Looking at buying local car wash

[TNCraig]

The car wash I have in mind is from the 70s and ran down. All 4 self serve bays work, including an old D&S 5000 automatic. It’s in rough shape and I’m currently getting quotes to get it looking good again. They’re asking $80k currently, but the electric is outdated, roof will need replaced, along with concrete work(only in front of the bays at first to save costs). The owner has informed me that all pumps, motors, etc are rebuilt/refurbished, only replacing when absolutely necessary.

He estimated that he gets around $2500-3500 in revenue monthly, accepting quarters only. This is a small town with a population around 1800 and a Main Street that has around 2400 VPD. I’m not trying to get rich here by no means. I just want to restore an old car wash in my hometown. With all of this being said. What would you absolutely replace first as far as equipment goes? The bays are fairly small so how would I go about adding things such as tire cleaner, triple foam, or an air dryer? What would you prioritize. Pictures included to give an idea of current pricing and condition(card reader doesn’t work for IBA, thanks in advance

 

[Blanco]

Even if they gave me that for free I would not take it. A tiny town and a wash that needs probably close to 750K put into if not more is not going to have a good outcome and ROI.

 

[water guy]

Where is this located?

 

[TNCraig]

Washworld quoted me $200,000 to redo all four self serves with new equipment and install heated concrete in front of the bays. I could install a new Washworld razor edge AIB for an additional $250k, installation included and this would still have me at less than $500k with all new equipment. So where did your $750k estimate count for?

 

[TNCraig]

Where is this located?

I’ll include location after I finish the deal

 

[Dan kamsickas]

Washworld quoted me $200,000 to redo all four self serves with new equipment and install heated concrete in front of the bays. I could install a new Washworld razor edge AIB for an additional $250k, installation included and this would still have me at less than $500k with all new equipment. So where did your $750k estimate count for?

The concrete problem in front of the bays is because some genius poured over existing. I would bet that quite a bit would have to be taken out to make that correct. The concrete in the bays is a huge tripping risk. New metal roof. Paint. Signage, lighting. Add cc to vacuums. You're easily at $750K.

 

[Blanco]

Washworld quoted me $200,000 to redo all four self serves with new equipment and install heated concrete in front of the bays. I could install a new Washworld razor edge AIB for an additional $250k, installation included and this would still have me at less than $500k with all new equipment. So where did your $750k estimate count for?

500k and you haven’t even touch the building, roof, concrete in bays, parking lot, support equipment, change machine, softners, road sign, lighting, camera system, and a whole lot more. I can go on for two more paragraphs. Starting to sound more like a million to me.

My estimate came from my experience in doing this multiple times.

The numbers you need to worry about though is the tiny town with only 1800 people and 2400 vpd.

Ever thought to consider why that place is in the shape it is and so run down?

Unless your a multi millionaire and your doing this as a hobby there’s no way to justify spending that kind of money because you will never make it back let alone a profit in that tiny town.

Good luck.

 

[Keno]

I’ll include location after I finish the deal

No one is going to steal this deal from you, in fact many industry vets are telling you to run away, you do you though

 

[TNCraig]

The concrete problem in front of the bays is because some genius poured over existing. I would bet that quite a bit would have to be taken out to make that correct. The concrete in the bays is a huge tripping risk. New metal roof. Paint. Signage, lighting. Add cc to vacuums. You're easily

No one is going to steal this deal from you, in fact many industry vets are telling you to run away, you do you though

Doesn’t happen until it happens I was also just asking for advice on what to target first and these “vets” are saying this is a $750k-$1million project… this is in Missouri, not California

 

[water guy]

Ask YouTube

 

[TNCraig]

500k and you haven’t even touch the building, roof, concrete in bays, parking lot, support equipment, change machine, softners, road sign, lighting, camera system, and a whole lot more. I can go on for two more paragraphs. Starting to sound more like a million to me.

My estimate came from my experience in doing this multiple times.

The numbers you need to worry about though is the tiny town with only 1800 people and 2400 vpd.

Ever thought to consider why that place is in the shape it is and so run down?

Unless your a multi millionaire and your doing this as a hobby there’s no way to justify spending that kind of money because you will never make it back let alone a profit in that tiny town.

Good luck.

What I listed from washworld are not my plans, I just wanted an idea. I’m getting quotes for concrete replacement in-front of all bays and patchwork for the cracks in the bays, updated electrical, new bay equipment for the self serves, paint(I’ll do myself), and a new tin roof.

Roof- $5,500 to $7000 already painted before
install(depending on if I remove myself)

Electrical - $6500 to $8,000 depending on what all extra work I want done

Painting will probably run around $1-2,000 after it’s all said and done

Waiting on the quote for the concrete, but based on what we planned on doing for now, it’s going to run around $12,000. Which will be cutting out 100sqft in front of each bay to fix the lip going in/out of the bays and the slopes.

So $30k for general repairs(estimated), then $40k for bay upgrades(which is way overestimated from what I have down so far).

I thought this thread would be a little more realistic, but it seems as though everyone tears down the car washes they buy and start over lmao.

 

[Blanco]

No we just don’t buy shit property and shit buildings that are 60 years old in a town of 1800 but yup you’re right. We’re all a bunch of dumbasses who have never done this before. You’re the genius who knows everything asking genius category questions like WhAt Do I Do FiRsT?

 

[eckert16]

That is a small town. Check with Buchannan's and get familiar with the owner, you'll likely spend some money there. The SplishSplash 10 miles away doesn't seem to have had much traffic, you might want to consider talking with the owner to see how much his D&S5000 was being used before it shut down, to get a gauge on local demand from a larger town.

