Verified — real FDD extraction
SBA-eligible · directory code S0005 since 2017
1-800-GOT-JUNK?
Home Services · independent · est. —
1-800-GOT-JUNK? is a full-service junk-removal company that hauls away unwanted furniture, appliances, renovation debris, and general clutter from homes and businesses. Crews do the lifting and loading, then dispose of, donate, or recycle the items. A franchisee operates trucks and crews in a local territory, booking jobs and managing pickups.
1-800-GOT-JUNK? net unit count grew +3.5% from 2022–2024 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Proven & strong
Distress
Enough units and history to judge, and the record is good: growing or stable units with clean exits by the standards of its disclosed record. The standout in the record: owners who leave mostly sell rather than fail.
Exit rate · latest year
0.0%
vs 9.2% across 42 home services systems
Cost to open
$184K–$294K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
11.4%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2022–2024
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2024, 0 of 133 franchised outlets left the system — a 0.0% annualized exit rate, vs 9.2% across 42 home services systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 133 | 141 | 149 |
| Opened | 8 | 7 | 1 |
| Transfers | 4 | 14 | 3 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 3 | 7 | 30 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Outlets at end | 141 | 149 | 146 |
| Net change | +8 | +8 | -3 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 45 SBA-backed loans to 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchisees since 1994. Of the 35 that have resolved, 11.4% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
11.4%
4 of 35 resolved defaulted
36.2%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
4.1%
default rate × loss severity
$721,976
what recent franchisees borrowed
49 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
4 vs 8
distinct banks — pulling back
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO 1-800-GOT-JUNK? BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Bank of America, National Association
10.8% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 13.1% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
69.7%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 45 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $65K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $184K–$294K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$184K–$294K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$65K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
8%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$80K
8% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$800K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for 1-800-GOT-JUNK? with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 2 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $4K in back wages for 16 workers. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
2
Back wages owed
$4K
Employees affected
16
Since 2020
0
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not 1-800-GOT-JUNK? itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2011.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand sits mid-pack: riskier than 70% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
70 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
15.6%
Observed SBA charge-off
11.4%
Top drivers: Net unit growth (raises) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers) · Single-lender dependence (raises) · Item 20 exit rate (lowers). 15+ resolved loans stand behind this estimate. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
Franchise litigation docket: Justin Serna v. 1-800-GOT-JUNK? LLC (District Court, C.D. California)
CourtListener/RECAP · 31mo ago
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing 1-800-GOT-JUNK?'s numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchises closed last year?
In 1-800-GOT-JUNK?'s latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2024), 0 of 133 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 0.0% — compared with 9.2% across 42 home services systems tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchise cost?
Per 1-800-GOT-JUNK?'s 2025 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $65K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $184K–$294K (Item 7).
What royalty does 1-800-GOT-JUNK? charge?
1-800-GOT-JUNK? charges an ongoing royalty of 8.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2025 FDD.
Does 1-800-GOT-JUNK? disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — 1-800-GOT-JUNK? makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2025 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchises default?
Across 45 SBA-backed loans to 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchisees since 1994, 4 of the 35 that have resolved were charged off — a 11.4% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.