Car Washes

[Royalfan5 2353]

There has been a significant proliferation of fancy tunnel car washes around me lately with more coming. Are car washes are really good business and I just didn’t realize it or is it a piece of some bigger real estate thing or what not?

[Sam Lin 3550]

Cash cow. Search YT for car wash business to learn more.

[RexWilson 1345]

Have an A1 day!

[mchookem 16320]

so you're saying there's a lot of meth dealing going on in your area, I see.

[WBT 20561]

[Incredulity 11646]

42 minutes ago, Royalfan5 said:

There has been a significant proliferation of fancy tunnel car washes around me lately with more coming. Are car washes are really good business and I just didn’t realize it or is it a piece of some bigger real estate thing or what

 

WSJ had an article a couple years ago about PE rolling up car wash companies, which per the article are highly fragmented.

I would guess that roll up activity has unleashed some organization with a boat load of capital to chase car wash market share.

[Your Mom 4805]

I’ve known a couple guys who owned car washes as a side business.  Both made a good money with it and both were dealing with  car wash bullshit all day, every day.  Broken equipment, polluted water drainage requirements and inspections, a constant rotating door of minimum wage employees not showing up, more broken equipment.  From what I could tell they both worked a lot harder than I ever care too.  

[Js1 85261]

[Viking 301]

The self storage bros have fully saturated the market so they've expanded to car washes.

[tx 3 putt 76863]

Money laundering 

[52-80 19142]

4 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

Money laundering 

hell, its in the name

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2731]

11 hours ago, Incredulity said:

 

WSJ had an article a couple years ago about PE rolling up car wash companies, which per the article are highly fragmented.

I would guess that roll up activity has unleashed some organization with a boat load of capital to chase car wash market share.

Our independent sponsor rolled up 38 across AZ and CO.    

[BabaYaga 15286]

12 hours ago, Your Mom said:

I’ve known a couple guys who owned car washes as a side business.  Both made a good money with it and both were dealing with  car wash bullshit all day, every day.  Broken equipment, polluted water drainage requirements and inspections, a constant rotating door of minimum wage employees not showing up, more broken equipment.  From what I could tell they both worked a lot harder than I ever care too.  

Heard the same - not as much fun and people expect them to be.  During the winter all the truck-bro's coming back from the lease with enough mud on them to clog a storm drain.  

If I was going to invest in a passive investment I'd look at long term storage facilities.  Even the small ones are almost always at capacity.  

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2731]

3 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

Heard the same - not as much fun and people expect them to be.  During the winter all the truck-bro's coming back from the lease with enough mud on them to clog a storm drain.  

If I was going to invest in a passive investment I'd look at long term storage facilities.  Even the small ones are almost always at capacity.  

Yeah, would love to have Boat/RV near a lake or retirement community.  

[BabaYaga 15286]

2 minutes ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

Yeah, would love to have Boat/RV near a lake or retirement community.  

Guy on our street is renting and has a pair of jet skis on a trailer.  Too wide for the carport.  Can't leave them in the driveway as the HOA is a bunch of a-holes.  Nothing around can take them.  Guy's desperate and the elasticity of his pricing and willingness to pay is through the roof.  Has a small business and would up trailering them to his office and locking them in the parking lot with cables and wheel locks.  

[Trey3216 15343]

14 hours ago, RexWilson said:

Have an A1 day!

[fattyflattie 4639]

On 8/17/2023 at 8:45 AM, BabaYaga said:

Guy on our street is renting and has a pair of jet skis on a trailer.  Too wide for the carport.  Can't leave them in the driveway as the HOA is a bunch of a-holes.  Nothing around can take them.  Guy's desperate and the elasticity of his pricing and willingness to pay is through the roof.  Has a small business and would up trailering them to his office and locking them in the parking lot with cables and wheel locks.  

I keep both a boat and an TT in one (when not hunting season).  The guy we use has 3 different lots all within 5 miles of each other.  650 units.  $175/per.  There probably 15 similar places within a 10 mile radius, actually, probably more than that. I called on 10 places when I was looking.  

[Nice Guy Eddie 13507]

On 8/17/2023 at 8:35 AM, BabaYaga said:

Heard the same - not as much fun and people expect them to be.  During the winter all the truck-bro's coming back from the lease with enough mud on them to clog a storm drain.  

If I was going to invest in a passive investment I'd look at long term storage facilities.  Even the small ones are almost always at capacity.  

They're only passive if your only work is logging onto your bank's website to see a dividend deposit into your account.

Instead of buying/owning a storage facility, it's much easier to buy stock in someone who does. If you have to spend a minute managing said facility, it's far from passive. And I'm not talking about the IRS definition but common sense definition.

[BabaYaga 15286]

4 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

They're only passive if your only work is logging onto your bank's website to see a dividend deposit into your account.

Instead of buying/owning a storage facility, it's much easier to buy stock in someone who does. If you have to spend a minute managing said facility, it's far from passive. And I'm not talking about the IRS definition but common sense definition.

Agreed - you can say the same for most investments, up to and not including owner occupied housing (via shared appreciation down payment programs)

I was thinking more rural areas with facilities that have no stock options.  

[CooterBrown 18002]

I'd do an RV/boat parking lot.  Build a security fenced paved lot with an automatic gate entry with cameras everywhere. Still gonna be some work but a lot less than most other "passive" income streams.

[Catpfish 618]

A few years ago, a guy that owns several self-storage and RV/boat lots in NE Travis county told me RV/boat lots throw off about $3,000/ac/month and the self-storage (not climate controlled) throws off about $10,000/ac/month.  Those both could be a little higher now.

[midtown 3345]

I've met more than one person who lost 100% of their investment in a car wash

[tomahawk dunk 321]

 

[Slacks 6819]

My first w2 job was at a car wash... so this hits close to home.

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2731]

I've met more than one person who lost 100% of their investment in a car wash

Any specific type? I’d be curious if the self serve type vs the automatic is more profitable.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13507]

I’ve always figured that self-serve car wash equipment must get abused by the customers. When I used to hit up those places, it frequently seemed like something was broken. And a full service location must always have employee issues. I would assume a reliable manager(s) and repair service is key. 

For full service, the key must be the recurring car wash plans. I subscribe to one and they’ve made a killing from me this summer with zero rain. In rainier times, I will go a couple of times per week.

From an investment standpoint isn’t the main consideration how much it takes to get started. Pay a low upfront amount then the operational issues aren’t as critical. Pay a higher amount, then you’re sweating when Bay 3’s coin collector is down for a week.

Edited August 31, 2023 by Nice Guy Eddie