advise on opening a coin laundromat

[Christina]

My husband & I would like to opening a laundromat and would appreciate any tips you may have on how and where to begin?

[buddy]

Opening a new Laundromat is lot more riskier than buying an existing one. With new one you have no idea if you are going to have enough customers to cover you rent, notes etc.

With existing Laundromat you have something to work with.

[anonymous]

Christina --

Buddy is right, but remember that an existing mat may have hidden problems that need to be addressed. Sometimes this can be challenging for newbies who have not had time to learn diagnostic skills. Having a maintenance pro constantly come to fix multiple problems can get a bit pricey.

[pete f]

Let's start with cash and work from there...

A new mat will run you $200k to $450k, of which you will need about 1/3 of that in cash, from your own bank account.
A new mat might also need operating expenses so add another
50k to keep it running for the first year or so.
A "used" mat can be bought for 50% down cash, and then a note to the seller for the balance.
Your return on a used mat is from 15% to 50% of the amount of your invested cash. Your return on a new mat is from -40% to +0% on invested cash. The laundromat industry is not growing, so there are few areas that could use a mat that do not already have one. To my knowledge, nobody has ever said they had a decent return on the money they spent to open a new laundromat.

[Andy]

I agree with pete. I have looked at several "new" mats for sale that the owners were ready to walk away from if I would just take over the payments. Well even those deals I also walked awya from.

My own theory states that over 90% of the first owners fail and over 70% of the second owners fail. It is not until the third owners get in there after the first two lost alot of $$ to make it work.