How to Buy a Laundromat: Price, Checks, Lease

The short answer

Pay only for earnings you can prove. That is how to buy a laundromat without overpaying: price the store on verified cash flow, test the revenue against the water bills, and secure a lease that outlasts your loan.

Seller's discretionary earnings (SDE) is the yearly cash flow a laundromat produces for one owner-operator before debt service, depreciation and the owner's own pay. Almost every asking price in this market is a multiple of that number.

1. Price. Divide the asking price by SDE and compare it with what stores actually sold for.
2. Revenue. Rebuild washer income from the water bills and the vend prices.
3. Lease. Confirm the remaining term, your renewal options and the right to assign.
4. Machines and site. Check fleet age against useful life and visit the competition.
5. Money. Line up the 10% equity injection that SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 requires and a lender-ordered valuation.
6. Closing. Sign once the numbers, the lease and the valuation agree with each other.

Commera is a broker, not a lender. We compare offers from our lender partners. For a store purchase that means comparing business loans, SBA 7(a) included.

How much does it cost to buy a laundromat?

An operating laundromat sold for a median $250,000 against a median asking price of $275,000, according to 855 businesses sold on and reported to BizBuySell from 2021 to 2025. Prices rose every year. Buyers still closed below asking.

Source: laundromat valuation benchmarks, captured October 6, 2026. One marketplace, not the whole market.

The spread is wide. Per the Coin Laundry Association (accessed October 6, 2026), stores are worth $50,000 to more than $1 million and generate $15,000 to $300,000 of cash flow a year. A brand-new store is priced on construction and equipment cost instead, which is a different project.

How much to buy a laundromat also means how much cash you bring to closing. Per SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, budget for the 10% equity injection, the lender's business valuation and the SBA upfront guaranty fee. If you are still choosing a store, start with how to find a business to buy.

How to buy a laundromat at the right price: the SDE multiple

A fair price is verified SDE times a multiple close to what similar stores sold for. Per BizBuySell, sold laundromats traded at a median 3.50 times SDE from 2021 to 2025, while asking prices sat at a median 4.80. Asking prices are opinions. Sale prices are evidence.

Source: the same BizBuySell benchmarks.

According to the laundry trade association, most stores sell for three to five times net cash flow. Its pricing factors are earnings, the lease, equipment age and condition, vend prices, demographics and replacement cost.

Size moves the multiple. According to the same benchmarks, a store with more than $350,000 in revenue may command a multiple above 4, while one under $150,000 may trade closer to 2.7. Per the same data, full-time owner involvement pushes a store toward the lower quartile, and low involvement pushes it toward the upper one.

Multiples drift as well. According to the same data, the 2025 average reached 4.12, the highest year in the series, so do not anchor on a single year.

Proving the revenue: water bills, dryers and turns per day

Water use caps how many washes a store could have sold. Divide claimed washer revenue by the vend price to get cycles, multiply by gallons per cycle from each model's spec sheet, and compare the total with the water bills.

Utilities often bill in CCF, and per the EPA WaterSense guide, one CCF equals 748 gallons. Gallons per cycle vary by machine. Huebsch lists its 21.5 lb front-load washer at "as little as 11.7 gallons" per cycle, so take the figure for each larger vended machine from its own spec sheet.

Turns per day (TPD) is the average number of times each washer runs in a day. According to the laundry trade association, washer TPD generally runs from three to eight or more, and dryer income generally runs 40% to 60% of washer income. A seller's numbers far outside either range deserve a written question.

Ask for 12 to 24 months of water bills and match them month by month to the seller's revenue. Seasonality should show up in both or in neither.

Treat the water test as a check, not an accusation. A leak, a wash-dry-fold service or a shared meter can all explain a gap, so ask the seller to explain it in writing.

Unreported cash will not help you borrow. Under SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, the lender verifies the financials behind the valuation against the seller's IRS transcripts, so a "real numbers are higher" pitch adds nothing to the loan.

The lease is half of what you are buying

A laundromat in leased space is worth only as long as the lease runs. According to the laundry trade association, coin laundries usually sit on leases of 10 to 25 years, and the lease's length, increases, expense provisions and rent-to-income ratio all drive value.

Lenders read every page of it. Under SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, the lease test has a threshold. Per the SOP, it applies when leasehold improvements or machines attached to the leased space make up $500,000 or 30% of the collateral, whichever is less. Then a 7(a) lease term, counting renewal options only the borrower can exercise, should equal or exceed the loan term.

The lender should also obtain an assignment of lease and a landlord's waiver. If it cannot, the rule tightens. The lease term must equal or exceed the loan term.

Ask the landlord four questions before you sign a letter of intent:

• How many years remain, and which renewal options are mine alone?
• What are the scheduled increases, and who pays taxes, insurance and maintenance?
• Will you consent to assigning the lease to me?
• Will you sign a landlord's waiver for my lender?

Machines, building and the site visit

Machine age is a hidden price cut. An old fleet arrives with a replacement bill. Compare the age of each machine with the Coin Laundry Association schedule below.

According to the association, the schedule varies with usage, sales volume and maintenance, so a busy store's fleet can be older than its install dates suggest.

