62% of homeowners will pick your company over a competitor simply because you offer monthly financing. That single stat should rearrange how you think about your sales process. If you are quoting $8,000 roofs or $12,000 HVAC replacements without a financing option on the table, you are leaving jobs on the floor every single week.

Why financing isn't just a nice-to-have anymore

Lead costs are climbing and conversion rates are falling. LocaliQ analyzed over 3,200 home service search ad campaigns from April 2024 to March 2025 and found that cost per lead increased for 69% of home services businesses, with an average year-over-year increase of 10.51%. Conversion rates dropped across 10 of 16 subcategories, down 14.96% on average.

You are paying more to get someone in the door, and fewer of them are saying yes. Financing directly attacks that second problem.

According to data cited by ContractorAccelerator.com from Wisetack's internal numbers, 70% of customers who receive a financing offer actually use it. And 87% of businesses that offer financing have closed at least one job because of it. At those numbers, not offering financing is a choice to lose jobs.

What financing actually does to your close rate and average ticket

The Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) studied this directly and found close rates increase by 11% when financing is offered. Acorn Finance and Joist put that number higher, at an 18% close rate increase and a 30% increase in job size.

Wisetack's internal data, cited by ContractorAccelerator.com, shows financed projects run 4.5 times larger than non-financed ones, with average jobs jumping from $1,000 to $4,500.

Ergeon, a national concrete and fencing contractor, saw 20% sales growth after adopting Wisetack financing. That is not from running more ads or hiring more techs. That is from giving customers a way to say yes. If you are already thinking about how to increase your average ticket, financing is one of the fastest levers available.

How the conversation should actually go in the field

Most contractors treat financing like a last resort. Customer balks at the price, tech panics, then mentions financing as a discount alternative. That is backwards.

Darius Lyvers, COO at F.H. Furr Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning, and Electrical in Northern Virginia, trains his technicians to present financing options upfront to three types of buyers: low interest, no interest, and low payment. He builds custom rules inside ServiceTitan to surface the right option for each customer type automatically.

As Lyvers puts it, financing "opens the door for the customer to afford all your products, and they may buy something they otherwise wouldn't have if you hadn't presented financing options." That is the mindset shift. Financing is not a price objection handler. It is a sales tool you use before the objection ever comes up. If you are working on how to upsell home service customers, this is the infrastructure that makes upselling work at scale.

Ron Hall, a sales manager for a residential heating and cooling contractor in the Philadelphia area, has his team offer financing on every single lead as part of the standard sales conversation. The result: more than 150 financed projects per year. He also advises contractors to run the numbers and build financing costs into their pricing across all transactions, so cash customers effectively subsidize the cost of offering financing to everyone else.

Which financing platforms should you actually use

Here is a comparison of the major options available to home service contractors in 2026:

PlatformBest ForDealer FeeApproval SpeedIntegration
WisetackPlumbing, HVAC, general trades2.9% - 9.9%Under 60 secondsJobber, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro
GreenSkyHVAC, roofing, large projects0% - 9.99%Under 1 minuteServiceTitan, standalone app
Service FinanceHVAC, home improvementVaries by promoSame dayServiceTitan, standalone
GoodLeapSolar, roofing, energy upgradesVariesFastStandalone
Acorn FinanceMulti-lender marketplaceNone to contractorMinutesEmbedded links

Real contractor feedback from HomePros.news in 2024 tells you what the sales pages won't. On GreenSky: "I love GreenSky, fast and easy... approved in less than 1 minute." But also: "GreenSky will close your account with no notice." On Service Finance: "When we get our funding report, we get paid the next business day" versus "It's been 6 months and we're still not fully enrolled with them."

Get at least two platforms active before you depend on either one. Account closures and enrollment delays happen without warning, and having a backup is basic cash flow protection, not paranoia.

Having a second platform ready means a denial or a sudden account freeze does not kill a deal mid-conversation. If managing cash flow is already a pain point, check out how to manage contractor cash flow for the broader picture.

What it costs you to offer financing

Dealer fees are the main cost contractors worry about. These typically run 2% to 9.99% depending on the promo rate you are offering the customer. A 0% interest promo for 18 months costs you more as the contractor than a standard 9.9% APR loan does.

Ron Hall's approach is the right one: price that cost into your overall margin across all jobs. If your average dealer fee is 6% and financing drives 30% more revenue on financed jobs, you come out way ahead.

Across dozens of contractor accounts reviewed, the ones who bake financing costs into their flat-rate pricing structure stop worrying about dealer fees entirely. If your pricing is not structured to absorb this, that is a separate problem worth solving first. How to price home service work covers how to build margin correctly before you layer financing on top.

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Setting up financing inside your field software

The contractors seeing the biggest results are not handing customers a paper brochure. They are presenting financing options on a tablet during the estimate, with one-tap applications that return approval decisions in under 60 seconds.