 

[TNCraig]

No we just don’t buy shit property and shit buildings that are 60 years old in a town of 1800 but yup you’re right. We’re all a bunch of dumbasses who have never done this before. You’re the genius who knows everything asking genius category questions like WhAt Do I Do FiRsT?

Lmao I asked for opinions on what EVERYONE would do first. I already have my own opinion, what’s wrong asking for others. I haven’t received one relevant answer to my question, have I? Just responding with “yup that’ll take $750k to $1million just to get it going right” is ignorant..

That is a small town. Check with Buchannan's and get familiar with the owner, you'll likely spend some money there. The SplishSplash 10 miles away doesn't seem to have had much traffic, you might want to consider talking with the owner to see how much his D&S5000 was being used before it shut down, to get a gauge on local demand from a larger town.

Only constructive comment so far, thank you. The D&S5000 is operational still. He’ll have an occasional hose need replacing, but not much other than that. This is a rebuilt automatic so it’s not the original in bay from when it was first installed. The owner of this car wash also owns both car washes in our neighboring town 13 miles away. It’s not called SplishSplash so I’m not familiar with where you’re referring to. This car wash probably gets a handful of cars through the automatic and another 10 or so in the self serves daily in its current condition. So I figured if I showed it some love and added other payment methods other than quarters it would bring in more that would atleast pay for the location and give me experience before moving on to something larger

 

[Keno]

Street View of 139 S Walnut St · Google Maps

139 S Walnut St, Steele, MO 63877

maps.app.goo.gl

runaway from this car wash, its a loser, time waster and $ waster too

 

[Dan kamsickas]

Oh, well. I guess our decades of experience mean nothing. There are plenty of "vets" on this forum and in the industry as a whole who do appreciate my advice and have made themselves money with it. I wish you well but you would not be the first to find a dump of a site, get stars in your eyes, ignore some really solid advice from well experienced "vets", and end up losing their tails. The trash heap of history of this industry is piled high with them.

Here's another piece of advice: If the seller is estimating their monthly revenue, they're lying. The only thing you can believe is 3 years worth of tax returns.

 

[TNCraig]

Oh, well. I guess our decades of experience mean nothing. There are plenty of "vets" on this forum and in the industry as a whole who do appreciate my advice and have made themselves money with it. I wish you well but you would not be the first to find a dump of a site, get stars in your eyes, ignore some really solid advice from well experienced "vets", and end up losing their tails. The trash heap of history of this industry is piled high with them.

Here's another piece of advice: If the seller is estimating their monthly revenue, they're lying. The only thing you can believe is 3 years worth of tax returns.

I appreciate this advice as well and I don’t trust the seller one bit when it comes to his revenue estimates. I’m waiting on some renovation estimates to come in and basing my offer on that. I live here and people use this car wash frequently, even with its many problems. It definitely isn’t going to pull in crazy numbers, but I won’t lose money either if I stay within my budget.

Also, I’m not hating on constructive advice. What you gave helped, but when people estimate $750k-$1million just to make a functional carwash look good? Someone told me to go to YouTube and even the car wash gurus on there renovate places for $100k-200k in places like California where their prices are insane..

 

[sudnshine]

whoa- everything about this wash is frightening, from the revenue “estimate” to the equipment, location, condition, I mean everything. I’ve behold new washes and refurbished one- and everything I looked at was a disaster with lipstick on it. I only build new with a revenue model that makes sense at 70% revenue per D&S calculations. Nothing ever runs or works the way someone selling you wash equipment predicts. There are some marginal and some decent deals out there but they are few and far between. Most successful washes are never “on market”- they are known amongst the operators and sell privately and quietly. Best to build a new wash by the numbers- and learn without making a HUGE mistake.

 

[TNCraig]

whoa- everything about this wash is frightening, from the revenue “estimate” to the equipment, location, condition, I mean everything. I’ve behold new washes and refurbished one- and everything I looked at was a disaster with lipstick on it. I only build new with a revenue model that makes sense at 70% revenue per D&S calculations. Nothing ever runs or works the way someone selling you wash equipment predicts. There are some marginal and some decent deals out there but they are few and far between. Most successful washes are never “on market”- they are known amongst the operators and sell privately and quietly. Best to build a new wash by the numbers- and learn without making a HUGE mistake.

I can agree with this. My first thought was to build new, but with little experience in the field, this seemed like a good way to learn everything at a low entry cost. Only other option would be to work at one which isn’t the option from an income stance.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

I appreciate this advice as well and I don’t trust the seller one bit when it comes to his revenue estimates. I’m waiting on some renovation estimates to come in and basing my offer on that. I live here and people use this car wash frequently, even with its many problems. It definitely isn’t going to pull in crazy numbers, but I won’t lose money either if I stay within my budget.

Also, I’m not hating on constructive advice. What you gave helped, but when people estimate $750k-$1million just to make a functional carwash look good? Someone told me to go to YouTube and even the car wash gurus on there renovate places for $100k-200k in places like California where their prices are insane..

DO NOT BELIEVE THEM. They are completely full of crap. They are no more "car wash gurus" than I am Pope. Those "gurus" have convinced a lot of people to make business decisions that have caused them to lose everything. I know for a fact that several are leveraged up to their eyeballs(and beyond). Some that still have videos floating around are bankrupt. Here's a dose of reality: I get calls repeatedly from people who have listened to those "gurus", bought a wash, and quickly found out they didn't realize what they were getting into. I can assure you that any estimates you get you need to add at least 25% to so that you can cover all the unforeseen things that will come up.

As a manufacturer. I'm all about selling people new equipment. As several on this board can attest to I'm a filthy, rotten capitalist pig...............but I have to sleep at night. I'm not saying you absolutely won't make money with this site, but I am saying you really need to temper your expectations.