Visit on a Saturday morning to see whether customers wait for dryers. The association lists competition among the drivers of washer turns, so visit every nearby store and note its vend prices.

Ask one more question on the first visit: has dry cleaning ever operated at the address? If so, SBA environmental rules for NAICS 8123 send the review to a Phase I.

Paying for it: what an SBA lender checks on a laundromat purchase

An SBA 7(a) lender checks five things when you buy a coin laundry business: your equity, the valuation, the seller's tax records, debt service coverage and who runs the store. Each rule below comes from SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, effective October 1, 2026.

Equity. Under SBA rules, the minimum injection for an initial acquisition is 10% and "cannot be reduced or eliminated". Limited sources may supply no more than half of it, and seller debt on full standby may count as equity under SBA rules.

Valuation. Under SBA rules, a Qualified Source (ASA, CBA, ABV, CVA or BCA) prepares the valuation for the lender, not for you or the seller. Total debt is limited to that valuation. Any price above it is paid in equity.

Tax records. Under SBA rules, the lender checks the valuation's financials against the seller's IRS transcripts and analyzes the three most recent years of statements.

Coverage. The SBA ratio for an initial acquisition is 1.25:1, EBITDA divided by total debt service after the purchase. Under the same SOP, from October 1, 2026, a price of $3 million or more also needs a Quality of Earnings report.

Management. The credit memo names who runs the store day to day. Under SBA rules, a business handed to a management company with sole discretion is an ineligible passive business.

Rates, terms and machine loans are covered in our laundromat financing guide, and the same rules across industries in our business acquisition loan guide. Commera's business loans page illustrates SBA 7(a) timelines at 30 to 90 days. They vary by lender and file and are estimates, not promises. Start a pre-qualification before the seller's broker asks for proof of funds.

Worked example: a $360,000 laundromat on $100,000 of claimed SDE

The store below is a Commera illustrative calculation, with invented bills and returns, and it is not an offer.

Methodology: Illustrative calculation with assumed inputs: a $360,000 ask, $100,000 of claimed SDE, $70,000 of SDE on the tax returns, a $5.00 vend price, 30 washers and 20 gallons per cycle. The loan is a 7(a) at the SOP 50 10 8.1 rate cap over Prime 7.00% per Federal Reserve H.15, with 120 level monthly payments. The upfront fee follows SBA Information Notice 5000-881797. This is not a loan offer and not a real deal.

Step A: the water test. In this illustrative case, the seller claims $14,000 a month in washer revenue at $5.00 a cycle, which is 2,800 cycles. Across 30 washers and 30 days, that is about 3.1 turns per day. Assume the spec sheets average 20 gallons per cycle.

Source: illustrative calculation, at 748 gallons per CCF per EPA WaterSense.

In this illustrative case the bill supports about 60% of the claimed washer revenue, so roughly 40% has no water behind it.

Step B: the price. In this illustrative case the ask of $360,000 is 3.6 times the claimed $100,000 of SDE. The tax returns confirm $70,000, which is worth $252,000 at the same multiple. If the lender's valuation also lands at $252,000, SBA rules cap the debt at that figure.

In this illustrative case, paying $360,000 takes $108,000 of your own cash, not the $36,000 a 10% injection would suggest.

Step C: the loan on $252,000. The rate is Prime 7.00% as of October 2, 2026 (Federal Reserve H.15) plus the 4.5% SOP 50 10 8.1 cap for loans of $250,001 to $350,000. It is variable and not an offer.

Source: illustrative calculation, not an offer.

In this illustrative calculation, interest totals $173,161.20 and annual debt service is $42,516.12. Per SBA Information Notice 5000-881797, the FY2027 upfront fee on this loan size is 3% of the portion the SBA backs. Under the same notice, a business in a rural area pays 0%. For this illustrative store that is 3% of $189,000 at a 75% SBA guaranty, or $5,670.

Per this illustrative case, coverage is $70,000 divided by $42,516.12, about 1.65, above the SBA floor of 1.25. That is a simplification. SDE is not EBITDA, and a lender may deduct a manager's salary first. Run your own numbers and check what your profile qualifies for before you make an offer.

Why people say "never buy a laundromat"

People who give that advice usually mean the passive income pitch, not the business itself. The store needs an owner.

• The lease. A short lease can end the business before the loan ends.
• The fleet. Machines near the end of useful life arrive with a replacement bill.
• Off-book cash. A price built on unreported revenue means paying for earnings no one can verify.
• The cycle. According to the sales benchmarks, median revenue fell 13% and earnings fell 16% in 2024, then both rebounded around 5% in 2025.
• Time. According to the sales benchmarks, sold laundromats sat a median 139 days on market, and the trade association puts average marketing time at 60 to 90 days.

None of these is a reason to walk away. Each one is a reason to price the store on what you can prove.

Which path fits you

If the water bills and tax returns support the seller's SDE and the lease outlasts the loan, offer near the sold median of 3.50 times SDE per the sales benchmarks and let the lender order the valuation. If the numbers only work on cash the seller cannot document, offer on verified SDE or walk away.

Broker disclosure: Commera Finance is a broker, not a direct lender. Financing providers make their own eligibility, underwriting, approval, pricing, and term decisions.