Sears Garage Door franchise: cost, fees & unit track record
Opening a Sears Garage Door franchise takes $26,150 – $88,350 all-in, per its franchise disclosure filings (data as of 2026-05). The initial franchise fee is $15,000 – $45,000. Ongoing, franchisees pay a royalty of 10% on sales plus an ad-fund contribution of up to 2%. To qualify, Sears Garage Door asks for $1,000 in liquid cash. Anything the filings do not state is marked "Not disclosed" below — never estimated.
Sears Garage Door franchise costs and fees
| Verification mark | Cost item | Low | High | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise feeOne-time, paid to the franchisor at signing | $15,000 | $45,000 | $15,000 to $45,000 | |
| Initial investment (all-in)FDD Item 7-derived range: build-out, equipment, opening costs | $26,150 | $88,350 | $26,150 to $88,350 | |
| Net worth requiredFranchisor's stated qualification minimum | Not disclosed1 | Not disclosed1 | ||
| Liquid cash requiredFranchisor's stated qualification minimum | $1,000 | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| Cash to open (all-in range) | $26,150 | $88,350 | $26,150 to $88,350 | |
- 1 "Not disclosed" means Sears Garage Door's filings do not state this figure. We publish the gap instead of estimating it.
| RoyaltyOngoing, % of sales | 10% |
|---|---|
| Ad fundOngoing, % of sales | Up to 2% |
| Initial termLength of the first franchise agreement | 10 years |
See the full Sears Garage Door cost breakdown — what's in that number and what isn't
How Sears Garage Door's cost compares
A dollar figure means more with a yardstick. Here is where Sears Garage Door's disclosed cost sits against the Professional Services category:
- Minimum startup cost of $26,150 — about 69% below the Professional Services median of $84,700.
- Initial franchise fee of $15,000 — about 62% below the Professional Services median of $39,700.
Category medians are computed from the Professional Services brands in our data that disclosed each figure — a benchmark for scale, not a quality judgment. See all Professional Services franchises
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How Sears Garage Door's units have held up
Openings and closures from FDD Item 20-style unit history, 2012–2017: began the window at 116 units; 54 units opened, 50 closed, ending at 121 units.
What about earnings?
We don't publish per-brand earnings figures — for Sears Garage Door or anyone else. The only primary source is Item 19 of the brand's own franchise disclosure document (FDD), and no law requires a franchisor to publish one, so the "average owner income" numbers circulating elsewhere are usually unsourced or survivorship-biased. Ask Sears Garage Door for its current FDD and read Item 19 yourself — and if there is no Item 19, that silence is information too.
What this data can't tell you
Everything on this page comes from disclosure filings — fees, ranges, and unit counts. Four questions that matter just as much are not in any filing we can source, so we say so instead of guessing:
- The hours and the labor
- No dataset field says whether Sears Garage Door is a manage-from-a-laptop business or a 60-hour week in disguise. Item 15 of the FDD states whether you're obligated to run the business personally, and Item 11 lists what the franchisor actually does for you — then ask current owners what their week looks like (validation calls), not the sales team.
- How hands-on the ownership really is
- "Semi-absentee" is a pitch, not a filing field. Treat any hands-off claim as unverified until it's consistent with Item 15 and with what multiple current franchisees tell you — what absentee ownership actually means.
- Your territory — whether it's protected, and whether it's open
- Two territory questions sit outside our data. Whether Sears Garage Door grants a protected or exclusive area is set in Item 12 of the FDD and varies brand to brand — some grant none, and the carve-outs (online sales, national accounts) matter as much as the map. And filing data can't say what's open in your market this month; only Sears Garage Door can confirm current availability. Ask both before you inquire, and get the answer in writing.
- What owners earn
- Covered honestly above: our dataset has no earnings fields, the only primary source is the brand's own Item 19, and here is how to read that evidence.
About the Sears Garage Door franchise
Sears Garage Door is a professional services franchisor with 121 units at the end of 2017 (FDD Item 20-style unit history). Between 2012 and 2017, it began the window at 116 units; its filings record 54 unit openings and 50 closures, ending at 121 units. Its parent company is Sears Home & Business Franchises, Inc..
No franchise-related lawsuits reported in the disclosure data we hold (FDD Item 3, as of 2026-05) — an absence in our sources, not a guarantee; confirm against the brand's current FDD.
From the franchisor's materials
The franchise offered is to operate a service business that provides the sale, installation and repair of garage doors and garage door openers and other related products and services.
Sears Garage Door franchise: quick answers
- How much does a Sears Garage Door franchise cost?
- $26,150 – $88,350 all-in to open, per Sears Garage Door's franchise disclosure filings (data as of 2026-05).
- How many Sears Garage Door units are there?
- 121 units at the end of 2017 (FDD Item 20-style unit history).
- How have Sears Garage Door's units held up?
- 72.9% of units at risk between 2015 and 2017 did not close, per our metric recomputed from FDD Item 20-style unit history (methodology published on our verification page).