Non-destructive entry first, always - and we re-key Schlage, Kwikset, and Baldwin locks on the spot while you watch
You get a price before we start. It does not change when we arrive. No surprises.
Franchisee Success Stories
The owners who build something real with Dunmore Locksmith aren’t looking for a passive investment. They’re people who like solving problems, who don’t mind being on call, and who’d rather look a customer in the eye than read about them in a spreadsheet. They come from trades, from corporate security, from small business backgrounds where they learned that trust is earned one visit at a time. Here’s how four of them found their way to us.
Meet Our Owners
Tracy H. – Charlotte, North Carolina
Tracy spent fourteen years managing fleet maintenance for a regional delivery company before she ever touched a lock cylinder. She knew how to run a crew, how to keep trucks rolling, and how to spot the difference between someone who shows up and someone who shows up ready. What she didn’t have was a business she could own outright. She found Dunmore Locksmith through a Threshold Group contact in 2019, and the fit was immediate. “I liked that they weren’t selling me a dream,” she says. “They handed me a price book, walked me through the guarantee, and said, ‘This is how you earn trust in someone’s home.'” Tracy now runs three vans in the Charlotte market, handles mostly residential rekeys and lockouts, and still takes overnight calls herself when someone’s locked out with a baby inside. The 365-Day Done Right Promise, she says, is the reason her repeat rate keeps climbing. “Customers remember that I put the price in writing before I touched a screw. They call me back because they still have that paper.”
Michelle K. – Richmond, Virginia
Michelle came from corporate loss prevention, fifteen years of watching retail shrinkage from behind cameras and spreadsheets. She understood security from the building outward, but she wanted to work directly with the people living inside those buildings. She opened her Dunmore Locksmith territory in 2016, starting with a single van and a willingness to learn pin-tumbler rekeying the hard way. Richmond’s older neighborhoods, with their original mortise locks and vintage hardware, forced her to get good fast. “You can’t fake it on a 1920s door,” she says. “Either you know how to match a backset and faceplate, or you don’t.” Michelle now employs two full-time technicians and specializes in historic home lock restoration alongside standard residential work. She chose Dunmore because the Threshold Standard matched how she’d want her own mother treated at the door: name and photo sent ahead, photo ID badge shown on arrival, price written down before any work starts. “My mother lives alone,” Michelle says. “I built the business I’d want her to call.”
Sofia T. – Nashville, Tennessee
Sofia was a military spouse who moved six times in twelve years, picking up locksmithing at a base exchange course in Fort Campbell because it traveled. She’d seen how military families get gouged by locksmiths who know they’re desperate, and she hated it. When her husband retired and they settled in Nashville, she looked for a franchise that would let her set her own ethical floor. Dunmore’s upfront pricing rule, she says, was the dealmaker. “No estimates that balloon. The price on the phone is the price on the invoice. I don’t have to negotiate with myself about whether to pad a bill.” Sofia runs a lean operation, two vans, mostly residential with some small commercial work for Nashville’s growing restaurant scene. She answers her own phones until 10 p.m., and the live-person coverage after that goes to Threshold Group’s overnight desk. “I wanted my customers to always reach a human,” she says. “Even when I’m sleeping, someone real picks up.”
Riya M. – Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
Riya spent a decade as an IT project manager before a layoff forced her to reconsider everything. She’d always been handy, grew up helping her father rekey the locks on his rental properties, and figured she could learn the trade properly if she found the right system. She investigated several franchise opportunities and kept finding the same problem: big promises, thin support, and guarantees that evaporated when you read the fine print. Dunmore’s 365-Day Done Right Promise was different. “It’s a full year, written on every invoice,” she says. “If my repair fails, I go back free. No arguments, no paperwork battles.” Riya launched in 2021, timing that meant building through supply chain chaos and learning to source Schlage and Medeco hardware from multiple distributors. She now covers the full Triangle area with four technicians, handles master key systems for several property management companies, and still personally verifies every technician’s background check and photo badge before they make their first solo run. “The name Dunmore means stronghold,” she says. “I take that seriously. My customers’ homes are their strongholds. My job is keeping the walls solid.”
Your Story Starts Here
We’re looking for owners who want to build something local and lasting, backed by systems that have worked since 2007. Call (910) 714-4287 to talk through territory availability, or request our info kit below and we’ll send the full picture, no obligation.
Written by Perry Osgood, Owner & Lead Technician at Dunmore Locksmith, serving customers since 2007 as part of the Threshold Group family of independent local locksmith businesses.