Iso mentor. Who's making money with on site laundry?

[Gary Abner]

I have a fourplex in Michigan.  It has a laundry room that is set up for four washers and four dryers on natural gas but not populated with machines.

it serves 16 units in a very isolated rural community.  

I'm looking for someone with experience in this area.  I am entertaining alternate uses for the space.

thank you.

Gary

[Nathan Gesner]

If the hookups already exist, you should take advantage of it. A coin-op washer and dryer can cost you $2,000 per set. You need to consider how many loads your tenants would run per month to estimate your income. Deduct your cost of utilities. What's left is your profit, but you have to pay for the machines first. It will likely take a couple of years before they pay for themselves and produce a profit and that assumes low maintenance costs. On the other hand, having an on-site facility may also enable you to increase rent rates and reduce vacancy, so the payoff could be much faster. On the other hand, you may have increased utility use with lighting or security cameras. It can be profitable but it takes some up-front money and comes with its own set of problems. I would start by talking to the renters to gauge interest before crunching the numbers and moving forward.

You could also convert the space into indoor storage. Fairly inexpensive, little/no maintenance costs, and it will bring in some additional revenue at even $25 - $50 per month. Not all 16 units would want storage space, so maybe chop it into eight storage units?