🎯 The business: you buy an existing laundromat from an owner who has stopped investing in it, modernize the machines and the payment system, and run it with part-time attendants. Cash flow you can inspect before you own it, financeable through the SBA, and semi-passive once the systems are in. The full game plan is in this section.

Renters without in-unit laundry, large families, and nearby businesses through a wash-and-fold service. A load runs $3 to $6 in the washer and $1.50 to $3 in the dryer. Wash-and-fold at $1.50 to $2.50 a pound is the growth lever most tired stores never pulled. The best locations are dense, renter-heavy, and within walking distance.

Before closing: sit in the store at different hours and count loads, read twelve months of water bills (water use is the number a seller cannot fake), and get the lease assigned with ten or more years. After closing: install card readers and an app, fix every broken machine or remove it, paint, light, cameras, and launch wash-and-fold with a sign in the window the first week.

A store grossing $20,000 a month typically spends 20 to 25 percent on utilities, 15 to 25 percent on rent, and $3,000 to $5,000 on attendants, leaving roughly $4,000 to $7,000 before the loan payment. Modernization usually lifts revenue 15 to 30 percent within a year. Wash-and-fold and a pickup route can add half again.

A business license, sales tax on services where applicable, water and sewer permits, ADA compliance (your problem the day you buy), and the lease assignment. Have an attorney review the asset purchase agreement, and an equipment tech inspect every machine before the price is final.

A water heater or a bank of dryers fails in month two. A seller who inflated revenue with cash you cannot audit; the water bills catch most of it. A landlord who will not extend. And a new competitor with new machines across the street, which is why you modernize first and fast.