Car Wash Buyer's Pack

The model

Fourteen sheets, with live formulas.

How to use

What to fill in, in what order, and how to read the results.

Inputs

The seller's figures: format, asking price, revenue, each cost line, cars washed, members and prices, water gallons, the lease or the real estate value, and the equipment. Then closing costs, working capital, your loan structure (7(a) only, or 7(a) and 504) and terms, any seller note, and prefilled assumptions you can change.

Outputs

Each result beside its published benchmark, with a flag where the wash looks out of line: SDE, the price multiple, revenue, payroll, volumes against revenue, membership share, water per car, sources and uses of cash, the blended loan term, both kinds of loan cover, the equipment reserve, your cash left and your equity IRR with a sale after five years.

Projection

Five years forward, the sale at the end, a downside case, and lender cover by price paid and revenue.

Lender summary

One printable page for a lender: the deal, sources and uses of cash, both covers against the SBA minimum, your return, the SBA write-off rate for car wash loans of that size and term, and the flags.

Seller checklist

The papers to ask the seller for, on one printable page, with a column to mark each one received.

Median example (3 sheets)

A worked example: the median car wash sold on BizBuySell, on a leased site, bought at the median multiple with 10% down and a 10-year SBA loan, with the source of every figure. It fails the lender test.

Lower-price example (3 sheets)

The same wash bought at the lower-quartile multiple. It passes the lender test with room to spare.

Sources

Every benchmark in the model, with its publisher, document, year, page and link.

Data

SBA 7(a) and 504 write-off rates for car wash loans by loan size, term, business type and approval year.

The guide

Nine sections. Every figure names its source.

1. 1

   The numbers in one page

   SBA loan outcomes, and the revenue, earnings and sale multiples of car washes sold in 2021-25, against the Census and a listed chain.

2. 2

   What the worked examples show

   The median wash at the median and lower-quartile prices: why one fails the lender test and the other passes, the price at which cover reaches the minimum, and what a 25-year term would do.

3. 3

   Checking the seller's numbers

   Earnings, price, revenue, each cost line, the lease, and the papers to ask the seller for.

4. 4

   Do the volumes and the water add up?

   Cars and members against revenue, membership churn, and water per car against the EPA figures by format.

5. 5

   How a car wash makes money

   The four formats, wash clubs, owned or leased sites, and how many washes there are.

6. 6

   Paying for it

   Minimum equity, the real estate term and the special purpose rules, the 504 split, the environmental review, seller notes, the upfront fee and rate cap, both kinds of cover and the equipment reserve.

7. 7

   Five years and a sale

   The projection, a sale after five years and your equity IRR, a downside case, and lender cover by price paid and revenue.

8. 8

   SBA loan history

   Car wash write-off rates by loan size, term and approval year, against all 7(a) loans, and what the rates leave out.

9. 9

   Sources

   Every source, with its link and the date it was read.