K
- 3rd pct Home Services
- Royalty
- 5.0%
- 8th pct Home Services
- Units
- 22
- 29th 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 $60K – $110K including a $40K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- RETURNSAverage unit revenue of $274K/year.
- RISKVerdict A (Strongest tier), verdict score 71/100 (higher is better).
- GROWTHPositive: net +4 franchised outlets in the latest year (5 opened, 1 closed) (Item 20).
- GROWTHSystem growing at 90.9% CAGR over 3 years with 22 total units. Strong expansion trajectory.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- RPG Franchising, LLC
- CEO title
- Managing Member
- Richard Gould
- Incorporated in
- North Carolina
- HQ
- 112 E. Council Street, Salisbury, North Carolina 28144
- Auditor
- Metwally CPA PLLC
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $257K
- vs $90K prior year
Affiliated brands
- maintains a pr
- is the owner of the Licensed Marks
Other brands the franchisor or its parent operates (Item 1).
Overview
About
- CEO
- Richard Gould
- Headquarters
- North Carolina
- Founded
- 2018
- FDD year
- 2025
- States available
- 10
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost runs 50% below 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 Feenot refundable | $40K | $40K | |
| Storage Unit | $0 | $300 | |
| Lease Deposits - Three Months | $0 | $3K | |
| Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment | $500 | $1K | |
| Initial Inventory | $500 | $1K | |
| Printing, Stationery, and Office Expenses | $1K | $2K | |
| Computer, Software, and Business Management System | $1K | $2K | |
| Service Vehicle | $700 | $20K | |
| Start-Up Marketing | $3K | $5K | |
| Insurance Deposits - Three Months | $750 | $2K | |
| Travel for Initial Training | $2K | $6K | |
| Professional Fees | $1K | $3K | |
| Licenses and Permits | $250 | $500 | |
| Additional Funds - Three Months | $10K | $25K | |
| Total initial investment | $60K | $110K |
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
- $60K – $110K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Liquid capital req'd
- $10K – $25K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Franchise fee
- $5K – $40K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Royalty
- 5.0%
- typical 6–8%
- Ad fund
- 1.0%
- typical 3–5%
- Total fee load
- 7.0%
- vs 9–13% typical
Ongoing fees · Item 6
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 5.0% of gross sales |
| Marketing / ad fund | 1.0% |
| Technology fee | $500 |
| Training fee | $500 |
| Transfer fee | $10K |
| Renewal fee | $8K |
| Inventory (initial) | $500 – $1K |
| Total fee load | 7.0% of rev |
What do units actually make?
Average unit sales run 53% below the home services norm.
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 Richard’s Painting 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
$102K
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 Richard’s Painting 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
- Avg gross sales
- $274K
- Per unit/yr · from the Item 19 franchised-cohort breakdown (no single system-wide average disclosed)
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
- Sample size
- 16 outlets
- vs category median 32
- Range (low → high)
- $81K→$618KCited, 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
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
Average unit generates $274K/year in gross sales. Revenue-to-investment ratio: 3.2x.
Fee burden
Total ongoing fee load of 7.0% (near the Home Services median).
Disclosure
Transparency score 0/10 — minimal disclosure beyond the required average. Hard to judge the distribution of outcomes across units.
Operator retention
System expanding at 90.9% CAGR over 3 years across 22 units — operators are staying and new ones are joining.
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 Richard’s Painting Compares
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
- 22
- Opened
- 5
- Last reporting year
- Closed
- 1
- Terminated
- 1
- Franchisor ended the franchise (per Item 20)
- Non-renewed
- 0
- Term expired, not renewed (per Item 20)
- Turnover rate
- 4.5%
- Company-owned
- 1
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 96%
- vs corporate-owned
- Net growth (3-yr)
- +90.9%
- Net unit change over 3 years
- 3-yr CAGR
- +90.9%
- Compounded over last 3 years
Last fiscal year · Item 20 exits and transfers
- Terminated
- 1
- Not renewed
- 0
- Transferred
- 0
- Reacquired
- 0
- Franchisor bought back
- Ceased ops
- 5.6%
- Units that stopped operating
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 12 · 10 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.
10
states with franchisees (per FDD Item 12)
Fast growth in a small system. Newer franchisors expanding quickly may not yet have the support infrastructure of larger systems.
SBA loan performance
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA loan disclosures. This brand has only 2 7(a) loans on file; statistical reliability is limited below 10 loans.
