Investing in a franchise. What are your thoughts?

I'm currently working and hope to build up capital in the coming years. I figured, I would rather finance a franchise opposed to a house. I mean at least a franchise can help pay for itself over time.

I know there are a lot of variables to take into account, mainly initial capital, management, and the type of franchise itself. Well for starters, I would probably try to get a partner and take out a loan after I've built up the minimum liquid assets in order to buy the franchise.

Without going into too much detail. I want to hear your thoughts. Do you have recommendations? Know of people that did it before? How did it go? If it helps, I'm looking at Tim Hortons and McDonald's. So investments between 500k to 1.3M.