Looking at an old small Laundry mat, Maytag equip.

[Rougewave]

Hello from Texas,
This is my first post so be patient please.
I have been self employed for many years having recently sold our C Store last year.
I have been looking for a new venture and found a old, run down and shut down Laundry mat for sale in a small Texas town. It includes the land, a old home and the Mat. All of it needs work /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I have also been a real estate buyer and fixer upper for many years so I am fairly familiar with the amount of work I am about to jump into. I will be walking thru it this week to get a better idea of what it needs. My biggest concern is the Laundry equipment, washers and dryers (Old Maytag) and waterheater. I think I counted about 16 yellow dryers and about the same yellow top load washers. I am quite good with tools but have never touched a washer or dryer, are they hard to work on yourself ? Are the old washers and dryers worth fixing? Any rough ideas on the cost of new equipment? if so what brand. Your opinions are welcome please.......Thank you.

[Rougewave]

Thanks...

[petefritz]

I would say most of that equipment is worthless, at least to anyone trying to run a good store.
Read the posts here, retooling a store would run about $80-100 per sq ft.

[Rougewave]

Placed a (low) offer yesterday, I will be throwing away everything and replacing it with new along with a complete remodel.

[Harv]

Just curious -- have you checked to see if there's really a market for self-service laundry in that area?

I'd hate to spend the time and money rebuilding, only to find out there was a reason it was shut down in the first place. How long has it been sitting there? Maybe you can dig up some old water records and figure out what kind of business it was doing. Talk to the locals; maybe it has a story. Are there any other mats in town?

Let us know what you find out.

[Rougewave]

Harv,
My homework tells me it "should" work /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif My total capital outlay will be about 100K. With that in mind the cash flow does not need to be like a big city mat. Plus there is a little efficenty apt or office to throw off extra income. No mat in town........yet.

[Harv]

Since I haven't actually run a mat myself yet, I'm still full of dumb questions...

If there is no other mat in town, how do you determine the size of your market? I guess I'm thinking of that saying -- "with a new laundromat you don't create customers, you only steal them from somebody else."

I only ask so that I can learn. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[Rougewave]

Harv,
I thrive on new and challenging things so this is what I enjoy. Since I am self employed I find myself looking at all kinds of business opportunities that come to my attention. I am constantly reading and doing market research in our small surrounding towns. My gut business instinct (plus talking to quite a few people, grass roots homework) tells me the need is present in the town. I will be getting a 20 yr. loan @ 5% with a 3 year balloon, the note will be $660 per month. The whole point to this is I only do deals that give me a wide margin for error.......that basically means low cost deals that I fix up and create value. This is just my way of doing things, its not for everyone.
As a example, 1 1/2 yrs ago I bought a shopping center in town for 485K. It is about 12000 sq. ft. and only had 1 tenant. It needed tons of work /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I put zero of my own money into it(outside of the downpayment), I had new tenants do all the work at their cost and rebated their costs back to them at 1/2 half rent till they recoup their money then its goes to full rent. I think I have just sold it for 1.4 mil.....again I say this only to show that looking outside the box can be rewarding. BTW I have never used a real estate agent or a business broker for any of the 30 or so deals I have done. Also I barely graduated from high school and never attended college so I am not that sharp /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Harv]

<font color="blue"> I barely graduated from high school and never attended college so I am not that sharp </font color>

Not that sharp, eh? Sounds like you graduated from the School Of Hard Knocks with honors. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

I'll be following your laundromat venture with great interest. Good luck!