Feasibility Study Company Independent Feasibility Analysis

Laundromats / Self-Service Laundry · Asset Class

Laundromat & Self-Service Laundry Feasibility Studies

Independent, lender-grade analysis for laundromat and self-service laundry acquisitions, buildouts, and refinancings across SBA 7(a) and 504, USDA Business & Industry, conventional bank, and equipment-finance capital. This page is our standing read on where laundromat demand and margin actually come from, how utility cost, turns-per-day, and lease risk sink feasibility forecasts, and the difference between the market study, the feasibility study, and the going-concern appraisal a lender requires.

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29.5K
US coin laundries, roughly $5B in annual gross revenue2
27%
Median operating net profit, before debt service and owner pay1
20%
Median utilities as a share of gross revenue, the binding cost1
56%
Laundromats operating on a lease rather than owned real estate1
The Laundromat Thesis

A cash-flow business wearing a real-estate costume.

A laundromat is the commercial asset that lenders underwrite as a going-concern consumer-service business, not as passive real estate. That single distinction defines the work: value flows from equipment and fixtures, the leasehold, and business goodwill, concluded through the income approach on cash flow, the same equipment-heavy basis used for a car wash, and expressly not the multi-tenant-retail income approach applied to a leased shopping center. The rent-roll analog here is turns-per-day, vend price, and the utility bill. We prepare the market study, the feasibility study, and the going-concern appraisal input a laundromat file needs, aligned to the standard that will judge it.

The market itself resists a single number, because the providers count different things. The Coin Laundry Association counts roughly 29,500 operating coin-laundry storefronts generating nearly $5 billion in annual gross revenue.2 IBISWorld, which counts tax-reporting establishments, puts the industry (NAICS 812310) at about $7.1 billion in 2025 rising to $7.2 billion in 2026 across roughly 18,375 establishments, a count declining about half a percent a year even as revenue grows.3 Numerous secondary sources still cite an older figure near 35,000 stores, and one analysis citing IBISWorld reports roughly $6.8 billion in gross revenue.45 These are not reconcilable on the same basis, and the gap also reflects scope, self-service only versus WDF, dry cleaning, and route laundry folded in. The industry splits into two distinct segments, retail coin-op or vended laundromats and multi-housing or route laundry, the latter led by CSC ServiceWorks, and it is overwhelmingly composed of independent owner-operators; franchised brands such as WaveMAX, which reports average gross revenue near $471,000 across its reporting stores, remain a small minority.367

Beneath the count, the economics are stable but conditional. Utilities, not rent, are the binding variable: 53 percent of operators name high utility cost their single biggest problem, and the median store spends 20 percent of gross revenue on water, sewer, gas, and electricity.1 The margin and growth layer is wash-dry-fold, pickup-and-delivery, and commercial accounts, where pickup-and-delivery orders average $79.81 against $44.19 for drop-off and the online laundry-services market was estimated near $8.28 billion in 2023.824 One operator reported grossing $125,000 a month in wash-dry-fold, roughly three-quarters of it from pickup-and-delivery.9 The defining modernization is the coin-to-card-and-app transition, which produces the verifiable revenue records lenders need.10 What follows is organized as a working desk: a national supply-and-demand monitor, the operating and ramp-up failure forensics that sink laundromat studies, the capital-source routing that decides which deliverable a project needs, and the study-type distinctions competitors state loosely. Every figure is dated and attributed in the sources below.

The Supply & Demand Monitor

Where laundromat opportunity lives, by market type.

Laundromat feasibility is driven by renter density, income demographics, households without in-unit laundry, the utility-cost environment, competition, and lease cost, not raw population. Metro-level laundromat data is thin, so this monitor organizes by market type and demand driver rather than by metro. Every entry is directional; verify at the trade-area, one-mile-radius level.

