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Purchase 4 Bay 3 self-serve 1 Touch free Car Wash in Southeastern US

M

Moweno

New member
Hello,

I am interested in a car wash near my house for sale with 4 bays, three self-serve and one touch free bay (laser wash 4000). I wanted to see what the group though about a few things.

1. My lawyer was wondering about getting a phase 1 (environmental study). Does any one do this? Will cost 10k+. Site has only every been a car wash
2. How to value Laser wash 4000. I see new similar systems run 175-250K (accurate?) and this one is 20 years old, though still working fine.

More details below:
Price: 675K (land is probably worth 200K or so). A little over 1/2 acre. The building is in good shape. 5 mins from my house.
2023 gross: 85K, net 30K. Now say more due to price increases.
Offer: Not sure, curious what people thought. Everything in working over, each bay has a vacuum system and there's a lot of tools. Plan to have him help me run it first years to get experience.

Thanks for any info and I can provide more details as needed.

JCK
 
Gross revenue sounds really low. typical gross income multiplier for a car wash business is 3 to 5 times gross. Your price is almost 8 times gross revenue. That's too high. Why is the revenue so low? A good touch free can gross that much in a few months of brisk business. You might want to dig into the financials a little bit more. A 20 year old laser wash 4000 is at the end of its lifetime and will need replacing soon. I read on this forum in another thread recently that that machine is also no longer factory supported which could be a problem especially for a new to the industry owner. Based on the numbers I'm not sure that a new touch free machine would be a worthwhile investment. A car wash business is a lot of labor and will be very stressful if you're struggling to make money at it. $30,000 net profit Isn't great.
 
If the property has only been a car wash I wouldn't worry about a phase 1 study. Car washes generally don't do anything that would be of concern. However, a lender may require it.

The laser 4000 is likely worth as much as it will ever be running at your site. They are solid machines but old technology. Once removed it is worth very little, probably 5K or so if you can find takers. After trying to sell two a few years ago I ended up giving them away in exchange for complete removal.

Price seems too high based on revenue. Does this wash have a lot of untapped potential? Is there high traffic in front of it? I don't mean to get personal but I don't think a lender is going to be too excited about this project unless you have plenty of net worth or equity in other properties to pledge.

BIG plus is it is close to your house, and that is worth paying a small premium if you're going to actively run it.
 
Post some pictures of the site and equipment. The price is too high. It happens. Owner thinks the site is worth more than actual numbers show. You can only go be verifiable numbers which IMHO would only be 3 years of tax returns.

Don't assume the self serve equipment is worth saving. I've seen far to many get hurt by that assumption. If the automatic is 20 years old the self serve equipment is going to be that old. It may very well be serviceable but it may not. I seen several that have been so field bastardized that it's not recognizable and there are several manufacturers that have gone out of business in the last two plus decades. Do the bays/vacuums have credit card acceptance? If not you could be looking at a couple thousand dollars and up depending on what system you go with and what it's going to take to install.
 
Islandwash said:
Location, location, location. Road Traffic count, future growth potential. 5-mile circle competition. Car washing is a business. Visit ICA show in VEGAS this weekend
Click to expand...
Thanks, I wish I could go to Vegas maybe next year. Traffic from DOT site is 10K / day. Local competition is several single bays built into gas stations. Good area, growing.
 
Greg Pack said:
If the property has only been a car wash I wouldn't worry about a phase 1 study. Car washes generally don't do anything that would be of concern. However, a lender may require it.

The laser 4000 is likely worth as much as it will ever be running at your site. They are solid machines but old technology. Once removed it is worth very little, probably 5K or so if you can find takers. After trying to sell two a few years ago I ended up giving them away in exchange for complete removal.

Price seems too high based on revenue. Does this wash have a lot of untapped potential? Is there high traffic in front of it? I don't mean to get personal but I don't think a lender is going to be too excited about this project unless you have plenty of net worth or equity in other properties to pledge.

BIG plus is it is close to your house, and that is worth paying a small premium if you're going to actively run it.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot, very helpful since phase 1 was going to cost me 10K plus. I wasn't sure if it was a standard practice or not. Traffic count is 10K/day. I do like the location. I've got the financing side squared away. The person selling it is going to help me for the first year then I'm actively running it. I'm thinking close to 500K given nice piece of land in good spot w/good zoning. Thanks a lot.
 
Dan kamsickas said:
Post some pictures of the site and equipment. The price is too high. It happens. Owner thinks the site is worth more than actual numbers show. You can only go be verifiable numbers which IMHO would only be 3 years of tax returns.

Don't assume the self serve equipment is worth saving. I've seen far to many get hurt by that assumption. If the automatic is 20 years old the self serve equipment is going to be that old. It may very well be serviceable but it may not. I seen several that have been so field bastardized that it's not recognizable and there are several manufacturers that have gone out of business in the last two plus decades. Do the bays/vacuums have credit card acceptance? If not you could be looking at a couple thousand dollars and up depending on what system you go with and what it's going to take to install.
Click to expand...
OK thanks, I'll get some pictures to post. All bays have credit card readers, but the vacuums and vending is all coin operated (there's a bill changer). Thanks again.
 
Super old Automatic & SS equipment greatly hurts the price. 8x gross & u ain't gonna make jack$hit! Based on revenue alaone, it's worth $320 tops! Minus a hit for dinosaur equipment is now $200!
A plus is location (good spot & close to home) now you're @ $300,000.
Owner has to know LW4000 is @ end of it's life & needs $200k upgrade.
 
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