Advice on 5 Bay Purchase

[Dan kamsickas]

Bank

Are those scrub trees yours? How are people coming from the opposite direction going to realize a wash is there?

 

[Orionj316]

Are those scrub trees yours? How are people coming from the opposite direction going to realize a wash is there?

Looks like some but not all.

I was thinking of Placing a sign on 4x4's close to the hwy.

 

[MEP001]

There's not even room or a place for customers to pull through and turn around. The only hope would have been that open bay for trucks that tend to spend a lot, but they won't use it because they'll have to back out onto that road. No safe egress other than crossing a highway, poor traffic count, I see nothing but downsides and absolutely no upside to this wash. There are several other washes for sale in the vicinity with much better promise. Have you been watching InvestmentJoy or Car Wash Chronicles on YouTube?

You can of course do whatever you want, and you'll get help from this forum either way, but a sign on 4x4's on the highway is not the answer, and if someone builds on the corner across from the bank, you're absolutely screwed.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

There's not even room or a place for customers to pull through and turn around. The only hope would have been that open bay for trucks that tend to spend a lot, but they won't use it because they'll have to back out onto that road. No safe egress other than crossing a highway, poor traffic count, I see nothing but downsides and absolutely no upside to this wash. There are several other washes for sale in the vicinity with much better promise. Have you been watching InvestmentJoy or Car Wash Chronicles on YouTube?

You can of course do whatever you want, and you'll get help from this forum either way, but a sign on 4x4's on the highway is not the answer, and if someone builds on the corner across from the bank, you're absolutely screwed.

Beat me to my exact response. I strongly assume the reason this wash is abandoned is it's just a horrible location and site layout. The aerial view is damning.

 

[Orionj316]

Have you been watching InvestmentJoy or Car Wash Chronicles on YouTube?

You can of course do whatever you want, and you'll get help from this forum either way, but a sign on 4x4's on the highway is not the answer, and if someone builds on the corner across from the bank, you're absolutely screwed.

I don't recall if I noticed the car wash first and then started research or the other way around. Either way I have looked at their content mostly for how to make modifications and manage and less of how "easy it is" to run a wash.

As you see they never mentioned this forum and how beneficial it can be.

I do 100% agree that if something is built across from the bank my visibility goes down the drain to both directions of traffic.

I am assuming most car wash business is generated from "Hey there's a car wash and my car needs cleaning" and less of "I need to wash my car, where is the closest one to me"

I have friends that opened a restaurant in town and most of their marketing is done on FB and by word of mouth as they aren't on the main road either. Not sure how much marketing helps when opening up an old wash with poor visibility.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

I don't recall if I noticed the car wash first and then started research or the other way around. Either way I have looked at their content mostly for how to make modifications and manage and less of how "easy it is" to run a wash.

As you see they never mentioned this forum and how beneficial it can be.

I do 100% agree that if something is built across from the bank my visibility goes down the drain to both directions of traffic.

I am assuming most car wash business is generated from "Hey there's a car wash and my car needs cleaning" and less of "I need to wash my car, where is the closest one to me"

I have friends that opened a restaurant in town and most of their marketing is done on FB and by word of mouth as they aren't on the main road either. Not sure how much marketing helps when opening up an old wash with poor visibility.

You're looking at a 70k purchase price(not including any legal/accounting expenses). Conservatively, $100k in improvements and more likely closer to $125K or more looking at the lot and layout. The lot needs to be improved to provide for simpler ingress/egress. Ideally the vacuums should be out by the road to help draw attention. It's going to be at least 6 months before you wash a single car.

You seem keep going back toward hope and dreams but hard numbers, location, and initial expense makes this a hard no from me. If you take the plunge this forum will help you anyway we can. You're free to email or call me with questions. As I've openly stated before, I'm a filthy capitalist pig and will gladly take your money for 4 bays worth of equipment but I really think your odds of this being a for profit investment are not very good.

 

[Orionj316]

You seem keep going back toward hope and dreams but hard numbers, location, and initial expense makes this a hard no from me.

As I've said to others in this forum I really appreciate your input!

THB I'm leaning towards a no myself. I'm a numbers guy and as cool it would be to remodel this place and get it running I see traffic and visibility could be my biggest problem.

 

[MEP001]

I am assuming most car wash business is generated from "Hey there's a car wash and my car needs cleaning" and less of "I need to wash my car, where is the closest one to me"

That is changing. I get as many as 1500 people in a month getting directions to my wash from a Google search of "car wash near me."