No public source provides a clean national metro matrix for this asset class. The Coin Laundry Association survey reports only four Census regions, IBISWorld sells state and county cuts, and renter-density and laundromat-count data must be pulled from Census ACS tract data and local business counts on a per-deal basis.13 Demand is recession-resistant because laundry is a necessity: the self-service market expands in downturns as households defer buying home machines or shift to rental housing.2 Roughly 31 percent of the US population, nearly 103 million people, rented as of 2023, and renter share ranges from about 26 percent in West Virginia to 59 percent in the District of Columbia, with New York near 46 percent and California near 44 percent.20 The matrix below reads renter demand, the utility-cost environment, competition and lease cost, and a net supply or opportunity signal.

Opportunity read: Favorable Mixed Compressed Eroding. All entries are directional and must be verified at the one-mile trade-area level; no single public source supports a metro-by-metro laundromat matrix.
Market type Renter demand Utility environment Competition / lease cost Opportunity read
Dense coastal urbanNYC, SF Bay, LAVery high, renter 44–59%Very high, CA sewer ~93–95% of waterSaturated; very high rentCompressedDemand strong; verify UPG & lease hard
Secondary metro / Sun BeltTX, FL, GA, NCHigh and growing, migration-fedModerateGrowing; moderate rentFavorableSouth leads WDF adoption (~74–75%)
Midwest urbanChicago, Detroit, OHModerate–highLow–moderate, cheaper water/gasMature; lower rentMargin-supportiveWatch aging demographics, vacancy
Rural / small townLower absolute, older housingVariable, higher gas deliveryLow; low rentLow-competitionUSDA B&I eligible (pop <50,000)
College townSeasonal high, up to 40% swingModerateModerateSeasonalStrong 9-month demand; summer risk
Gentrifying urbanDeclining fit, in-unit laundryHighRising rentErodingIn-unit penetration erodes the base

Market-type signals compiled from the Coin Laundry Association 2024 Laundry Industry Survey (four-Census-region cuts), IBISWorld, and Census renter data via Self.inc; utility-cost environment from Cents / trycents.com and municipal sewer-billing schedules. See sources 1, 3, 14, and 20. Regional reads from the 2024 CLA survey: median rent highest in the Northeast and West; the West has the highest attendant wages ($18+); the South leads WDF drop-off (~74%) and Wi-Fi (~81%); the Midwest has the most top-load washers and highest 24-hour operation.

Utilities are the binding cost, not rent

No figure on this page is more decisive than the utility bill. In the 2024 Coin Laundry Association survey the median store spent 20 percent of gross revenue on utilities, with a mean of 21 percent, and 53 percent of operators named high utility cost their single biggest problem, with 88 percent citing some high-cost issue.1 Cross-provider ranges run 15 to 40 percent of revenue, near 15 to 25 percent on efficient modern equipment and 30 to 40 percent on old machines, the classic high-utility trap.1415 Water and sewer is usually the largest and hardest-to-control sub-component, because sewer is typically billed as a percentage of metered water, roughly 93 percent of purchased water in Los Angeles and 95 percent in San Diego, so a laundromat pays both to bring water in and to send it out.14 The operator's pricing lodestar is utilities-as-a-percentage-of-gross, or UPG, which should run near 15 percent on newer equipment and 20 percent on older; when it creeps above those, vend prices are behind costs. For underwriting, utility cost is the car-wash-analogous variable that must be verified against 12 to 24 months of actual bills, never modeled from a percentage assumption.

Turns-per-day and vend price, read together

Turns-per-day, the number of revenue-generating cycles per machine per day, is the headline productivity metric: about 5 nationally with a 3-to-8 range, which is also the range the IRS uses for audit.116 The average surveyed store carried 67 machines, 36.5 washers and 30.4 dryers, in about 2,850 square feet, with mean washer vend prices scaling from $3.73 for a top-loader to $8.16 for a 50-to-60-pound front-loader and $12.22 for a 90-to-100-pound machine.1 But turns-per-day has real limits as a performance metric because it ignores vend price: a store at 5 turns charging $3.75 out-earns one at 7 turns charging $2.00 while suffering more wear, so equipment mix and pricing must be read alongside it.16 Revenue per machine runs roughly $1,000 to $2,000 a month for washers and $600 to $1,200 for dryers.15 Machines last about 10 to 15 years, so replacement is a major recurring capital need; one multi-store operator normalizes roughly $1 million of new equipment every 15 years across three stores.22

