Renovation Sells Finds Success With Franchise Model
By KIMBERLEY HAAS
With over 40 locations in 70 markets across the United States, the CEO of Renovation Sells has found success in franchising his business model.
Michael Valente is a licensed realtor and licensed general contractor who has been in construction and remodeling since 2007. He has been in downtown Chicago since 2002.
Valente founded Renovation Sells, a company specializing in renovating homes prior to sale, in 2018 and soon realized it could be scaled nationwide.
“Pretty homes just sell faster. That’s a fact. And so when we were thinking about the best way to scale, the option we really landed on was franchising,” Valente said.
He explained that franchising works best for this business model for a number of reasons.
“You need that white glove, personalized, localized, feeling. And that’s exactly what franchising is. Franchising is where the franchisee, our partners in those particular markets, own their market. What that means is that they actually care about what’s happening to the homes.”
Valente said in major metropolitan markets, there are a lot of dated houses, and sellers understand the value of making updates to their homes before putting them on the market.
“We talk to realtors all the time and everybody’s like, ‘Wow, that’s a great idea. We really like that. That’s something that I could use as a valuable service for my clients,’” Valente said.
Renovation Sells specializes in cosmetic renovations that include installing new light fixtures, painting walls, revitalizing flooring, updating kitchens, and refreshing master bathrooms. Franchisees have access to design services and discounts on materials.
Valente said they are successful because these updates can invoke a positive emotional reaction that makes buyers want to purchase a home.
“I like to say buying a house is a feeling. Any time I’ve ever bought a home, and if you’ve ever bought a home, you walk into that house and you go, ‘This is my house.’ And you don’t even know why it’s your house, you just know that’s your house,” Valente said.
In addition to handling the design and construction for home projects, Renovation Sells also offers financing to help homeowners make updates prior to sale. They can get up to $400,000 in financing for sellers through their banking partners.
Chris Winston, owner of Renovation Sells East Bay in California, has a civil engineering degree and worked in corporate America before eventually deciding to get into real estate and franchise ownership.
Winston said he was attracted to Renovation Sells because it offered structure and support for his business but there was still a start-up mindset. He signed on in April of 2022, and was operational by the end of that year.
Winston said the business model works extremely well in his area because the average home price is $1 million or more.
“The home I just completed, it was a $120,000 contract. It probably took the house value from $1.1 million to $1.5 million. So that math really pencils out well,” Winston said.
Winston has a team of eight employees who do all of the construction work. He also works with a marketing contractor.
Winston said that Renovation Sells is constantly looking for ways to save franchisees money and improve their business efficiencies. That includes leveraging the national brand to obtain pricing agreements with major suppliers of materials.
From Winston’s perspective, working with Renovation Sells is a “slam dunk, no-brainer.”
“The way I look at it, it’s packaged in a way that is very digestible and easy to pick up and hit the ground running,” he said.
Ryan LeBrun, owner of Renovation Sells Fox Valley in Illinois, has been running his franchise in the Chicagoland suburbs for just over three years.
Prior to that, LeBrun worked as a manager at a fitness franchise. He has had his real estate license for over 10 years and also called becoming a franchisee with Renovation Sells a “no-brainer.”
“They do an unbelievable job from a support standpoint to make sure that we have what we need, boots on the ground, to be successful from a running the business standpoint,” LeBrun said. He works with subcontractors.
LeBrun said that his client base is a mixture of homeowners who want to do presale renovations, buyers who want to renovate a home after purchase, and people who are staying in their homes but want to make upgrades.
LeBrun said the design team at Renovation Sells is crucial to his success because they have streamlined the process so he can bid easily.
As far as recent trends go, LeBrun said he is seeing more demand for luxury vinyl plank flooring. There is also a demand for the use of the color green in kitchens.
Much of LeBrun and Winston’s business comes from real estate professionals.
“They’re the ones really talking to the homeowners mostly. I’m educating them as much as I can about how we do things and obviously the biggest benefit for them is help on the presale side. I always say I want to be their value-added resource,” LeBrun said.
LeBrun meets realtors by stopping in at offices and finding out about opportunities to present to the group. Renovation Sells also provides marketing on a national scale, he said.
When asked what kind of background someone needs to be a successful franchisee with the company, LeBrun said he has seen people be successful with a variety of backgrounds and approaches but a knowledge of construction and how real estate works is essential.
“You don’t need to be a broker, you don’t need to be a real estate professional, you don’t need to be a construction guru to be successful at this, but you can’t have zero understanding,” LeBrun said.
To see before and after photos of projects Renovation Sells has completed, click here.