New Town Homes

Own homes are growing in popularity; they are similar to an apartment, except you buy them, not rent. You still have all the same decisions and paperwork in buying townhouses versus a regular single family home. Some town homes are detached and others are bundled together like apartment housing. One advantage of a town home is their maintenance, lawn, and snow removal; those types of chores are usually covered by your association fees. As with apartment living there are some bylaws or rules of things you can't do, or have. However if you like apartment living, but don't want to just throw your money away every month on rent, then buying a town home might be just the thing for you. You will also have close neighbors, like in an apartment, so if you like to have other people close by then you should love living in a town home. Town homes are located in most major cities so you will be conveniently located to all the downtown city hustle and bustle. You can catch a taxi if you don't want to drive or walk to dinner or your favorite shops. Most town homes come with a basement and garage, so no more Laundromat or coin operated machines to share. You can have your own set in your own home. And with a garage you don't have to scrape snow, and ice off your car in the morning. Some town home communities have amenities, like a club house, pool, and work out rooms. Town homes are very popular with first time home buyers, especially, people with very busy schedules that don't have a lot of time for yard work, home maintenance and snow removal. It is also a good choice for retirees, who have spent many years working and taking care of a home. No matter what your situation you will enjoy owning a town home. The pride of ownership, and the freedom that comes with it, will last a lifetime.

Top Ten Things You Need to Know When Buying a Coin Laundry

So you think the coin laundry business is for you? Easy money you collect once a week? Place runs itself? Consider these factors when looking at the coin laundry business 1. Change Machines Good coin laundries run on change machines. If a customer cannot get change, they are going somewhere else. How many change machines does the store have? A Standard change brand change machine can hold about $3000. You can easily check the specifications on their website. On change machine means the owner is running a tight ship. Two change machines means the place is hopping. No change machine means people either have to ask the grumpy guy behind the counter or the place is not really a laundromat. 2. Store Sign Look at the store sign. Does it light up? Is half of it missing? Does it clearly tell people what that it's a coin laundry or does it just say "Bob's"? The store sign will tell you everything you need to know about how well the store has been run. A great store has a great sign. 3. Top Load Machines With today's utility costs, it is very difficult to make money with Top load machines. If the store you are looking at has them and the place is busy, this is the kind of store you DO want to buy cheap and replace the top load machines with 3x - 5x front loads. You will have to invest in new machines but you will increase you prices and profits. If the store has top load machines and is empty, drive around to see what competitor just popped up that has all new front loaders. Stay away from this store 4. Brand of Equipment The Maytag man you see falling asleep in the commercials on TV should go visit some Maytag equipped coin laundries. While Maytag is a good household name, they don't make all there own commercial laundry equipment and quality has suffered. The top brad in the industry is Wascomat. Who is Wascomat? Ever heard of Electrolux? An all Wascomat store is a very good sign. Go look at a Wascomat beside any other brand and chances are, you will want to use the Wascomat. Try it! 5. Utility Bills There is a commonly understood method that your utility bills are 14% of your sales. Be careful with this as old equipment will be more like 20% of your sales. I don't recommend looking at utility bills unless you are calculating consumption. This means that you are making a calculation based on the total amount of water being used divided per laundry load divided by the vend price to try to get approximate wash revenue. If you can do this calculation, this is good. 6. Conversion There may be a big difference in how you would run a store versus how the store is being run by the current owner. Are you friendly and ongoing? Do you care about your customers? Will you fix the store sign and make sure you always have change and washers available? The owner of the store affects conversion more than any other factor but is not the only factor. New bigger equipment also helps but at the end of the day your personality will drive the business. I should say you "consistent" personality. Once you lose interest, sell the business before you kill it. 7. Neighborhood Get the population demographics from the city. You want a good mix of ethnic backgrounds and the more kids (the more dirty laundry) the better. A neighborhood full of retired people is bad news. A neighborhood with too high average household income is no good. Low rise 8 plex to 24 plex are better than the giant high rise buildings because they generally have poor laundry rooms. Also, rental properties in the neighborhood trump condos for coin laundries. 8. Parking Make sure there is either plenty of parking or an awful lot of people within walking distance. Imagine how far you would carry your laundry if you had to walk to a laundromat. You really want to have a lot of parking if possible. If you don't have parking in the front of the store, you likely will not have a drop off laundry business. Also as a side note, if the road directly in front of the store has an island that separates traffic, you will have to stand outside and watch traffic flow into the store. Traffic islands are generally small business killers. 9. Wash and Fold I would suggest to anyone looking at the laundry business to ask themselves what the benefit of having a drop off laundry counter is. I have seen many real estate agents claiming that you can increase your business by adding a wash and fold counter. You can increase your business, but not the way you think. Getting a new revenue stream from drop off laundry means committing to the effort of building up that business and paying someone to be there for extended hours. It is rare (but they do exist) that a laundromat exceeds it's cost of staff in wash and fold sales.If you are running the place yourself full time then do it, you are there anyway. If you are buying as an investment consider this. If you have a full time person already doing wash and fold and plan to eliminate it, count on a 10% to 40% drop in your self-serve traffic. The real prize in having an attendant comes from the comfort you give to the person doing self- serve laundry. 10. Consistency Well run laundries are consistent in everything. I mean EVERYTHING! This includes (but limited to) your store hours, staff, method of cleaning, cleaning schedule, wash and fold method, machine brands, available change, soap, supplies etc etc. The less consistent you are, the less consistent your customers will be. I have run 3 laundromats for 5 years now and unfortunately for me, its time to exit the business. I have learned a lot and met many new wonderful people. I sold 2 of the three stores I had and both new owners took my advise to heart and have made good use of there new investments. I have one store left for sale and I'm torn to see it go. Profitable coin laundry for sale in Toronto. Cash business, good income, turn key operation.

