Buying a laundromat
- Cash you need at the keys
- $110,000
- SBA 7(a) note
- $360,000
- Seller note
- $45,000
The only constants in these sheets are the two payment tables: the monthly payment per $1,000 borrowed over 10 years and over 5 years, at half-point rates between 3% and 15%, computed from the standard amortisation formula. Every other number is worked from the figures you enter: the price, the shares, the rates, the earnings, the documents and the days, with the arithmetic printed beside each answer. The 10 year term is the longest an SBA 7(a) note runs for a purchase without real estate; the defaults are one buyer's worked example, not a price guide and not a lender's offer.
Buying a laundromat is the purchase people make when they want a business with machines instead of staff, and the arithmetic that decides it is the same as any other acquisition with one twist: the machines are the business, so their age and the lease that houses them carry more of the price than the goodwill does. This guide is the buyer's side: how the asking price splits into a bank note, a seller note and your own cash, what the notes cost each month against the store's earnings, and which documents belong on the diligence list before the offer goes hard. The free acquisition cost calculator on this site works the stack from your own figures, and every number here is its worked example.
Open the How to buy an existing business with no money Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Cost the store as cash at the keys
On the worked example a $450,000 store with the bank at 80% and the seller at 10% needs $45,000 of your cash on the price, plus $40,000 of working capital for utilities, rent and soap before the coin boxes fill, plus $25,000 of closing costs: $110,000 at the keys.
Test the earnings against the two notes
The bank note at 10.5% over 10 years is $4,857.66 a month and the seller note at 6% over 5 years is $869.98, so the store must produce $68,731.68 a year for the lenders. With $180,000 of seller's discretionary earnings and $90,000 of your own pay, coverage is 131% and $21,268.32 remains.
Put the machines and the lease at the top of the list
The diligence list for a laundromat starts with the equipment schedule and its ages, the utility bills that prove the volume, the lease term and assignment clause, and the coin and card revenue by month. The register in Pro keeps each item with the date requested and received so the lease is read in week two rather than at closing.
What buyers ask before they trust the Buying a laundromat
Why does the calculator treat a laundromat like any other business? Because the funding stack is the same arithmetic: price times shares is the notes, the remainder is your cash, and earnings after your pay must cover the payments. What differs is where the price sits on the asset list, which is the allocation question your accountant answers and both sides report to the IRS.
What does working capital mean for a store with no staff? Rent, utilities, supplies and repairs paid before the first weeks of takings clear, plus a reserve for the first machine that fails. The example uses $40,000; enter what your own bills add up to.
How is Keysvo priced? The sheets are free with no account. Keysvo Pro is $14 a month for you and whoever is buying with you, and it keeps every store you look at, each offer and the diligence file together.
Will Keysvo carry your purchase? Ask about the Buying a laundromat
Tell us what you are buying, how far along the purchase is and what you are keeping the deal in today, and we will say plainly whether Keysvo carries it.