The lease is existential, and value runs on verifiable cash flow

Because most laundromats are leased, 56 percent in the 2024 survey, and because the plumbing, gas, venting, and equipment are fixed and costly to relocate, the lease is the existential variable: a short remaining term, weak renewal options, or aggressive escalations can destroy value regardless of cash flow, and institutional buyers generally will not close with fewer than 5 to 7 years remaining plus options.111 Losing a single turn per day in a 40-washer store can cut annual revenue by roughly $64,800, so lease and rent shocks compound fast; keep occupancy cost at or below 20 to 25 percent of gross, against a median rent near 18 percent.211 Existing stores are valued primarily on net revenues, a rule of thumb of 3 to 5 times net cash flow, with SDE multiples near 2.5 to 3.5 times for coin single-stores, 3.5 to 5 times for modernized card single-stores, and 4 to 6 times EBITDA for multi-store operators; Peak Business Valuation cites SDE multiples of 3.16 to 4.23 times.21112 Verified card revenue is the single biggest value driver, and unverifiable coin revenue the biggest discount.

Common Review Failures

How laundromat feasibility forecasts fail review.

Utilities, turns-per-day, ramp, and the lease are the variables an SBA or bank credit committee scrutinizes most, and the places laundromat studies most often break. Each failure below is tied to a real mechanism or number.

  1. Stabilized revenue with no ramp curve

    Assuming mature turns-per-day and revenue from day one on a new build or repositioned store. Self-service demand builds slowly, the grand opening nobody knows about, and a WDF or pickup-and-delivery base takes a year or more to develop. Site-specific revenue is not portable from comparables; underwrite a ramp curve, not a stabilized number.1

  2. Utility-cost mis-modeling

    The number-one issue after rent. Underestimating water, sewer, and gas; ignoring sewer billed as a percentage of water; using a low percentage assumption instead of actual bills; and missing the old-inefficient-equipment high-utility trap. With 53 percent of operators calling utilities their biggest problem, require 12 to 24 months of actual bills and compute UPG.114

  3. Turns-per-day over-estimation

    Overstating turns, choosing the wrong equipment mix, too many top-loaders and too few high-margin large front-loaders, and confusing volume with revenue, high turns at a low vend price. Benchmark to the 3-to-8 range around a mean near 5 and verify against card-system cycle counts wherever available.16

  4. Lease risk, the existential real-estate issue

    Short remaining term, no or weak renewal options, aggressive escalations, or uncapped CAM. Because plumbing, gas, venting, and equipment are fixed and costly to relocate, a lease loss or unfavorable renewal is catastrophic; institutional buyers require 5 to 7-plus years remaining plus options. Losing one turn in a 40-washer store can cut annual revenue by roughly $64,800.1121

  5. Unverifiable coin revenue and cash skimming

    Coin stores carry skimming and theft risk and unverifiable revenue, and this is the single most common reason laundromat deals collapse in diligence. A pro forma built on coin-only revenue without card-system records or 24 months of bank and collection data warrants a cash-skim haircut; card and app data resolves it.1011

  6. Equipment age and deferred modernization

    Old equipment means high utility cost, breakdowns, deferred capital, and coin-only cash-skim exposure. Machines last about 10 to 15 years, so budget replacement and card-conversion capital, roughly $400 to $1,000-plus per machine reader, rather than treating the in-place fleet as permanent.2223

  7. Demand mis-read and in-unit-laundry penetration

    The wrong location or demographic, declining renter density, and the signature downside risk, gentrification and new apartments with in-unit laundry that erode the customer base. Verify renter share, households without in-unit laundry, and the multifamily pipeline in the one-mile trade area, not from metro averages.20

Capital-Source Routing

Which channel funds the project, and what it requires.

Laundromats route through distinct capital sources, and each requires a different deliverable and standard. The study is built to the union of requirements across the channels actually in play, and the first question is always whether the borrower will be an active operator and whether real estate is owned or leased.