Adam Cronenberg, COO at A1 Garage Door Service, says the company increased revenue by 48% with financing integrated directly into ServiceTitan. His point is worth repeating: "A lot of times we are in the repair business; customers aren't planning for these bills." When something breaks, the customer is already stressed. A fast financing option removes the biggest obstacle between you and a signed job.

If your field software does not support financing integrations, that is a real problem for your sales process. The field service management software guide breaks down which platforms handle this well and which ones leave you using a separate app that your techs will ignore after week two.

Your appointment reminder automation and estimate follow-up sequences should reference financing options explicitly. A follow-up message that says "by the way, 0% financing is available on this job" reactivates more unsold estimates than almost any other single tactic.

For older unsold quotes, unsold estimate reactivation automation is the right playbook. Financing availability as a new reason to reach back out is one of the cleanest reactivation hooks available.

The 50% threshold that changes the math

About 50% of homeowners finance renovations and repairs that exceed $5,000, according to Acorn Finance data. And according to Joist citing MarketSharp survey data, 65% of projects over $5,000 are financed in some form.

That means for most mid-to-large jobs, the customer is already thinking about payments. The only question is whether they are financing through you or figuring it out on their own after they leave.

Mike Barnhart, CFO at The Eco Plumbers in Columbus, Ohio, frames it well: "You don't have to come up with all this money today or tomorrow, or even a year from now, given the different flexibility on different plans these days." That is the line your techs should internalize. You are not offering debt. You are offering flexibility on a bill the customer did not see coming.

A GoodLeap survey cited by Contracting Business magazine found that 9 out of 10 contractors doubled their sales after offering financing. That is an extreme result, but it reflects what happens when contractors go from never mentioning financing to making it a core part of every estimate presentation. Pairing this with a strong contractor CRM to track which customers were offered financing and which ones converted gives you the data to keep improving that number.

Building a financing culture across your whole team

The biggest reason financing programs underperform is not platform selection or dealer fees. It is that technicians never bring it up in the field. They feel uncomfortable talking about money, or they assume the customer will say no, or they forget entirely because it is not built into their workflow.

The fix is process, not motivation. Build financing into your estimate template so it appears on every quote automatically. Include a financing line in your tech call script so it is said on every job above a set dollar threshold. If you are thinking about how to train your HVAC technicians or any field staff, financing conversations belong in that training from day one.

Track which techs present financing and which ones do not. The data will show you exactly where the revenue is leaking. Contractors who measure this consistently see that two or three techs are driving the majority of financed jobs, and the rest need coaching, not more tools.

Once financing is embedded in your sales process, it also strengthens your maintenance agreement conversions. Customers who finance a large repair are strong candidates for a monthly plan that spreads future costs out. How to sell maintenance agreements covers how to position that conversation after a financed job closes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does offering financing actually increase close rates, or just help bigger jobs close?

Both. The ACCA study found an 11% close rate increase overall when financing is offered, and Acorn Finance data puts that number at 18% for contractors who integrate it systematically. Job size increases by 30% on average, but close rate improvements happen across all ticket sizes because monthly payment framing makes the total price feel more manageable.

What do I pay as the contractor to offer financing?

Dealer fees typically run 2% to 9.99% of the financed amount, depending on the promotional rate you offer. A 0% interest promotion costs you more than a standard rate loan. The right approach, as outlined by sales managers like Ron Hall, is to factor average financing costs into your overall pricing structure so the cost is distributed across all jobs rather than absorbed project by project.

How long does customer approval actually take?

Modern platforms like Wisetack and GreenSky return decisions in under 60 seconds on a mobile device. Doug Little, co-founder of Payzerware, notes that platforms like his can process loan approval "in less than 30 seconds" on a mobile app. The days of faxing credit applications are over. If your current platform takes longer than two minutes, switch.

Should I offer financing on small jobs too, or only big tickets?

Wisetack data shows that prequalified customers are 26% more likely to proceed and spend 30% more per transaction regardless of initial job size. Offering financing on a $400 drain cleaning job sounds unnecessary until that customer decides to add a water heater replacement because the monthly payment made it painless. Present it on every job above a few hundred dollars.

What if the customer gets declined?

Multi-lender platforms like Acorn Finance run applicants through multiple lenders simultaneously, which improves approval odds significantly. GoodLeap and Wisetack also have options for customers with lower credit scores. Having two platforms active means a decline from one does not end the conversation.

Start here

Sign up for one financing platform this week. Wisetack or Acorn Finance are the fastest to get live for most trades. Then update your estimate template so financing is mentioned on every job over $1,000, and add a financing callout to your follow-up sequence for unsold quotes. That alone will change your close rate before the month is out.