What to do with an old SS Wash?

[LAF]

I am seeking the advice from experienced SS owners. I have been reading the forums, and trying to learn everything I can. I am purchasing a piece of real estate in a well populated town with 50k population in a 3 mile radius, good drive by traffic, and tough city regulations regarding adding new facilities in the area. I am in the real estate business and the purchase makes sense on the other real estate income and the value of the land. I will probably redevelop it in the future. In the meantime I am getting a very old 5 bay SS with very old equipment on a relatively small lot. The hot water and water softener has been broken for more than 10 years. It is still bringing in about $50K a year in revenue, & the current owner is tired, which is why he wants to sell. Current washes are $1 for 2.5minutes (cash only) and ½ the vacuums are broken. The Bays are only 22’L x 15’ W (high ceilings). I am trying to get a plan together for what to do with this property. I am too busy to get there everyday and take care of it myself. Do I upgrade the bays to better SS? Is there and IBA that can fit into this small of a bay? I am not opposed to hiring someone to help, nor am I opposed to investing in the Car Wash, if it makes sense right away. I would love some input.

 

[mac]

Well you came to the right place for advice. Here's my .02 worth. Seeing as how the wash is old, a lot of the equipment doesn't work, the owner has let it go to the weeds, you can't get there every day, and if you did you would most likely be hopelessly lost and confused. And please don't take that as a slam. I have been doing what you are looking at for many years. There are also other things going against you on this. First the number of good reputable sales and service companies is very small. Many of the sales people, if not most, simply can not be trusted. And from your description of the place, I would not try to "get things going". It would be one thing after another. To redo a five bay with decent equipment, with vacs, water treatment, and vending, you would be looking at somewhere north of $70K, and it could hit 100. Where are you located?

 

[LAF]

Colorado, Denver Metro area. $70-100K sounds reasonable. Especially if it buys me the lack of repair headaches.

 

[Sequoia]

Is the $50k/yr Gross?

How many competitors are there within 10 miles? What is the price charged by nearest competitors and how does it compare with this wash?

Are you mechanically handy and do you like to do that sort of work? And if you devoted significant time to whip this into shape, do you have other business that would suffer?

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Is the lot is big enough for adding parking spaces?
If so I would trash all the equipment in the eqp. room, bays and vacs.
Add a door from eqp. room to bays.
I would take down the dividing bay walls add front and rear retractable bay doors, heat and air conditioning, etc.
Lease it for an auto related business such as repair shop, dent repair or any business.
Less headaches

 

[LAF]

I am not mechanically handy. Yes, I do have other real estate projects, but cashflow is always the issue. Real Estate is not a lot of consistency. The nearest competitor is 2.5 times as much for the first 4 minutes, about 1 mile away and a very similar wash. Other than that, there are about 6 in a 3 mile radius- two of those are full service tunnels about 3 miles away. New apartments going up across the street. I am good at projects- so I feel that I can get it up and running, but I am concerned about putting too much into it, as the site is a likely redevelopment, in 5 years. The daily running of it is what I keep reading about, and I am nervous of the time/energy commitment. I live pretty close by, and can get there pretty regularly, but realistically to actually clean bays, and fix items is not realistic.

 

[Kramerwv]

Maybe an opportunity for a partner. Someone with different strengths than yours or can provide sweat equity and time that you don’t have.

 

[Rfreeman]

LAF

Sounds like you are going to need a partner or hire someone for the daily part of this because even if you drop the 70 to 100K to revamp the place you will still have breakdowns and repairs why....because people dont care and are always tearing things up. As far as daily at the very minimum you need someon to take out the trash and keep the lot clean but there will be breakdowns even with new equipment. So in summary, I would look to hire someone part time or bring in a partner...if this is a real estate play then maybe bring in a partner to share in the cash flow of the car wash i.e. business only partner but with no equity in the re so when you do sell your good.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Greg Pack]

The five year demo timeline is a concern for me to heavily invest. You could probably pay a company 10K to get the place in much better shape.

Maybe look for a current employee or associate and offer to rent to them for 25% of gross revenues.

Upload some pictures- we love to help other people spend their money!

 

[mac]

Greg I have jumped into 20 year old crap that was not maintained. Think of it as the high maintenance blond in the bar. You'll keep throwing money at her and she still won'y be happy.

 

[Dudley2customkraft@gmail]

I work for. Company we build new equipment and refurbish old equipment-- i just redurbished a 27 year old 8 bay ss rebuilt all.pumps rebuilt hydrominders and and all new coin acceptors all.new hoses and replaced 6 wands and reworked vacs for 17 k-- just gotta find a trust worth company in your area-- we are based out of Arkansas

 

[soonermajic]

I work for. Company we build new equipment and refurbish old equipment-- i just redurbished a 27 year old 8 bay ss rebuilt all.pumps rebuilt hydrominders and and all new coin acceptors all.new hoses and replaced 6 wands and reworked vacs for 17 k-- just gotta find a trust worth company in your area-- we are based out of Arkansas

Good idea

 

[LAF]

Does anyone know of a company like this in Colorado?

 

[getnbusy]

I wouldn't spend too awful much if redevelop was the master plan, but I would pay somebody to get it all working. Raise the price to 2.25 in bay and 1.25 on the vacs, give a little bit more time, throw on some "real estate paint" lol and let er bump. Milk that jesse for every quarter you can get. I mean gee whiz its got 50k in income now. Throw 10k at it and see if you can get 70k out of it. In 4 years that's 280 in income. I would at least try

 

[Mrs.autowash]

Does anyone know of a company like this in Colorado?

I’m in Denver and could probably offer some advice. We know a few of the vendors in the area.