What is a good close rate for in-home sales? How to calculate it, compare it and raise it

Ask ten contractors what their close rate is and you will get ten numbers that cannot be compared. One owner divides signed jobs by every lead that called. Another divides by appointments set, including the ones where nobody answered the door. A third only counts presentations where both homeowners sat down. All three call the result their close rate.

That is why the question of what counts as a good close rate is harder than it looks. Before you can judge the number, you have to agree on how it is calculated. Once you do, the number becomes one of the most useful things you track, because it tells you whether your sales process is working at the one moment that matters: when your rep is in the home with a price in front of the homeowner.

How to calculate close rate

For in-home sales, the cleanest definition is signed jobs divided by presentations run, times 100. A presentation counts as run when your rep was in the home (or on a scheduled video visit), inspected or measured, and put a price in front of the homeowner. Appointments that were cancelled, rescheduled or found nobody home do not count, because the rep never had a chance to sell.

Two decisions change the number, so write them down and apply them the same way every month.

• When a sale counts. Count a job in the month the presentation was run, not the month the contract came back. Otherwise a slow-signing month inflates the next one.
• What happens to cancellations. Under the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule, many sales made in the buyer's home can be cancelled until midnight of the third business day. Track gross close rate (all signatures) and net close rate (signatures that did not cancel). Net is the number that pays your bills.

Close rate vs demo rate vs booking rate

Close rate is the last step in a chain. When revenue drops, the problem is often earlier in the chain than the rep at the table. Track all three rates so you know where to look.

Lead to sale is simply the three rates multiplied together. That is why a small lift at each step compounds. If each of the three improves by a few points, the number of signed jobs from the same marketing spend moves a lot more than any single rate did.

A worked calculation

The table below is an illustrative example of one month for a contractor running in-home appointments. The figures are made up to show the math, not a benchmark to aim for.

Now look at what each lever is worth. At an illustrative average job of $12,000, the 19 net jobs above are $228,000 of signed work. Raising the demo rate from 78 to 85 percent means about 61 presentations instead of 56. At the same net close rate, that is roughly 2 more jobs, about $24,000, without the rep closing any better. Raising net close rate from 33.9 to 40 percent on the original 56 presentations adds about 3 jobs, around $36,000. Both are worth chasing, and neither needs a discount.

If you want a feel for how these numbers change your return on software or marketing spend, plug your own counts into the software ROI calculator.

Why published benchmarks are hard to trust

Search for a good close rate in roofing or HVAC and you will find confident percentages. Most of them come from vendor blogs and training companies, and very few say who was surveyed, how many companies answered, or whether close rate meant signed jobs over leads, over appointments set, or over presentations run. We could not find a primary source for a trade-level in-home close rate that we were comfortable citing, so this article does not quote one.

Even a well-run survey would be a blunt tool, because close rate swings with things that have nothing to do with sales skill:

• Lead source. A referral from a past customer and a shared lead bought from a directory are different conversations. Averaging them hides both.
• Urgency. A furnace that quit in January, a roof leaking into a bedroom and a kitchen the homeowner has disliked for years produce very different decision speeds.
• Ticket size. A water heater replacement and a $60,000 remodel do not close at the same rate, and should not.
• Who was home. A presentation with one of two decision makers is a different event from one with both at the table.
• How you count. Dividing by leads instead of presentations can halve the number without a single sale changing.

What affects close rate by trade

The drivers are similar across trades, but each trade has one or two that matter most. Use this as a guide to what to watch, not as a set of expected numbers.

For trade-specific playbooks, see our guides on the HVAC install sales process and presenting roofing options at the kitchen table.

How to build your own baseline

A baseline only works if the data behind it is honest. Most contractors who say they do not know their close rate actually have the data, spread across a calendar, a spreadsheet and a stack of signed contracts. The job is to put it in one place with the same definitions every time.

1. Pick a window. Use the last 90 days if you have the records. A single month is too noisy for a small team.
2. Log every appointment with an outcome. Run, cancelled, no one home, or rescheduled. Only run appointments go into the close rate.
3. Record the lead source on every appointment. Capture it at the first call or form, not from memory later.
4. Mark who ran it and who was home. Rep name, and whether all decision makers were present.
5. Log the result and the date signed. Signed, not signed, or cancelled within the rescission window.
6. Split the results. Close rate by rep, by lead source, by trade or job type, and by whether all decision makers were present. The splits are where the insight is.

Once the splits are in front of you, the picture usually sharpens fast. A rep who looks weak overall may simply be getting the worst leads. A lead source that looks cheap per lead may close so poorly that it is the most expensive source per signed job. Revcore's reporting and marketing attribution are built for exactly these splits, because the lead source, the appointment and the signed estimate live on the same record.

How to raise close rate without discounting

Discounting is the fastest way to close one more job this week and the fastest way to train your market to wait for a lower price. These steps raise close rate by making the decision easier, not the price lower.

1. 1

   Qualify before you drive

   Confirm the scope, the address, the timeline and who will be at the appointment when you book it. A presentation you should not have run hurts your close rate and burns a rep's evening.

2. 2

   Get every decision maker at the table

   Ask at booking and again in the confirmation text: will everyone who makes this decision be home? If not, offer another time. It is one of the simplest levers you have.

3. 3

   Confirm the appointment the day before

   An automated reminder with the rep's name and arrival window protects your demo rate, which gives your close rate more presentations to work with.

4. 4

   Show what you found before you show a price

   Walk through the photos and measurements first. When the homeowner agrees on the problem, the price is a solution, not a surprise. Our guide to the in-home sales presentation covers the full structure.

5. 5

   Offer three honest options

   A single price is a yes or no decision. Good, better, best pricing turns it into a which one decision, so the careful homeowner has a way to say yes without you cutting the price.

6. 6

   Make it possible to sign on the same visit

   If the homeowner is ready, they should be able to choose an option, sign and pay the deposit before the rep leaves. Every extra step between yes and a signature is a chance to cool off. See why emailed quotes lose jobs.

7. 7

   Follow up the same day on every unsold presentation

   Plenty of jobs close on the second or third touch. ServiceTitan's 2026 Roofing and Exterior Market Report found only 16 percent of roofing and exterior contractors follow up on unsold estimates the same day. Use a written cadence, like the one in how to follow up on an unsold estimate.

8. 8

   Review close rate by rep every week

   Look at the splits, not just the total. Ride along with the rep whose number dropped, and have your best closer walk the team through a recent presentation. Coaching on real calls beats a new script.

Common mistakes when tracking close rate

• Mixing denominators. Leads one month and presentations the next makes the trend meaningless.
• Ignoring cancellations. Gross close rate looks good in a meeting. Net close rate is what reaches the bank.
• Letting reps log their own outcomes weeks later. Memory is generous. Log the result on the day.
• Judging a rep on a handful of calls. A rep with 8 presentations a month can swing 10 points on a single job. Look at a rolling quarter.
• Cutting price to fix a funnel problem. If demo rate or lead quality is the weak link, a discount at the table does not fix it.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading: the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule page explains cancellation rights on sales made in the home, and ServiceTitan's 2026 Roofing and Exterior Market Report covers follow-up habits. For turning more unsold presentations into jobs, see 5 follow-up texts that turn cold leads into jobs.