Does offering financing increase close rates? What the data says, and how to measure it yourself

Every financing lender will tell you it lifts close rates. It probably does, for many contractors. But when the number comes from the company selling the loans, you should know how it was measured before you build a sales plan on it. This post separates the neutral data from the vendor claims, explains why the effect is hard to measure cleanly, and gives you a simple way to measure it in your own business.

What does neutral data say about homeowners and financing?

Neutral sources, meaning government, academic and survey sources that do not sell financing, do not measure contractor close rates directly. What they do show is how many homeowners struggle to pay for a large job in cash.

• Emergency cash is thin. In the Federal Reserve's survey of 2025, 63% of adults said they would cover a $400 emergency with cash or its equivalent, so about 37% would not.
• Cash covers less as tickets grow. Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies found savings paid for 78% of projects under $10,000, 60% at $10,000 to $49,999, and 54% at $50,000 and up. Only 54% of roofing projects were paid from savings. The rest is not all financing: it includes insurance claims, cards and other sources.
• Most renovators still use savings. Houzz found 84% of renovating homeowners used savings on 2024 projects, 29% used credit cards and 12% used secured home loans. Many used more than one source.
• Homeowners are delaying. Angi's April 2025 pulse found 71% of homeowners postponed a planned project in 2025, and 65% of those cited high interest rates.

Put together: a meaningful share of homeowners cannot comfortably pay for a $10,000 to $30,000 job from savings, and many who can would rather not. That is a strong reason to expect financing to help close. It is not a measurement of how much.

The Harvard ticket size finding, read carefully

Harvard also found that projects with contractor-arranged financing averaged about $6,500, versus about $3,300 for projects paid with savings or credit cards. It is tempting to read that as "financing doubles the ticket." It does not show that. Bigger projects are more likely to need financing in the first place, so the arrow can point either way. Treat it as a correlation.

What do vendor studies claim?

Lenders and software companies publish most of the close rate numbers you will see. They have real transaction data, which is valuable, and a clear interest in the result, which is a reason for care.

The vendor numbers point the same direction, and they are not wild. A 12% to 18% relative lift on a 35% close rate is roughly 4 to 6 extra points, which is plausible. What none of them can fully rule out is that the contractors who offer financing are different in other ways: bigger, more organized, better trained, more likely to run a structured presentation. Those shops would close more anyway.

Why is the close rate effect hard to measure?

• Selection. Contractors who adopt financing often adopt other sales practices at the same time. The lift gets credited to financing.
• Relative vs absolute. "12% higher" usually means relative. On a 30% close rate, that is 33.6%, not 42%. Always ask which.
• Offered vs used. A study can mean contractors who offer financing, or jobs where the homeowner financed. Those are different questions.
• Survivorship. Merchant surveys hear from contractors who stayed with the program, not the ones who quit.
• Margin is left out. Close rate studies rarely subtract dealer fees. A higher close rate at lower margin can still lose money.

None of this means financing does not work. It means the only number you can fully trust is your own.

How do you measure whether financing increases your close rate?

You do not need a data team. You need a clean definition, a before period, an after period, and discipline about changing only one thing at a time.

1. 1

   Define close rate one way

   Signed jobs divided by appointments where you presented a price. Leave out no-shows and bad leads. For benchmarks, see what is a good close rate for in-home sales.

2. 2

   Pull a 90 day baseline

   From your CRM, record presented appointments, signed jobs, average ticket, and which tier sold if you quote Good, Better, Best. Note the dealer fees you paid, if any.

3. 3

   Change one thing: present financing to everyone

   Same reps, same price book, same lead sources. Show a monthly payment on every option, to every homeowner, at the same point in the presentation.

4. 4

   Tag every appointment

   Mark whether financing was presented, whether the homeowner applied, whether they were approved, and whether the job funded.

5. 5

   Run 90 days, then compare

   Compare close rate, average ticket, tier mix and gross profit after dealer fees. If your business is seasonal, also compare against the same months last year.

6. 6

   Decide on profit, not closes

   Keep financing if gross profit after fees went up. Then adjust which plans you offer and how you price the fee.

A worked example

This is an illustrative example with made-up numbers for a roofing and exteriors company, not a real customer.

Revenue is up $96,600. At an example 40% gross margin, that is $38,640 in extra gross profit before fees, and $29,190 after $9,450 in dealer fees. In this example, financing pays for itself comfortably, even if you assume some of the lift was luck.

How to tell a real lift from noise

With about 120 appointments in each period, a few jobs either way can be chance. As a rough statistical guide, a 35% close rate measured over 120 appointments has a margin of error of roughly plus or minus 8 to 9 points. A jump from 35% to 39.8% is encouraging, not conclusive. Three ways to firm it up:

• Run longer. Six months of data narrows the range. Keep tracking after the test.
• Look at ticket and tier mix too. If more homeowners pick Better and Best when they see a monthly number, that is a second signal pointing the same way.
• Ask the homeowners who financed. A short question at signing, "Would you have gone ahead today without the monthly option?", tells you which jobs financing actually won.

Why does where you present financing matter?

In the Slice by FNBO survey, 47% of homeowners wanted financing acknowledged during the estimate, 68% worried about hidden fees, and 46% disengaged when it felt pushed. That is vendor research, but it matches how kitchen tables work: a monthly number shown calmly next to every option helps, and a financing pitch after the homeowner says no feels like pressure. For a script and sequence, see how to present financing at the kitchen table.

Many field service tools, including Jobber, Housecall Pro, JobNimbus and ServiceTitan, already show a monthly payment on quotes. Revcore's homeowner financing is coming soon, and it will be included on every Revcore plan at launch. It is not live yet and no lending partner has been announced. The plan is to put monthly payments inside the in-home presentation and on every estimate package, let the homeowner apply from the estimate on their phone, offer 0% promotional plans of 12, 18 and 24 months plus longer fixed-rate terms, and show funding status on the job. Because it will sit in the same app that already records every presented appointment, signed estimate and tier, the before and after comparison above becomes a report instead of a spreadsheet. See the financing preview.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading: the pillar guide on how to offer financing to customers, and how to follow up on an unsold estimate for the homeowners who still want to think it over.