New to business, needing advice

[keason]

I am looking at purchasing a 5 bay self service and 1 automatic wash in a rural community. There are a couple of automatics, but no known self service washes. The county has a population of approximately 36,000. The automatic is an old laserwash 4000 that would have to be replaced. I have access to a recently de-installed 4000 at a good deal.

I have no way of telling what the prior owner received as monthly income. The water bill has been averaging around $650 per month which equates to around 4500 gallons per month.

I am curious if any of you can take these figures and give me a best guess on the number of washes or an approximate gross amount the wash should receive based on the water bill/usage.

Any other advice would also be appreciated.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

I think the numbers are wrong on gallons, as 45 washes at 100g is 4500g
and at $650 you would need to charge over $14 a wash just to pay for water.

 

[guitarandy]

My guess is 800 cars per month + or -500.

 

[robert roman]

The information you provided doesn't seem to make sense.

$650 equates to 4,500 gallons of water a month.

A typical rate for water is roughly $3.00 per 1,000 gallons or $0.003 a gallon.

Your rate implies $0.14 a gallon.

We can't give you a good guess unless you get the facts straight.

 

[tobaccofarmer]

Have you or your/bank got property appraised yet? If the current owner does not have proper accounting then good luck to seller in ever getting any more than land value. The place is worth what the books/tax returns say its making so be very carefull on something like this, I would wait until property is appraised before any contract price is agreed on?

 

[Waxman]

It is unwise to buy any business without seeing the business tax returns for the last 3 years.

You can't just try and figure it out from a water bill.

No tax returns= no sale.