Bottom line
- Total investment $199K – $349K including a $60K franchise fee, 6.5% ongoing royalty.
- No Item 19 financial performance data disclosed — the franchisor chose not to publish revenue figures.
- Rated MODERATE with a risk score of 58/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 1 loans (below the industry average).
- Auditor disclosed a going-concern note — flagged doubt about the franchisor's ability to continue operations. Verify against the latest FDD.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one TheHomeMag unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
16%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Overview
About
TheHomeMag franchisees operate local home improvement and lifestyle media/publishing businesses, distributing magazines and digital content to target communities. Day-to-day operations include sales (advertising to local home service providers, contractors, retailers), content creation/curation, distribution logistics, and customer relationship management. Franchisees typically manage small teams and handle both B2B advertising sales and end-consumer magazine distribution.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
This franchisor did not disclose financial performance representations in Item 19, or our extractor could not parse them.
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 21 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
TheHomeMag presents moderate-to-caution risk due to missing financial disclosures, sluggish unit growth, and prior litigation history, despite dismissed antitrust cases and protected territories.
Score breakdown · what drove the 58 / 100 rating
- 01MINORNo average revenue or net income disclosure (Item 19) prevents ROI validation and benchmarking against $199k-$349k investment
- 02MEDSlow unit growth of 7.7% YoY with only 63 locations suggests limited market traction or franchisee attrition
- 03MINORDual royalty structure (6.5% offline / 15% online) heavily penalizes digital revenue and creates complexity; online penalty may indicate system shift struggling
- 04MEDTwo Sherman Act and Lanham Act antitrust lawsuits (2019, 2021) indicate founder/franchisor competitive disputes, though dismissed favorably
- 05MEDThin investment range ($199k-$349k) with no disclosed profitability metrics creates blind spot for break-even and payback period analysis
- 06HIGHGoing concern status noted in FDD; requires verification of franchisor financial stability and debt load
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
25 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
TheHomeMag · FDD (2022) PDF