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Buying second car wash near my first

Green_As_a_Gourd

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Hello,

I bought a 3 bay ss about 6 months ago and it is my first time wading into this world. So far so good, wash is doing fine(with a lot of reading this forum and asking questions). The issue I am facing now is that there is a 4 bay ss that has been closed for many years about 5 miles to the west that just got a for sale sign put on it. The building is in decent shape but the booms and vacuums and who knows what else are all shot. Haven't seen the pump room yet. He is asking 21,000 for the property which is at a fairly busy intersection(busy for my area anyway).

My wash is about 5 miles west of a city of about 55k people and there are two 4 bay ss on my side of the city limits. We don't really compete with each other just based on how the traffic flows(most traffic is going east/west and those washes are on the north west side. The people using those washes would just go to the next closest wash in the city if they wanted to use a different one and there are several to choose from.

The closed wash is another 5 miles west of mine and the next wash to the west is another 8 miles down the road. So to the east there is a wash 5 miles away, to the west the next open wash is 13 miles away. Right now I am for sure getting some people that live closer to the closed down wash then they live to my wash but I really have no clue how many. If someone comes in at that low price point and revamps the wash I will lose some business. But if I buy it myself and revamp it I have no clue as to how many additional people I would be pulling in. The people that live closer to that wash will naturally go there but I would not be gaining their business only keeping it at another location.

I know there is no way to truly figure this out but maybe some of you have had something similar. Also, for some background on the closed wash, I talked to the owner today. He said the wash was open and running when he bought it. He bought 8 washes from a family member who was retiring and tore them all down except this one because it was close to his house and he was going to close it in and make a garage out of it. He never ran any of his washes he owned he just bulldozed them and kept the property. He said he didn't want to deal with the headache of it all. He also told me me he has the equipment from the washes he tore down including several vacuums, pumps, motors etc. that I could have if I bought the property.

Any and all advice is much appreciated.
 

Ultra Shine

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Buy it, especially if you wash is doing well. Ie 10k per bay or close to it.
If you are going to lose business lose it to yourself.
the price is right and hopefully you can do most of the work to fix the place up.
 

Dan-Ark

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I don't see how you could go wrong, you'll probably get your money worth in equipment, at least have enough to keep both washes running for years if he salvaged 7 other washes. Unless this is in Arkansas, then you really don't want it. Just put me in touch with the seller LOL.
 

tdlconceptsllc

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Sign me up for that price. You better get on with the contract.
 

Rfreeman

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BUY IT for sure at that price you can't go wrong. Hopefully the equipment is in good shape or decent shape.
 

Axxlrod

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$21K United States dollars?

Really?

I've never heard of property so cheap.
 

Green_As_a_Gourd

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Thanks for the replies. It seems the consensus is that I should buy it. I am researching the details of the environmental license right now to see if there is some type of red flag hidden in there. If the state board is not an issue I will buy it.
 

GoBuckeyes

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Is it possible this property is contaminated? Possibly an old gas station site prior to the wash being built? Do a little research.


edit

That's funny...I swear that last post wasn't there when I typed this post. Anyway, better safe than sorry. It would be nice to take people at their word but you simply can't these days.
 
Etowah
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