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O Canada?<br />
Will this wash succeed?<br />
Hey everyone! I have an opportunity<br />
car wash (4 vacuums) however, I need<br />
Site fundamentals:<br />
to take over a car wash that has been<br />
closed for less than 1 year. The landlord<br />
operated it for 3 years and decided he<br />
no longer wanted to be an operator. I<br />
scouted the location and left a note to<br />
get in contact with this landlord. The<br />
plan is to sign a long-term lease (10-20<br />
years) and retool the 6 bay self-serve<br />
some guidance with how to negotiate<br />
the starting lease price. We have<br />
already agreed to an abated rent for 12<br />
months, which is awesome! The total<br />
lot size is 12,000 SQ/F and the building<br />
size is 4100 SQ/F. Do car wash leases<br />
go by $/sqf or is there another formula<br />
to determine a starting rate?<br />
• Key demographics (borderline)<br />
• Traffic count (poor)<br />
• Competition (excellent)<br />
• Site visibility (great)<br />
• Site accessibility (good)<br />
• Retail draw (good)<br />
I look forward to your input on this! -<br />
TRISTAVENDRYES<br />
Competition....excellent (meaning there aren’t other<br />
washes close by?<br />
Lease property........<br />
This would be a “no” deal! Just on the first two I<br />
would pass on it. Add that it’s a lease then for sure it’s<br />
a “no thank you.”<br />
Why did he decide he didn’t want to be an operator<br />
anymore? Maybe income wasn’t worth the work due to<br />
the factors you listed above. 12 months free rent?<br />
Sounds like a poor location. - RFREEMAN<br />
The building is perpendicular to the road, the bays are<br />
pull in/back out, and it’s not eye-catching in any way.<br />
Looks like if the customer does choose to use the place,<br />
it’s going to be a pain to use.<br />
I’d recommend passing. - DAN KAMSICKAS<br />
Competition....excellent (meaning there aren’t other<br />
washes close by????)<br />
This means little competition- nearest car wash is<br />
20-minute drive away<br />
Lease property........<br />
The demographic report does not account for the<br />
military base (thousands of people as their address is<br />
not registered to the city)<br />
Why did he decide he didn’t want to be an operator<br />
anymore? Maybe income wasn’t worth the work due to<br />
the factors you listed above. 12 months free rent?<br />
Car washes are not for everyone, he learned this<br />
quickly. I am taking it over for free, I just need some<br />
insight on how to make an offer for the monthly lease as<br />
I don’t want to overshoot it.<br />
- TRISTAVENDRYES<br />
You said there is excellent competition, what does that<br />
mean? People want convenience. What if you did get<br />
busy during a rush part of the season, how is anyone supposed<br />
to wait on a bay? Ask yourself if you would pull<br />
in and sit behind somebody waiting to pull out. Sounds<br />
like an accident waiting to happen. Listen to the advice<br />
above. Just the layout of that building is a “No” and a lease<br />
in a small town is a hard “no.” I bought my first wash in a<br />
small town and if I had a lease on it, I wouldn’t make any<br />
profit. There is a reason that place isn’t open. If it were<br />
making money, I promise the guy wouldn’t be so eager to<br />
give away 12 months of rent. How much money needs to<br />
be put back in this place ? Does any of the equipment operate?<br />
How much was this place generating 3 years ago?<br />
LOTS of questions - TRAVELER17<br />
Folks, some of the points are valid, however I would<br />
not be so negative on the opportunity. It’s like buying<br />
a house, everything is overpriced until you settle on a<br />
fair price.<br />
In this case, maybe the landlord will make the rent<br />
a small amount with an option to buy the place in the<br />
future and forgo the rent entirely until the renovations<br />
are covered. There is more than one way to look at a<br />
potential deal if the location is good. Hard to evaluate<br />
a place remotely as it takes eyeballs on the place to see<br />
the true potential or lack thereof. I recall a wash I made<br />
an offer to purchase after visiting the site for several<br />
days for a few hours to see how the place looked with<br />
customers. If one just looked at Google demographic<br />
data, you would have passed on the place because the<br />
town was under 2000 people. The wash was on a major<br />
road which changed the picture entirely. - ROZ<br />
Yes. Pull in/back out is a pain. Perpendicular to the road<br />
usually signifies a narrow lot which further complicates<br />
the traffic flow on site. I can think of 4 washes like that<br />
built around here during the boom of the 90s and everyone<br />
had multiple owners over the years that were<br />
convinced they got a sweet deal on it so they could for<br />
certain make a go of it. Everyone eventually failed and<br />
the sites were bulldozed. - DAN KAMSICKAS<br />
Don’t put yourself on the hook for 10 years. Get:<br />
A. 2-year lease with lots of options<br />
B. Right of First Refusal.<br />
C. Try to get an option to buy. - EARL WEISS<br />
There is some validity to Dan’s observations. I own a<br />
“Canadian Style” self service location. We converted the<br />
place to a self storage location as the location was not<br />
great. The benefit of that style is that wind will not blow<br />
through the bays, so they do not get as cold in the wintertime.<br />
We also have garage doors on each bay that we<br />
closed prior to a snowstorm.<br />
I would still kick the tires on the place. The real reason<br />
the place closed may be due to competition nearby.<br />
In our case an Exxon station was built that has two IBA<br />
(TF and SC) which is what people want. They get a discount<br />
on gas with a wash so most people moved away<br />
from self washing their cars. - ROZ<br />
Silver lining- If conventional operations don’t work it<br />
would be an easy site to convert to gated wash.<br />
Have one (buy used) paystation with a fixed price<br />
($10) and entry gate. Have one exit gate. Everything behind<br />
the gate is included in the entry price. The pull-inback-out<br />
bays would reduce the undesirable customers<br />
at a gated wash which are big vehicles or trailers. I’d give<br />
it a go with a short-term lease with options to extend<br />
if it worked. Could probably do this conversion with a<br />
used paystation for 15K Advantages- reduces theft concerns<br />
(all money is at the gate near the road) and simplifies<br />
money collection. Easy to run if it works. - GREG PACK<br />
Thanks for your insight. The location has a lot of traffic,<br />
and only 1 other operational self serve car wash that is<br />
20 minutes away. I don’t want to own this land and that<br />
is why I connected with the landlord of the property to<br />
negotiate a long-term lease to get the car wash business<br />
for free. He has already agreed to this and I will have the<br />
rights to the business. Good idea for the winter as this<br />
is a hurdle I will need to tackle since it is close to Ottawa-<br />
(winters are brutal). My next step is meeting with<br />
a distributor to see what would work best for the lot.<br />
We can constantly go over as to why the previous operator<br />
failed, but once someone knows what they are<br />
doing and cares about the business it will be successful.<br />
That is what I plan to do… I have a structure and strategy<br />
where I am already winning by not having to buy the<br />
business outright, not paying rent for 1 whole year to<br />
cover the costs of re-tooling the equipment.<br />
I live in Toronto and there are plenty of car washes<br />
that are EXTREMELY successful and have terrible traffic<br />
control and people will still come and use them. I am<br />
also looking for a mentor in this space so please let me<br />
know if you are willing to share any additional knowledge<br />
by connecting via email or phone. - TRISTAVENDRYES<br />
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