The laundromat lender matrix
Deliverable and convention by capital source. Figures are program conventions and market practice, not universal minimums.17
Capital sourceDeliverableConvention
SBA 7(a) (up to $5M)Going-concern feasibility + business appraisal10% min equity; owner active-operator; ~1.25x DSCR
SBA 504Owned real estate + long-life equipment; goodwill outside first lien51% existing / 60% new owner-occupancy
USDA B&I (rural, <50K pop)Owner-operated business feasibility80% / 70% / 60% guarantee by size; job creation/retention
Conventional bank / equipment financeCash-flow model; self-collateralizing machinesBank DSCR; equipment secures the loan
Bridge / hard moneyAcquisition or re-equip / reposition planFloating, short term; refinance to SBA/conventional

Sources: SBA SOP 50 10 8 (effective June 1, 2025); USDA B&I / OneRD term sheets; ProjectionHub analysis of SBA loan data. See sources 13, 17, and 18.

One eligibility trap is worth stating plainly, because borrowers hit it constantly: a purely passive laundromat is not SBA-eligible. Passive businesses are barred under 13 CFR 120.110(c), so a laundromat qualifies as an active operating business only if the owner is genuinely involved in management, equipment maintenance, cleaning, collections, security, restocking, and customer service; an absentee coin store should document active management to avoid the bar.17 Under SOP 50 10 8, effective June 1, 2025, a change of ownership requires a 10 percent minimum equity injection, a seller note can count toward no more than half of that 10 percent and only on full standby, and an independent business appraisal from a Qualified Source is required when the financed intangible or goodwill exceeds $250,000, with the loan capped at appraised value.17 In practice, Live Oak Banking Company leads laundromat-acquisition lending with 2,523 approved loans averaging $1,505,613, while Huntington National Bank leads startups with 3,693 loans averaging $276,148.13

  • Leased business acquisition, equipment, or buildoutSBA 7(a), the dominant use, with goodwill financed inside the 7(a); the program for buying a leased laundromat without real estate.17
  • Owned real estate plus long-life equipmentSBA 504, with goodwill outside the first mortgage and 51% / 60% owner-occupancy.17
  • Rural owner-operated laundromat (population under 50,000)USDA Business & Industry under the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative, covering acquisition, equipment, and modernization.18
  • Equipment-only purchase or replacementDistributor or specialty equipment financing, self-collateralized by the washers and dryers.13
  • Speed or repositioning / re-equipBridge or hard money, then a refinance to SBA or conventional once revenue is verifiable and stabilized.11
Study Types

Market study, feasibility study, appraisal: three questions.

These three documents answer different questions and are not substitutes. Lenders and sponsors conflate them constantly; SBA underwriters and credit committees do not.

What each document answers, and the standard that governs it.
DocumentQuestion answeredGoverning standard
AppraisalWhat is it worth? A going-concern / business-enterprise value, allocating leasehold or real estate, equipment and FF&E, and goodwill.USPAP going-concern
Market studyIs there demand? Trade-area renter density, households without in-unit laundry, competition and saturation, and site suitability.Trade-area demand analysis
Feasibility studyDoes this deal pencil for this lender? The market study plus the projected P&L, the utility model, the turns-per-day and revenue ramp, and DSCR under the capital structure.Lender underwriting + income approach

The distinction that governs a laundromat file is that it is valued as a going concern, not as passive real estate. Leasehold or real estate, equipment and FF&E, and business goodwill are concluded primarily through the income approach, capitalizing earnings or applying a multiple of seller's discretionary earnings or net cash flow, and equipment is a major tangible component, the same equipment-heavy going-concern basis used for a car wash. Existing stores are valued on net revenues, a rule of thumb of 3 to 5 times net cash flow, with SDE multiples near 2.5 to 3.5 times for coin single-stores and 3.5 to 5 times for modern card stores, and 4 to 6 times EBITDA for multi-store operators.212 Because 56 percent of stores are leased, going-concern-on-leasehold is the norm; where real estate is owned, a real-property component is added, and a favorable long lease itself carries value.1 Verified card revenue drives the multiple; unverifiable coin revenue compresses it.11

