Yes, Century 21 is a franchise. The 2026 FDD: $25,000 fee currently waived, $35,770 to $473,400 investment, 6% royalty, 1,685 US offices, no Item 19.
Quick answer Yes. Century 21 Real Estate LLC franchises independently owned brokerage offices, and 1,685 were open in the United States on December 31, 2025 against zero company-owned ones. The 2026 FDD prices a conversion at $35,770 to $286,100 and a start-up office at $117,270 to $473,400, with a $25,000 initial fee and no Item 19.
Century 21 brokerages have been franchised in the United States since July 1972, first through regional subfranchisors and directly by the franchisor since December 1995. Item 20 of the 2026 FDD counts 1,685 franchised offices open on December 31, 2025 and zero company-owned offices in any of the last three fiscal years. That is a plain yes, and an unusually clean one: no company-store tier competes with franchisees under the same sign.
What changed is the address at the top. Item 1 of this filing, issued March 30, 2026, traces ownership through four Anywhere entities up to Compass, Inc., doing business as Compass International Holdings. Compass completed its merger with Anywhere Real Estate on January 9, 2026 under an agreement signed September 22, 2025, and Anywhere’s stock stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker HOUS. Two of those Anywhere entities still guarantee the franchisor’s obligations under your franchise agreement, so the guarantor did not disappear. It acquired a new owner.
Most people typing this question want to know whether joining Century 21 as an agent means buying a franchise. It does not. Agents affiliate with an office as independent contractors. The franchise is the brokerage, and the buyer is a broker.
Item 7 publishes two scenarios, which is why quoted costs for this brand vary so wildly.
| Item 7 scenario | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion of an existing brokerage | $35,770 | $286,100 |
| Additional cost for a start-up office | $81,500 | $187,300 |
| Total for a new start-up office | $117,270 | $473,400 |
Both tables assume an office of 1,800 to 3,500 square feet holding up to 30 people, and the conversion side is thin by design: leasehold improvements at $0 to $105,000, computer equipment at $6,000 to $12,000, three months of additional funds at $15,000 to $40,000, and real estate excluded from the total entirely with occupancy footnoted at $0 to $50,000 a year. A start-up adds space planning, deposits, furnishings, and $35,000 to $60,000 more working capital. The franchisor’s own guidance is to hold $50,000 to $100,000 in reserve through the first three months, which against a build reaching $473,400 is a floor rather than a plan.
Keller Williams publishes only one scenario by contrast, a new market center at $183,647 to $336,495. Century 21’s cheap end is a conversion, so putting $35,770 next to $183,647 compares two different transactions.
Item 5 sets the initial franchise fee at $25,000 for the main office and $5,000 per additional branch, then discloses that as of the issuance date the main office fee is waived under the franchise sales incentive program. It also reports what franchisees actually paid in 2025: $0 to $25,000 for a main office, and $0 to $5,000 for a branch. Both ends were real.
A waived fee is not free money, and Item 10 explains the mechanism. The franchisor may offer a Conversion Promissory Note covering signage, marketing, or transition costs. It carries no finance charges absent a default, forgives a portion of principal each year if you stay in compliance and hit annual gross revenue thresholds, and matures nine years from January 1 of the first full calendar year after execution. If your franchise agreement ends before then, the entire unamortized balance comes due that day.
That is the real shape of the deal. Entry is negotiable to zero and conversion capital is available, underwritten by a ten-year term with no renewal rights, liquidated damages on early termination equal to your average monthly fees times the lesser of 36 months or the months remaining, and a note that claws back if you leave. Price the exit before the entry.
Pull the full Century 21 data sheet. VetMyFranchise reads Items 5, 7, and 19 out of the filed document rather than the recruiting deck.
Item 6 charges a 6% royalty on gross revenue at the close of each transaction, plus a separate 1.5% fee on property management revenue. A minimum monthly royalty of $500 applies whenever the 6% falls short, adjustable upward each year by the greater of CPI, the ten-year Treasury yield, or the NAR average existing-home price increase, in each case plus three points.
Then the Century 21 Incentive Bonus works the other direction. Qualifying franchisees receive an annual bonus that effectively reduces royalties paid, capped at 2% of gross revenue for the year. A brokerage that qualifies in full pays close to 4%, and one that does not pays 6%. The FDD does not disclose the qualification thresholds, which sit in the franchise agreement, so this is the number to pin down in writing before signing.
The brand marketing fund adds 0.50% of gross revenue for franchisees who joined after March 30, 2022, with older agreements at different rates. Below that sit a $5,000 transfer fee and One21 conference registration at $675 to $775 per attendee, owed every year it is held whether you attend or not.
Item 19 contains no numbers. The franchisor makes no representations about franchisee performance, past or future. That is legal under the FTC Franchise Rule and standard across this category, and it leaves your underwriting resting on the franchisee lists in Exhibits G and H.
Those lists come with a catch. Item 20 discloses that some current and former franchisees have signed provisions restricting their ability to speak openly about the system, and advises that not all of them will be able to talk to you. A missing earnings disclosure paired with a partially gagged reference list is a specific problem, not a general one.
