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Delbe Home Services In The News NEWCOMERS –Franchise Times - March 2001 There are two audiences that a Delbe Home Services franchise appeals to: There are two audiences that a Delbe Home Services franchise appeals to: contractors who want to “get out of the muscle and into the white collar” and women who want a home-based, low-investment opportunity. The concept was started in the Washington, DC area by David and Scott Burka as a wholly owned subsidiary of Delbe Real Estate. Delbe Home Services is a membership-based service that refers licensed and insured contractors to homeowners and schedules home repairs and improvements. The one-stop concept is ripe for our time-strapped culture, where homeowners often can’t take off time to wait for the plumber, he said. According to Howard Margolis, director of business development, this is an easy-to-run property management service that offers everything from changing out an avocado-green stove to meeting service people at the home while the owners are at work to landscaping. “We’ve run it for four years; we’ve done it while we were away at trade shows,” he said. “If you’re on the moon, you can do this.” The franchise fee is $11,000 to $25,000, based on the number of single-family homes in the territory. The $11,00 fee covers 57,000 homes (or condos), very additional home in the ZIP code territory adds 9.29 cents. Royalties are 3 percent and the ad fee is 2 percent with a cap at $4,000. An additional $75 a month is slated for computer support. It’s the proprietary software that makes the job so simple, Margolis said. Additional support includes on-going training in the day-to-day operations, plus business and marketing plans. The franchise program will initially stick to its own backyard before moving into its original plan which calls for a targeted area from Philadelphia to Florida. “Right now Baltimore is an international opportunity for us,” Margolis quipped. For more information, visit their Web site at ww.delbe.com or www.delbefranchise.com. By: Nancy Weingartner |
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