One scope boundary is worth stating, and it is the laundromat's signature environmental gate. A pure wash-and-dry laundromat is low environmental risk, but any current or former on-site dry cleaning creates perchloroethylene, or PERC, soil and groundwater liability that can dwarf the deal, the gas-station-grade exposure of this asset class. The EPA's Toxic Substances Control Act rule, effective January 17, 2025, bans PERC in dry cleaning, prohibits it in machines purchased after June 16, 2025, and phases out dry-cleaner use through December 19, 2034; by the 1980s roughly 85 percent of US dry cleaners used PERC, a probable human carcinogen.19 Only about 14 percent of surveyed stores offer dry cleaning, so most are low-risk, but the tail liability is severe.1 A lender will require a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment, and a Phase II where any dry-clean history exists, whether on-site or from a prior tenant; the feasibility or market-study author does not perform the Phase I or II ESA, which is a separate environmental professional's engagement.

Laundromat sub-segments, each with a distinct study scope

Laundromat Questions

Laundromat feasibility and market-study questions.

What is the difference between a laundromat market study and a feasibility study?

A market study sizes trade-area demand, meaning renter density, households without in-unit laundry, competition and saturation, and site suitability, and answers whether there is demand. A feasibility study goes further, adding the projected profit-and-loss statement, the utility model built from actual bills, the turns-per-day and revenue ramp, and debt-service coverage under the specific capital structure, and it answers whether the deal pencils for this lender. An appraisal concludes a going-concern value. These are distinct deliverables, and a lender should not accept a broker's pro forma in place of a feasibility study or an appraisal.

Is a laundromat valued as real estate or as a business?

As a going-concern business, not as passive real estate. A laundromat is valued as leasehold or real estate plus equipment and fixtures plus business goodwill, primarily through the income approach, capitalizing earnings or applying a multiple of seller's discretionary earnings or net cash flow, the same equipment-heavy going-concern basis used for car washes rather than the multi-tenant-retail real-estate income approach. Rules of thumb run 3 to 5 times net cash flow, with SDE multiples near 2.5 to 3.5 times for coin single-stores, 3.5 to 5 times for modernized card single-stores, and 4 to 6 times EBITDA for multi-store operators. Verified card revenue is the single biggest value driver; unverifiable coin revenue is the biggest discount.

Why are utilities the most important number in a laundromat feasibility study?

Utilities, meaning water and sewer, gas for hot water, and electricity, are the largest and most volatile operating cost and the binding constraint on margin. In the 2024 Coin Laundry Association survey the median store spent 20 percent of gross revenue on utilities, with a mean of 21 percent, and 53 percent of operators named high utility cost their single biggest problem. Cross-provider ranges run 15 to 40 percent, rising with equipment age. Sewer is often billed as a percentage of metered water, roughly 93 percent in Los Angeles and 95 percent in San Diego, so a store pays both to bring water in and to send it out. Verify utilities against 12 to 24 months of actual bills and compute utilities as a percentage of gross, targeting about 15 percent on newer equipment and 20 percent on older.

Can a laundromat be financed with an SBA loan?

Yes. Laundromats are a favored SBA 7(a) and 504 category, NAICS 812310, because of recession resistance and stable cash flow, but eligibility hinges on the owner being an active operator. A purely passive or absentee laundromat risks the passive-business bar under 13 CFR 120.110(c), so borrowers should document active management such as maintenance, cleaning, collections, security, and restocking. SOP 50 10 8, effective June 1, 2025, requires a 10 percent minimum equity injection for a change of ownership and an independent business appraisal when the financed goodwill or intangibles exceed 250,000 dollars. A 7(a) loan buys a leased store; a 504 loan is for owned real estate and long-life equipment, with goodwill financed outside the first mortgage.

What is turns-per-day, and why does it matter?

Turns-per-day is the number of revenue-generating cycles per machine per day, the headline productivity metric for a laundromat. It averages about 5 nationally with a 3-to-8 range, which is also the range the IRS uses for audit. But turns-per-day must be read together with vend price and equipment mix, not in isolation: a store at 5 turns per day charging 3.75 dollars out-earns one at 7 turns charging 2.00 dollars while suffering more wear. For a new or repositioned store, underwrite a ramp curve rather than a stabilized number, and verify turns against card-system cycle counts where available.