The new ownership shows up with teeth in Item 12. You receive no exclusive territory, and the franchisor or its related parties may open or franchise offices anywhere outside a protected area around yours, under Century 21 or any affiliated mark. Item 12 also discloses that Compass runs more than 400 offices with over 33,000 agents in more than 95 markets, and nothing in the franchise agreement stops those agents from taking listings in yours. Your franchisor’s ultimate parent is also the largest company-owned brokerage you compete against.
Item 6 flags one thing to track. The CIH Platform, Compass’s proprietary technology system, currently goes only to Compass brokerage offices and is expected to reach franchisees of the affiliated brands in early 2027. It is optional today, and the franchisor reserves the right to charge for it later.
| Franchised offices | Start of year | End of year | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1,870 | 1,807 | (63) |
| 2024 | 1,807 | 1,734 | (73) |
| 2025 | 1,734 | 1,685 | (49) |
During 2025, 68 offices opened while 117 left: 11 terminations, 11 non-renewals, and 95 that ceased operations for other reasons. Table 5 projects 57 new franchised outlets in the next fiscal year against 11 signed agreements not yet open. About 7% of franchised outlets are limited purpose offices such as satellite or seasonal locations, so the headline count overstates the number of full brokerages.
Read that alongside RE/MAX, whose US franchised office count went 3,477, then 3,358, then 3,149, then 2,994 over the same period, and Keller Williams, which fell from 784 to 735 market centers. Century 21 is shedding roughly 3% of its offices a year, the shallowest decline of the three. This is a category story rather than a brand story.
| 2026 FDDs, offices as of 12/31/2025 | Century 21 | Sotheby’s Int’l Realty | Corcoran |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial fee, main office | $25,000 | $25,000 | $25,000 |
| Fee currently waived | yes | yes | yes |
| Royalty | 6% of gross revenue | 6% of gross revenue | 6% declining to 4% by revenue band |
| Brand marketing fund | 0.50% of gross revenue | 2%, $723 to $3,121 per office per month | 1% declining to 0.50% |
| US franchised offices | 1,685 | 672 | 108 |
| Item 19 | none | none | none |
Coldwell Banker is the fourth and the largest, with 1,297 franchised residential offices and 134 commercial ones on December 31, 2025 per Century 21’s own Item 1. Add ERA at 434 and Better Homes and Gardens at 362 and the network Compass acquired runs past 4,500 US offices across six brands, none of which discloses what a franchisee earns.
The question to press is what the parent intends to do with six overlapping franchise brands and a company-owned brokerage in the same markets. Nothing in the 2026 FDD answers it. Item 3 does record that Anywhere settled the Moehrl and Burnett commission antitrust actions for $83.5 million, with final approval on May 9, 2024 and an appeal pending in the Eighth Circuit. Commission revenue is what your 6% is calculated on.
You cannot buy a franchise from Compass itself, which runs its brokerage directly. You can buy four of the brands it owns.
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About this analysis The franchise data in this article is drawn from VetMyFranchise's structured analysis of 2,300+ Franchise Disclosure Documents filed with U.S. state regulators. See our data & methodology.
It depends on whether you already own a brokerage. The 2026 FDD estimates $35,770 to $286,100 to convert an existing single office to Century 21, and $117,270 to $473,400 to open a start-up office, which carries $81,500 to $187,300 of additional costs on top of the conversion table. The initial franchise fee is $25,000 for the main office and $5,000 for each branch office, though the franchisor discloses that the main office fee is currently waived under its sales incentive program.
Compass, Inc., doing business as Compass International Holdings. Item 1 of the 2026 FDD traces the chain: Century 21 Real Estate LLC sits under Anywhere Real Estate Services Group LLC, then Anywhere Real Estate Group LLC, then Anywhere Intermediate Holdings LLC, then Anywhere Real Estate Inc., which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Compass when the merger closed on January 9, 2026. Anywhere's shares stopped trading on the NYSE under HOUS at that point. Anywhere still guarantees the franchisor's obligations to franchisees.
No. Item 19 of the 2026 FDD contains no figures and states that the franchisor makes no representations about a franchisee's future financial performance or the past performance of company-owned or franchised outlets. The same is true of the 2026 filings for Sotheby's International Realty and Corcoran, both of which now sit under the same parent. Item 20 also warns that some current and former franchisees have signed provisions restricting their ability to speak openly about the system.
Item 20 counts 1,685 franchised offices in the United States on December 31, 2025, down from 1,734 a year earlier and 1,870 at the start of 2023. The franchisor owns none. During 2025, 68 offices opened while 117 left the system through 11 terminations, 11 non-renewals, and 95 closures for other reasons. Roughly 7% of franchised outlets are limited purpose offices such as satellite or seasonal locations rather than full brokerages.
Century 21 has the lower entry point for an existing broker. A conversion starts at $35,770 against a Keller Williams market center at $183,647, because Keller Williams publishes only a new-office scenario. Compare start-up to start-up and the gap narrows: Century 21 runs $117,270 to $473,400. The royalty structures then diverge. Century 21 charges 6% of gross revenue with an incentive bonus worth up to 2% back, while Keller Williams charges 6% of gross commission income capped at $3,000 per agent per year. Neither publishes an Item 19.
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