Laundromat with leased machines

[Chris Puglisi]

Hello!

I have been looking to purchase a laundromat for almost a year now. I just had one come up that is about 20 minutes from me for $26k. Pretty small with only about 25 machines split between washers and dryers. The reported income is showing about a break even. Give or take a few hundred dollars month to month. The lease is $2,000 plus utilities which are about $650 a month. This in in Connecticut. I am trying not to be picky but starting to really get desperate in finding something but also don’t want to buy something bad. There is a 5 year lease with 2 five year options. The kicker here is that I will not own the machines and they are actually part of the $2,000/month rent, but I am responsible for repair. Also, in a dense residential neighborhood so only street parking.

Honestly as I write this I am taking myself out of it. I guess positives are that is is located where a lot of university (Yale) student and staff live and the neighborhood is pretty nice. It is also fairly clean and machines seems to be in decent shape. I think it would be a great store to put auto locks on and run semi absentee. There is someone running WDF that pays $500 month plus they pay to use the machines.

Personally, I think this should probably fall into one of the “Free” laundromats but I do think it has potential. I guess the big thing that is holding me up is the lease of the machines. Any thoughts? I am going to try and see if the current owner as talked to the landlord or if I am able to and see if I would be able to put new machines in if I wanted to. Sorry for the long post. Any information/advise will help. I don’t want to let my urgency to buy my first cloud my judgement.

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