ALL 3 LOCATIONS ARE OPEN 24 HOURS A DAY

If the Laundromat is close to their home and caters to their demand for low price they are likely loyal customers. Segment 2: Quality Hungry. This is a segment with a higher age demographic (above 30) and behaves in much different way than the previous segment. Although convenience is a common criterion that induces their purchase behavior when it comes to Laundromat service, they are more concerned about the quality of their clothes. With a family of household members of four or above this segment values the condition of their clothes from the laundry service. They are thus very selective about the machine service capacity and which detergent is being used for their laundry service to maintain the quality of the clothes. Segment 3: Drifters. This segment makes up a minimum percentage to the Laundromats customer base. They normally have a busy lifestyle and convenience is the only identifiable factor that drives their usage of the Laundromat’s services. Buying Incentive & Positioning from the marketing analysis with the aid of the survey statistics A&R Laundromat has to provide the following buying incentives in order to reach out to their target market effectively and efficiently. i. Low Price: Introducing the Pickup and delivery service to customers with a low price will most likely have a very positive outcome. ii. Ensure Quality: Emphasizing to customers about the use of high quality detergent which will keep the quality of clothes at its best has to be a key consideration. iii. Convenience: Advocating the opportunity cost the customers are missing out due to their time at the laundry will further motivate them to use the new service.

PICKUP & DELIVERY “We Guarantee Quality to Your Laundry at a Low Cost While You Relax at Home” Marketing Strategy According to the marketing analysis which helped the Laundromat depict the buying incentive and positioning for the target customers, the following marketing strategy needs to be implemented: Product: The service provided by a Laundromat is limited to very few unique features. Thus, introducing the new service “Pickup & Delivery” which ensures convenience for customers is going to help A&R differentiate from competitors. In addition quality needs to beef utmost importance in order to generate a healthy image and future loyalty. It is quite likely that imitation of the service will soon be introduced, thus it is important for A&R to provide special features in their current services.

According to the US Census 2010 the entire Population of Laundromats in the United States is more than 35,000. For “SONS LAUNDRY AND DRYCLEANING SERVICE” Laundromat the locations they are operating there are more than 10 Laundromats in each of the neighborhood. Thus the key for Sons Laundromat would be to provide unique service with superior quality and competitive price. Resources Currently Sons Laundromat employs 4 full time managers for the four branches it operates in New York. Apart from the full time managers there are 5 Supervisors who works in shift basis in each branches. So overall, the Laundromat has 20 supervisors in 4branches. The Laundromat provides service related to washing and drying with customers who operate the machines using their lifetime membership card. The card can be filled with dollar amount and the usage can be tracked through an automated integrated system the business runs on. The business also provides a Drop-Off Service for customers who want to leave their clothes to be washed and dried and to be picked up later. Apart from the washing and drying service the Laundromat also provides sales of soaps and detergents at a competitive price. The Large facility in the Laundromat has wide variety of vending machines, internet access, sitting arrangement with television broadcasting the local channels. Corporate Policy Sons Laundromat faces a lot of competition which is why satisfying the customers become a key ingredient to success. By providing the customers a large. Facilities with a significant number of dryers and washers ranging in size the Laundromat tries to bring efficiency in their service. Providing a clean and healthy environment is also important for maintaining a good relation with the customers. Briefly, customers are provided with a homely and friendly atmosphere in the Laundromat with prompt and efficient service quality. SWOT Analysis Strength Weakness Large Facility Operating only in 4 location in New Significant numbers of washers & dryers York Clean & Friendly Environment No variation in service from other Parking Space Available Laundromats One Day Drop-off Service Word of mouth is the only source of Lifetime Membership Card for $1 Marketing Opportunity Threat Expand the Business in other locations of New York Large Competition Provide a Unique service to attract more Increasing costs & taxes customers – Pick Up & Delivery Marketing Objectives In a business that has large competition and little areas of differentiation in service A&R Laundromat does not want to keep any stones unturned.