Anybody Own a Car Wash?

Question

Curious.... local carwash for sale. Includes the lot. How would you value the lot?  Separate from the business?  Part of the business?  It is an older style , where people drive up and wash their cars themselves.  So, not a lot of infrastructure.  Seems like it would be fairly cheap to convert the lot to something else in the future.

Dave Carpenter · Answer

Christie, it sounds like while it’s a car wash, there’s not a ton of business value. What are the revenues on this self serve wash?

Keep in mind, if you keep it as a car wash biz, that revenue should cover costs of water, electricity, chemicals, etc as well as the building maintenance. With low revenue businesses it can be really hard to save for building expenses on top of variable costs.

As was mentioned earlier, if the land is a great location with high car counts you could consider repurposing it.

You also could explore updating the wash. What’s the demand for washes in the area? It’s usually a very local (3-5 mile radius) business so see what other washes are in that area. Could be an opportunity to grow the business itself.

Dan M. · Answer

Just a couple ideas see what other lots sold for. If you can find a vacant lot that's similar great if not just like an appraiser your going to have to add value if its built up or not. The zoning here is key, you can get the zoning from the municipality or likely look it up online.  You could do an analysis on the business, determine its specific worth, then "throw in the lot for free".

Does it have future value? Is it close to a highway? Is it zoned where a hotel or gas station would love to come in and put a location there? Is it big enough for either? Is there adequate parking if a deli went there? Ultimately if you plan to resell the lot you have to look at it in the eyes of the buyer, and what they would expect to pay comparative to other options.

If you want to just buy the business and run the business and make money that way you could add in the lot to that number for what you would purchase it for.