The acquisition of the home inspection franchise expands the franchisor’s portfolio to comprise 25 brands with more than 4,000 franchisees.
The HouseMaster brand will operate alongside Neighborly’s many home service brands that repair, maintain and care for the home.
The combined reach that results from this acquisition will continue to help more than 10 million customers across the Neighborly organization find and utilize home service professionals across the world.
“Our vision is to ‘Own the Home’ and provide the very best services to homeowners, and this now includes HouseMaster’s premier home inspection network with a stellar reputation that more customers can call upon,” said Mike Bidwell, president and CEO of Neighborly. “HouseMaster is a perfect complement to our existing Neighborly brands and presents a tremendous opportunity to grow more franchise locations.”
Bidwell discussed his mission to make Neighborly the “Amazon of the home and property services sector” in an episode of the Global Franchise Podcast.
HouseMaster was founded in 1979 by Ken Austin and became the first home inspection business to adopt the franchise model. The brand now has more than 170 franchise owners serving more than 300 franchise territories across the U.S. and Canada.
“Having grown up in this business, I recognize that joining the larger Neighborly organization marks a historic moment for HouseMaster as a launching point for growth like we’ve never seen before,” said Kathleen Austin Kuhn, president of HouseMaster and a charter member of the American Home Inspection Association (AHIA). “We look forward to expanding our presence, serving more customers by being all things Neighborly to residential and commercial real estate buyers and sellers.”
