21 Y/O, Potential First Car Wash, No RE Experience

[Bill Hoffman]

Kid, the worst thing you can do to your future is get into the car wash business. No money in it anymore.

 

[MEP001]

Kid, the worst thing you can do to your future is get into the car wash business. No money in it anymore.

Not at all true. There are scenarios where it can be difficult to make a decent income, but if you know what you're doing it's about the easiest living you can make.

 

[Bill Hoffman]

There is no way in heck the car wash industry is ever close to easy. First is the weather. Then equipment break downs. Next is employees. Then customers with complaints about employees, a scratch they didn’t see before the was or their mirror falling off of their 20 year ole Benzo yo. Worst of all is the other brainless operators charging $5 or $8 dollars for an exterior wash with free self serve vacuums, $8 flex serve or better yet idiots charging $20 for monthly unlimited washing. You couldn’t get an exterior wash for $5 in 1975, now they are all over the place because of rich Chinese, Indians, Nigerians and Jews getting into the business and taking 10 years to figure out they made a bad investment, even if the wash is a small portion of their business. Dollar per square foot….Carwashes are a dud. Laundromats make more.

 

[traveler17]

Kid, the worst thing you can do to your future is get into the car wash business. No money in it anymore.

Most inaccurate statement ever made. I guess all these guys including myself are just here for the fun of it

 

[OurTown]

NOW this thread is getting interesting.

 

[traveler17]

There is no way in heck the car wash industry is ever close to easy. First is the weather. Then equipment break downs. Next is employees. Then customers with complaints about employees, a scratch they didn’t see before the was or their mirror falling off of their 20 year ole Benzo yo. Worst of all is the other brainless operators charging $5 or $8 dollars for an exterior wash with free self serve vacuums, $8 flex serve or better yet idiots charging $20 for monthly unlimited washing. You couldn’t get an exterior wash for $5 in 1975, now they are all over the place because of rich Chinese, Indians, Nigerians and Jews getting into the business and taking 10 years to figure out they made a bad investment, even if the wash is a small portion of their business. Dollar per square foot….Carwashes are a dud. Laundromats make more.

“Nigerians and Jews”.

 

[traveler17]

NOW this thread is getting interesting.

It’s friggin hilarious

 

[Bill Hoffman]

You must be in Montana

 

[traveler17]

There is no way in heck the car wash industry is ever close to easy. First is the weather. Then equipment break downs. Next is employees. Then customers with complaints about employees, a scratch they didn’t see before the was or their mirror falling off of their 20 year ole Benzo yo. Worst of all is the other brainless operators charging $5 or $8 dollars for an exterior wash with free self serve vacuums, $8 flex serve or better yet idiots charging $20 for monthly unlimited washing. You couldn’t get an exterior wash for $5 in 1975, now they are all over the place because of rich Chinese, Indians, Nigerians and Jews getting into the business and taking 10 years to figure out they made a bad investment, even if the wash is a small portion of their business. Dollar per square foot….Carwashes are a dud. Laundromats make more.

No one said it’s easy

You must be in Montana

Not even close, own 2 washes and make a great living. I’m arguing you saying no money in it. I’ll agree they ain’t always easy.

 

[Bill Hoffman]

No one said it’s easy

Not even close, own 2 washes and make a great living. I’m arguing you saying no money in it. I’ll agree they ain’t always easy.

 

[Bill Hoffman]

I’ve been in the business for over 30 years. I remember making 200k per site. This days are gone. Ask Ron Betts on the East Coast, all 23 of his sites went under from the $5 free vacuum frenzy.

 

[MEP001]

Kid, the worst thing you can do to your future is get into the car wash business. No money in it anymore.

I'm going to assume since you're unable to use quotes properly that you're new to internet forums. You're certainly new to this one.

Did you even read the thread? OP (means "the original poster") is asking about buying a self serve with an automatic bay. Your experience appears to be with tunnels, mainly full service? That's a completely different format from self serve. I'll have to assume you have no experience with that, so your advice is not relevant.

You complain about EEs (that's "express exteriors") with free vacuums taking away your business. Obviously they aren't brainless or they wouldn't invest millions on a format that loses money. Unless they're laundering money, but that's a different topic. So is it their fault that you don't know how to reformat your business to compete?

 

[Joswhaha]

Wow, this thing jumped the rails quickly! I’m about as pro America as anyone but I really feel like blaming rich foreign folks for an industry changing is not acceptable and a pretty toxic mindset. Investors regardless of race / nationality are looking for returns. An acceptable return is different for different people.

 

[Rfreeman]

Sounds like your blaming the industry based on declining results of your model. Funny how many of us here are ss operators and I know you won't find me complaining about the financial returns.

Sure I don't have 3, 4, or 5 million in a single site like these express guys but my return on equity and total return is more than acceptable.

Maybe you should look at your business model to make adjustments to compete better in today's market.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

So is it their fault that you don't know how to reformat your business to compete?

