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Selling a Self Serve Car Wash

T

Tpoppa

Member
For those of you who have sold a Car Wash or any business for that matter. I am curious how you went about it.

Did you use a real estate agent or a business broker? How did you get the most exposure for your business? What industry specific sites are you aware of?

I am planning to use Cragislist and speaking to my chemical vendor as he has lots of local contacts in the industry. What better ideas do you have?
 
I sold it myself with classified ads to get the contacts. If you have never sold real estate/businesses, you might want to use a real estate agent, or at the least go to an attorney and find out what you need to do and have them draw up the paperwork.
 
Sales

You have a need to attract a buyer, and once a deal is struck you will need a contract to memorialize it.

Resources to attract a buyer might include:

http://www.bizbuysell.com/
http://www.loopnet.com/

and, in California:

http://www.bizben.com

Regarding a contract, I write my own, but I have a lot of experience doing that plus some templates to work with. If you are not comfortable with doing that, you can reach agreement on the major points (price, terms, etc.) and then have a real estate attorney draw up and appropriate purchase agreement.
 
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Is the business distressed? By distressed, I mean losing money, breaking even or profitable but with a measurable downward trend in sales over the last several years. If so, forget about trying to sell by owner.

If the business is healthy or growing, you will want to extract a premium. If you want to sell in a hurry, I would hire professionals to assist you. If you are in no rush, by all means, sell by owner.

Regardless of the approach, I would begin by determining the price you would like to obtain for the business and retaining an attorney with real estate experience.

Once you have an idea about price and the legal requirements and possible tax implications of selling a business, you will be better prepared to market the offering.
 
It's not a distressed business. It's profitable and has seen good growth over the last 3 years. I have my asking price in mind. What I'm interested in are the ways that others have marketed similiar businesses.

If it comes to it, I will go through a business broker. But if their are ways to avoid brokerage fees, I'd like to avoid them :)
 
Tpoppa said:
It's not a distressed business. It's profitable and has seen good growth over the last 3 years. I have my asking price in mind. What I'm interested in are the ways that others have marketed similiar businesses.

If it comes to it, I will go through a business broker. But if their are ways to avoid brokerage fees, I'd like to avoid them :)
Click to expand...

Other operators in the area first and foremost.....
 
In most areas the local car wash owners are a little like the old wives club. If you tell your chemical supplier and equipment guy (if they are not one in the same) the word will spread fast. If you want to sell quickly you probably will have to go to a broker. If you are willing to wait a while, word of mouth should do. As others have stated, once you are in the process make sure you work with a real estate broker or real estate lawyer to draw up and execute the paperwork.
 
Any broker may in fact earn their commission. If they get 5% and you get 5% more than what you want what did it cost you.

Without a broker you could try your local Car Wash Association, and chamber of commerce.

Whether or not real estate is involved makes a huge difference in how the deal is layed out and may have tax ramifications for you and the Buyer. (Capital gains versus ordinary income, transfer taxes, recapture of capital gains etc. If Real estate is involved perhaps the deal should be bifurcated, perhaps not.

Once you agree on price let the accountants and lawyers work out the details.
 
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