Can anyone tell what a wash does by gallons of water used?

[lilb93]

I am a newbee looking at a all self serve 4 bays in a small town of 7000 people in Pa. Daughter has the wash for sale, Her father passed away 4 weeks ago. She has no books showing any purchases for chemicals or actual sales at the wash. Only thong she can find is the water usage of 255k gallons for a 1 year period. That seems really low to me, but then I dont know much about self service washes. Is there a chart or anything else that would show just an appx. sales total just by gallons. Thanks

 

[madscientist]

255k gallons in a year could be one car and a leaky sink.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

At a little over 20K per month, I wouldn't expect that it is doing much. Factor in that it is in PA, it could have weeped a good chunk of that through the winter.

 

[Randy]

That’s really hard call, kind of like shooting a missile at the moon, there are so many different variables that it would be hard to say what the revenue would be. The best advice I could give you would be to work a deal with the daughter and work or run the car wash for a couple of months, if it fits your life style and your price range go for it, if it doesn’t then you can walk away and you’ve learned something. A little more information would be nice, like how many bays is it, does it have an automatic, the overall condition of the property, what is the asking price? Etc.

 

[2Biz]

What is the bay start price and for how many minutes? As Randy Mentioned, how much is she asking? I have a 4 bay SS and use appr. the same amount of water. But as I.B. points out, a lot of that could be going down the drain from weep in the winter. There are a lot of variables to consider when trying to compare water consumption to revenue.

 

[robert roman]

“She has no books showing….purchases for chemicals or…..sales….she can find….water usage of 255k gallons for a 1 year period.”

There is no “look-up” table to convert water consumption into an estimate of income for price assessment purposes. IRS has a method to convert gallons but it requires information that you do not have.

There are ways to ponder income from water consumption but the error range is so large it makes the income approach to value meaningless.

Without income and expense statement, balance sheet, income tax statement and other information there is more investment risk.

Statement of risk is based on history. Without this, company is not worth much more than value of real estate and liquidation value of furniture, fixtures and equipment.

 

[lilb93]

Thanks for the reply's, it is a 4 bay with cat 310 pumps 5 Hp 3 phase motors belt driven. There is the normal pre soak COLD, Tire cleaner, Foaming brush, High pressure wash COLD ( which runs at 1050 PSI ). Rinse, Cold Wax, Spot free rinse low pressure. It is priced at 1.75 for 4 minutes. It takes Tokens and Quarters. Bill dispenser only dispenses tokens.
I think it needs a Hot water wash? Hot or warm presoak? I believe that the pressure should be higher (1450 PSI). The weep system is an air weep.
Asking price 89000.00 she will hold note for 5 years. with 10K down at 5 Percent.

 

[Ghetto Wash]

I run around $.12 per gallon of water used. I weep 20-30 days per year.

 

[2Biz]

I average about .14 cents per gallon in the non-weep season. That can easily drop by 60-70% in really cold weather. Your wash sounds a lot like mine. What brand is the pump stand?

You can't beat those terms. Most banks want 30% down and rates are usually higher for business loans.

 

[lilb93]

(I average about .14 cents per gallon in the non-weep season. That can easily drop by 60-70% in really cold weather. Your wash sounds a lot like mine. )
That would be your gross sale from Gallons Of Water??

 

[2Biz]

Yes...That's pretty close...Again that is when I'm not weeping water. If your going to try to base income off total gallons used for the year, you're going to come up way short. I'm in Southern Ohio....We started weeping water in November and we had days just last week under 36° where the weep ran. Using that calculation as a basis for income is not going to be very accurate.

 

[2Biz]

The weep system is an air weep.

OK...Just seen this! Do you know how this has worked out for the Previous Owner? You sure they don't weep water In the HP guns? How do they protect the FB's?

 

[Waxman]

I use hot water for hp wash, wax, and foamy brush. cold rinse. the customers like it and i feel hot water cleans the car better.