THIS!!! I'm about over a lot of older operators on the self serve side bitching they are not "doing the numbers they used to". It's amazing that if you can get them to send you pictures of their site, it's a dump. They haven't done any real improvements in decades. No credit card acceptance anywhere on site, same tired chemicals being put on as lean as possible, vacs that are beat to death(at least one hasn't worked in years), leaking booms hanging at weird angles, in bay signage that is faded and/or busted up, crappy inconsistant pressure, parking lot has more holes than a Michigan highway, poor lighting, etc. etc. etc. I had a well known former member of the car wash community(let's just say he was waaaaaay up high in the ICA) send me a meterbox door for repair. It had 3 of 9 buttons working, display out, leds not working, Sensortron rejecting a third of the coins, no graphics, and the functions written on door with a sharpie. When I emailed him a quote to repair the door he wasn't too thrilled. His exact quote which I will never forget "I'm really reluctant to put that kind of money into the site because it just doesn't do the business like it used to" My response was a simple "If this door is any indication of how the rest of the wash is maintained it's no wonder it's not doing the business" He, shockingly, didn't lose his mind on me and agreed to the repair cost (around $5-600ish) he still lost it to the bank a year or so later. The last of 6 washes he lost. I had a guy(an immigrant) who acquired 3 of them reach out to me for help getting them running. He's still running them 10+ years later and seems pretty happy with his investment.

 

[Eric H]

It's amazing that if you can get them to send you pictures of their site, it's a dump.

When I tell people outside of my community that I operate carwashes I can tell by the look on their faces what the condition of their local wash is like. It’s the same response as if I told them I own the local dive bar, not good. I take a lot of personal pride in my locations and I think it shows.
I’m glad to see renewed interest in the SS model. It’s probably too expensive to build a new SS but a old location with good traffic count can certainly be turned into a winner. Unfortunately, a lot of locations have been neglected too long to be saved.
The advancements in the past 20 years have been a life saver for me! High efficiency boilers, in bay bill acceptance, credit cards, and I’m still looking forward to new technologies.

 

[traveler17]

THIS!!! I'm about over a lot of older operators on the self serve side bitching they are not "doing the numbers they used to". It's amazing that if you can get them to send you pictures of their site, it's a dump. They haven't done any real improvements in decades. No credit card acceptance anywhere on site, same tired chemicals being put on as lean as possible, vacs that are beat to death(at least one hasn't worked in years), leaking booms hanging at weird angles, in bay signage that is faded and/or busted up, crappy inconsistant pressure, parking lot has more holes than a Michigan highway, poor lighting, etc. etc. etc. I had a well known former member of the car wash community(let's just say he was waaaaaay up high in the ICA) send me a meterbox door for repair. It had 3 of 9 buttons working, display out, leds not working, Sensortron rejecting a third of the coins, no graphics, and the functions written on door with a sharpie. When I emailed him a quote to repair the door he wasn't too thrilled. His exact quote which I will never forget "I'm really reluctant to put that kind of money into the site because it just doesn't do the business like it used to" My response was a simple "If this door is any indication of how the rest of the wash is maintained it's no wonder it's not doing the business" He, shockingly, didn't lose his mind on me and agreed to the repair cost (around $5-600ish) he still lost it to the bank a year or so later. The last of 6 washes he lost. I had a guy(an immigrant) who acquired 3 of them reach out to me for help getting them running. He's still running them 10+ years later and seems pretty happy with his investment.

You’re exactly right, people like this are bleeding it dry and not putting a dime back into it.

 

[Randy]

There is a reason why these self-serve car washes get run down into such a state of disrepair. It’s called “burn out” we are guilty to a certain point. How many craved up vacuums do you have to replace, how many pried open coin boxes do you have to repair, how many crowbarred bill validators do you have to replace, how many bay signs do you have to replace, how many times do you have a cleanup/remove graffiti from the buildings before you get burned out. Tuesday night one of the car washes got hit with graffiti, Wednesday night they tried to remove the power meter from one of the car washes and damaged the meter base so bad the power company pulled to power meter until we replace the meter base, same night different car wash they tried to pull the door off the equipment room, didn’t get in but ruined the door. These type of incidents wear on you so you do the absolute minimum when you go the car wash because you’ve got more to do at the next car wash. When we pull into one of the car washes it’s “Well what it going to be today”! I can understand why these self-serve car washes get run down.

Getting back to the original post. This guy is my mentor "investment joy car wash" on Youtube. He knows more about the car wash industry than anyone I know.

 

[MEP001]

THIS!!! I'm about over a lot of older operators on the self serve side bitching they are not "doing the numbers they used to". It's amazing that if you can get them to send you pictures of their site, it's a dump. They haven't done any real improvements in decades.

I go to San Antonio about once a month, sometimes have the time to stop in at a car wash and check it out. Some of them are like time capsules, nothing has been changed or updated since they were built in the late 70's or early 80's. The functions are the same; tire cleaner weaker than my pee with no air, foam brush as dry as shaving cream, sometimes no spot free, never hot water even though I can see the boiler vent on the roof. I've talked to a lot of them over my 30 year professional career, and they don't have a clue why they have no business. Then when I recommend a hyper concentrate and assure them it will save some money, they can't get past the fact that the bucket cost three times as much even though it will go five times as far.

 

[Randy]

I guess Anthonyk7261 and Zgoods must have gotten scared off as they haven’t been back.