Buying a Laundromat: Direct Mail Offers and Seller Financing

Buying a laundromat works a lot like buying houses off-market: you build a list of every location in your target area, mail the owners directly, and negotiate the note with the seller instead of a bank. Alyssa Mouton, who owns a laundromat in Louisiana and consults with other operators, acquired hers exactly that way — a letter to an owner who was not listed, followed by seller financing the owner proposed himself.

The part most investors get wrong is the exit math. The money in a laundromat is not in the quarters. Self-service covers overhead; wash-and-fold, pickup and delivery, and government linen contracts are where margin lives. Which makes a self-service-only shop owned by a retiring operator the value-add target.

Below: how to source one that isn’t for sale, what the seller note actually looked like, the seven revenue lines running out of one building, how SAM.gov contracting works, and where this model stops being passive.

From the Real Estate Pros Show

This article draws on an interview with Alyssa Mouton of Alyssa Mouton Brand on the Real Estate Pros Show, hosted by Issa Hanna.

Finding a Laundromat That Isn’t For Sale

Mouton did not shop listings. She searched her target area, identified every laundromat she was interested in, physically visited each one, and sent a letter to each owner. One of her top choices — ten minutes from her house — wrote back saying they weren’t looking to sell, but were willing to have a conversation. That conversation became the deal.

If that sequence sounds familiar, it should. It is list-build, drive-for-dollars, direct mail, with a commercial asset at the end instead of a tired rental.

The demographic argument behind it is worth taking seriously. A large share of independent laundromat owners are at or near retirement, and Mouton’s position is blunt: that generation responds to mail in a way they do not respond to anything else.

Baby boomers are retiring and baby boomers love a good letter. They love a good letter in the mail. That is one of the top ways to reach that generation.

Host Issa Hanna made the same point from the residential side. Over 250 first-time buyer transactions, he had clients attach handwritten letters to offers on competitive properties, because a letter puts a human being in front of the seller where a cold call puts a stranger.

Practical notes if you are copying the method:

• Work a defined radius you would actually want to drive to daily, not a whole metro.
• Visit before you mail. You want to know which shops are self-service only — that’s the one you want, for reasons covered below.
• Expect the useful reply to say “not selling, but let’s talk.” That is the opening, not a rejection.

Structuring the Seller Financing

Mouton was prepared to go the conventional route. She was bank-ready for a commercial loan, with seller financing sitting in the back of her mind as a possibility she hadn’t pushed. The seller raised it himself.

What they signed looked like a bank deal on paper. By her description, it included a down payment, a stated interest rate, a promissory note, and a personal guarantee — “the same way” a conventional loan would be structured. That matters. An owner-carry on a small business is not a handshake; treating it as a documented note protects both sides and gives you something a future lender or buyer can read.

The tradeoff she named is term length. Seller notes on small businesses generally run shorter than commercial loans, which means a higher monthly debt service against the same purchase price. Her argument for why that works here:

The notes are shorter than commercial loans, but look, you’re already in a cash business. So it’s paying itself.

That’s the structural case for this asset class over, say, a note on raw land. Revenue arrives daily, not on a lease cycle, and a short amortisation is serviceable when collections are continuous.

Two caveats before you model it. First, terms vary deal to deal — nothing here is a benchmark, it is one transaction. Second, a personal guarantee means your personal balance sheet is behind the note. Run the structure past your own attorney and CPA; neither Mouton nor this article is giving you legal or tax advice.

Self-service pays the bills, whereas wash and fold and government contracts are our profit. The base is the self-service and the profit is everything else.

— Alyssa Mouton, laundromat owner and business consultant

The Seven Income Streams on One Location

Mouton runs five to seven distinct revenue lines out of a single building. Enumerated, they are:

1. Self-service. Customers walk in and run their own loads. The obvious one, and the base.
2. Attended drop-off. An on-site attendant services the laundry; customers drop linens and leave.
3. Residential pickup and delivery. Demand for this accelerated through COVID alongside grocery and fuel delivery and never went back.
4. Commercial pickup and delivery. Same logistics, business clients, larger and more predictable volume.
5. Government contracts. Technically inside the delivery arm, but operationally its own world. Covered below.
6. ATM and vending. Low-attention ancillary income off foot traffic you already have.
7. Dry cleaning.

The business model underneath those lines is the part worth copying. In Mouton’s words, she does not want to rely on self-service — self-service pays the bills, while wash-and-fold and government contracts are the profit. The quarters cover rent, utilities, and payroll. Margin comes from services.

There is a direct crossover here for anyone in this audience running short-term rentals. Mouton pointed out that STR operators have constant, recurring linen demand — turnover after turnover, every week, forever. That is commercial pickup-and-delivery volume sitting in the same market where you already own property, and you likely know the operators personally.