What is the biggest environmental risk in a laundromat deal?

Dry-cleaning history. A pure wash-and-dry laundromat is low environmental risk, but any current or former on-site dry cleaning creates perchloroethylene, or PERC, soil and groundwater liability that can exceed the value of the deal, the gas-station-grade environmental gate of this asset class. The EPA's Toxic Substances Control Act rule, effective January 17, 2025, bans PERC in dry cleaning, prohibits it in machines purchased after June 16, 2025, and phases out dry-cleaner use through December 19, 2034. Only about 14 percent of surveyed stores offer dry cleaning, so most are low-risk, but the tail liability is severe. A lender will require a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment, and a Phase II where any dry-clean history exists; the feasibility or market-study author does not perform the assessment.

How do coin-only and card or app laundromats differ for underwriting?

Coin-only stores carry cash-skimming and theft risk and unverifiable revenue, which is the single most common reason laundromat deals collapse in diligence, and they trade at the lowest multiples. Card and app systems produce complete electronic transaction records that remove the cash-skim discount in valuation and underwriting, are associated with a reported 17 to 22 percent revenue lift, and are preferred by SBA banks. Conversion runs roughly 400 to 1,000 dollars or more per machine reader, and a full store-wide system can run tens of thousands of dollars, but it typically pays for itself through the revenue lift and a cleaner exit.

By Market

Laundromat feasibility studies by state.

Laundromat demand, the utility-cost environment, and the competitive set are local. Explore the state markets where renter density, water and sewer rates, and lease cost determine whether a store pencils.

Underwriting a laundromat? Start with the utility bill and the lease.

A methodology briefing walks through the analytical framework, the deliverable your capital source requires, and the current utility-cost, turns-per-day, and lease benchmarks for your trade area and format.

Request a methodology briefing
Sources

Data sources and dates.

Every figure on this page traces to a named authority. Laundromat readings are basis-dependent and often self-reported or trade-sourced; store counts, market size, and operating ratios differ by provider and basis, as flagged throughout.