- Total loans
- 2
- Loan volume
- $300K
- Median loan
- $150K
- average
- Charge-off rate
- Under 10 loans (2)
- Insufficient SBA coverage: 2 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 (2)
- 5-yr charge-off
- Under 10 loans (2)
- Loans approved 2021+
- Active lenders
- 0
- 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
Richard's Painting presents elevated risk due to recent regulatory enforcement action, complete absence of financial disclosure, modest unit growth, and opaque unit economics—warranting extreme caution before investment.
Why this reads harsher than the A grade: the grade weighs financial health, unit economics, unit growth, scale, legal, and transparency across the whole filing, while this summary lists individual flags without that weighting. The flags are worth checking with current owners; neither is investment advice.
Litigation (Item 3)
Subject: the franchisor is a named party (defendant).
In 2024, RPG Franchising LLC entered a Consent Order (Order No. S-24-3718-24-CO01) with the Washington Department of Financial Institutions, Securities Division, relating to an unregistered sale of a franchise territory in Washington made after applying for but before completing registration. The order required a cease-and-desist and payment of $1,000 for investigation costs.
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · Metwally CPA PLLC
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
Pages p179-p183 contain Franchise Agreement exhibits only (Assignment, ACH Authorization Form, General Release) for Richard's Painting / RPG Franchising, LLC (Multi-State FDD April 30, 2025). No audited financial statements, balance sheet, income statement, or Independent Auditor's Report appear in this page range, so no financial figures could be extracted.
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
Score breakdown · what drove the 71 / 100 verdict
- 01MINORRecent SEC enforcement action (2024 Consent Order) indicates regulatory compliance failures in franchise sales practices
- 02MEDFinancial performance metrics (revenue and net income) completely undisclosed—unable to assess unit economics or ROI potential
- 03MEDModest unit growth of 23.5% YoY from small base (22 units) suggests limited system maturity and brand recognition
- 04MINOR10-year term is longer than industry standard (5-7 years), locking franchisees into relationship with compliance-challenged franchisor
- 05MINORNo 'Going Concern' flag is positive, but combined with other factors suggests operational viability questions
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 7.0% 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 | 10 years |
|---|---|
| Renewal term | 10 years |
| Allowed renewalsℹ | 1 |
| Territory type | Protected territory |
| Protected territory | Yes |
| Territory radius | 10 mi |
| Territory population | 250,000 |
| Online sales rights | 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 |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Curable defaultsℹ | 2 |
| Mandatory arbitration | Yes |
| Arbitration location | Salisbury, North Carolina |
| Jury trial waiver | Yes |
| Governing law | North Carolina |
| Litigation count | 1 |
View Item 3 litigation summary
In 2024, RPG Franchising LLC entered a Consent Order (Order No. S-24-3718-24-CO01) with the Washington Department of Financial Institutions, Securities Division, relating to an unregistered sale of a franchise territory in Washington made after applying for but before completing registration. The order required a cease-and-desist and payment of $1,000 for investigation costs.
Items 10, 11
Training & Operations
- Classroom training
- 36 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 38 hrs
- Training location
- Salisbury, North Carolina or franchisee location
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Site selection
- franchisee
- Franchisor financing
- Offered
- Item 10
- POS system
- Business Management System
- Operating tech stack
Items 5 & 11
Franchisor Support
Technology: Business Management System
Item 20 · call current owners
Franchisee Contacts
27 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 Richard’s Painting franchise?
The total investment to open a Richard’s Painting franchise ranges from $60K – $110K, with an initial franchise fee of $40K. This includes real estate, equipment, inventory, and working capital as disclosed in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
What do Richard’s Painting franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the Richard’s Painting FDD, the average gross sales per unit is $274K. Note: this is gross revenue, not profit. Actual owner earnings vary based on location, operating costs, and management.
Who owns Richard’s Painting?
Richard’s Painting is franchised by RPG Franchising, LLC. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the Richard’s Painting 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 Richard’s Painting FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is Richard’s Painting's franchise failure rate?
SBA 7(a) loan charge-off data is not available for Richard’s Painting (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 Richard’s Painting franchise locations are there?
As of their most recent FDD filing, Richard’s Painting has 22 total units in the United States, including 21 franchised units and 1 company-owned units. 5 new units were opened in the latest reporting year.
Is Richard’s Painting a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict rates Richard’s Painting as a A-grade franchise with a verdict score of 71 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.