  1. Coin Laundry Association, 2024 Laundry Industry Survey (fielded April–June 2024; 377 usable responses; approximately ±4.9-point margin of error; self-reported 2023 data), via PlanetLaundry: median utilities 20% (mean 21%) and 53% naming utilities their biggest problem, median operating net profit 27%, median store gross revenue $335,000, median rent 18% ($4,000/month), 67 average machines (36.5 washers, 30.4 dryers), 2,850 sq ft average, vend prices, WDF and commercial-account penetration, payment mix, attendance, and a $15.34 median attendant wage.
  2. Coin Laundry Association, Industry Overview: approximately 29,500 coin laundries generating nearly $5 billion in annual gross revenue; 1,000–5,000 sq ft on 10–25-year leases; existing stores valued primarily on net revenues; recession-resistant necessity demand; the industry “primarily composed of individual owner/operators.”
  3. IBISWorld, Laundromats in the US (NAICS 812310), 2025–2026: $7.1 billion (2025) rising to $7.2 billion (2026); 18,374–18,375 establishments; establishment count declining ~0.5% per year 2020–2025; CSC ServiceWorks the largest company; 1.5–1.6% CAGR (forecast).
  4. The Laundry Boss and secondary trade sources (2024–2025): the older CLA-attributed figure of ~35,000 stores; buildout-cost ranges (~$200,000 to over $1 million); customer-proximity and repeat-usage figures (trade-sourced, not primary Census data).
  5. Martin Ray, citing IBISWorld (2024–2025): ~18,375 coin laundries and ~$6.8 billion in gross annual revenue; trade-sourced customer demographics (~60% renters, ~87% within one mile, ~$28,000 median customer household income, ~90% repeat usage) and survival/ROI figures (directional, not audited).
  6. BizBuySell (2025): laundromat discretionary-earnings margins near 38%, among the highest of small-business categories; franchised-store share too small to materially affect average financials or valuation multiples.
  7. WaveMAX, 2024 FDD Item 19 and 2025 franchisor materials: 72+ open locations; average gross revenue $471,201 across 50 reporting stores; $1M–1.5M total investment with 65–75% financing via Electrolux partners (franchisor-sourced Item 19 disclosure, not independently audited).
  8. Cents, “Into the Fold 2025”: pickup-and-delivery orders averaging $79.81 versus $44.19 for drop-off; WDF adoption data.
  9. PlanetLaundry (2023–2024): a WDF operator grossing $125,000/month with 75% from pickup-and-delivery; a ~14-cents-per-pound PUD labor benchmark; WDF shrinkage, refunds, and re-dos targeted under 5% of WDF revenue.
  10. Turnsapp (2025) and CT Acquisitions (2026): card/app conversion associated with a reported 17–22% revenue lift and complete electronic transaction records; conversion cost $550–2,100 per machine; coin-only cash-skim as the leading diligence failure.
  11. CT Acquisitions (2026): institutional buyers requiring 5–7+ years of remaining lease plus options; SDE and EBITDA valuation multiples; unverifiable cash revenue as the #1 reason coin-store deals fail diligence.
  12. Peak Business Valuation (2024–2025): laundromat SDE multiples of 3.16–4.23x and revenue multiples of 1.19–1.78x.
  13. ProjectionHub analysis of SBA loan data: Live Oak Banking Company leading laundromat-acquisition lending (2,523 approved loans averaging $1,505,613); Huntington National Bank leading startups (3,693 loans averaging $276,148).
  14. Cents / trycents.com (2024–2025) and HK Laundry: utilities at 15–40% of revenue by equipment efficiency; the utilities-as-a-percentage-of-gross (UPG) discipline (~15% newer equipment, ~20% older); sewer commonly billed as a percentage of metered water (Los Angeles ~93%, San Diego ~95%).
  15. presscleaners / The Laundry Bag (2025) and dojobusiness (2024–2026): cross-provider utility-cost ranges; revenue-per-machine benchmarks (washers ~$1,000–2,000/month, dryers ~$600–1,200/month; trade-sourced).
  16. Wash Weekly and American Coin-Op (2023–2024): turns-per-day of 3–8 (average ~5), also the IRS audit range; the caution that TPD must be read with vend price and equipment mix, not in isolation.
  17. U.S. Small Business Administration, SOP 50 10 8 (effective June 1, 2025): 10% minimum equity injection for change-of-ownership; independent business appraisal from a Qualified Source when financed intangibles exceed $250,000; 51% (existing) / 60% (new-construction) owner-occupancy; the passive-business bar (13 CFR 120.110(c)); going-concern appraisal allocation and special-purpose-property appraiser requirements.
  18. USDA Rural Development, Business & Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan Program under the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative: rural eligibility (population under 50,000); acquisition, equipment, real estate, and modernization; guarantee percentages (80% / 70% / 60% by loan size); job-creation/retention requirement.
  19. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, TSCA perchloroethylene (PERC) risk-management rule (effective January 17, 2025), with a Wisconsin DNR summary: PERC banned in dry cleaning, prohibited in machines purchased after June 16, 2025, with a dry-cleaner phase-out through December 19, 2034; roughly 85% of US dry cleaners used PERC by the 1980s, a probable human carcinogen.
  20. Self.inc citing the U.S. Census Bureau (2025): ~31.4% of the US population (nearly 103 million people) renting as of 2023; renter share by state from 25.7% (West Virginia) to 58.9% (District of Columbia), with New York at 45.7% and California at 44.2%; 34% of ~120 million households renter-occupied as of the 2017 Census.
  21. KMF (2026): losing one turn per day in a 40-washer store cutting annual revenue by roughly $64,800; a 10% utility increase materially reducing net profit.
  22. Wash-Dry-Fold POS / Liberty Laundry (2024): commercial washer/dryer lifespan of roughly 10–15 years; a multi-store operator normalizing about $1 million of new machines every 15 years across three stores.
  23. NorthOne (2025): coin-to-card conversion cost of roughly $400–1,000+ per machine; trade-sourced survival-rate (~95%) and ROI (20–35%) figures (directional, not government data).
  24. Metrobi, citing a third-party projection: the US online laundry-services market estimated at $8.28 billion in 2023 (forecast / third-party, not a realized result).