If you own both sides of that transaction, the laundromat stops being a separate business and becomes vertical integration on your rental portfolio.

Why a Self-Service-Only Shop Is the Value-Add Target

The acquisition target is specific: a laundromat run by a retiring owner who never added services. Mouton’s thesis is that a lot of the boomer-owned inventory is self-service only, which means the buyer inherits a location where five or six of the seven revenue lines have simply never been built.

Hanna framed it in terms this audience already uses. You buy a duplex under market, you add value, it’s worth more than you paid. Same structure here — buy at A, add drop-off, add delivery, add contracts, now it’s worth B. The difference is that you are adding revenue lines rather than renovating, so the capital outlay per added stream can be modest relative to the lift.

The screening question on a walkthrough becomes simple. Is there an attendant? Is there a van? Is there a commercial account list? If the answer is no across the board and the machines are serviceable, every “no” is unexecuted upside.

On returns, be careful what you take from this. Mouton said her return on investment came back very fast in her case, and she gave no figures to support it — no purchase price, no revenue, no payback period. Treat that as one operator’s experience, not a number to underwrite against. Build your own model from the seller’s actual collections and your own cost to add each service line, and assume the ramp on commercial and government work takes longer than it did for someone who was already learning federal contracting in parallel.

Government Contracts: Registration, Bidding, and Getting Paid

This is Mouton’s strongest material and the least replicated piece of the model. The federal government buys far more than defense hardware from far more than defense primes — she’s seen solicitations for everything down to wigs on SAM.gov. If you provide a service, there is a reasonable chance an agency somewhere buys it.

She was learning government contracting before she ever owned a laundromat. Her original plan was a middleman play: register on SAM.gov, win contracts, then subcontract the actual work to providers in the relevant area. That is a legitimate standalone income stream if you don’t want to buy an operating business — but know the risk you’re carrying as prime.

The two tracks collided after she closed on the laundromat. She found a linen contract nearby that her existing capacity could service, bid it, and won.

The skill set she describes breaks into four parts:

• Getting registered on SAM.gov — the step where most people stall and quit.
• Reading a solicitation well enough to know whether you can actually perform it.
• Bidding to win.
• Invoicing the government so you get paid.

That last one is not a formality. It is a distinct administrative process, and it is the piece she warns people underestimate.

Her warning on pace: everything in government contracting happens fast once you engage. If you bid, be ready to perform.

The reason it anchors her five-year plan is duration. These contracts run five years, so each win is five years of consistent revenue. Her near-term goal is two to three more contracts before buying laundromat number two — she scales the revenue first, then buys capacity when the existing site is running day and night.

Where the Model Is Not Passive

Mouton rejects the word outright. People enter this industry expecting a coin-operated annuity and find out otherwise.

A lot of people in the laundromat industry say, oh yeah, I just want a passive business. No — you’re going to be rolling up your sleeves. You’re going to be handling dirty laundry, you’re going to be cleaning bathrooms. If you see the word passive, veer away.

At the time of the interview she was personally running the pickup and delivery route for several hours each morning because the business was short a driver. That is the owner, with a consulting business on the side, driving the van.

Driver turnover is the single problem she would erase with a magic wand. If you underwrite this model, underwrite driver churn into it — the delivery arm is what carries your commercial and government volume, and it breaks when the seat is empty.

The more interesting fragility is in the back office. Asked what would happen if she disappeared for 30 days, her answer split cleanly: the floor would be totally fine, but government invoicing would not. No invoices means no collections, and while the money would eventually arrive in a lump, she pointed out that lumpy is not what the business is built on. Consistency is the whole point of a five-year contract.

On operations she rates the business a 7. SOPs exist — down to how to fold. The constraint is enforcement: her employees are family, and family gets away with things staff would not. Anyone building a business with relatives on payroll will recognise the gap between having written procedures and having followed procedures.

Frequently asked questions

How do you find a laundromat for sale if none are listed?

Build the list yourself and mail the owners. Mouton searched her target area, identified every laundromat she was interested in, visited each location in person, and sent a letter to each owner. The deal she bought came from an owner ten minutes from her home who replied that they weren’t looking to sell but were open to a conversation.

It is the same off-market motion wholesalers run on houses, applied to a commercial asset. The advantage is that many independent operators are approaching retirement with no listing, no broker, and no plan.

What does seller financing on a laundromat usually include?

In Mouton’s deal it included a down payment, a stated interest rate, a promissory note, and a personal guarantee — documented the same way a conventional loan would be. The main structural difference she identified is term: seller notes tend to run shorter than commercial loans, which raises monthly debt service.

Terms vary by deal and by seller, and a personal guarantee puts your own balance sheet behind the note. Have an attorney and CPA review any structure before you sign.

How does a small business get started with government contracts?

Registration on SAM.gov is the first step and, by Mouton’s account, the point where most people stall and give up. After registration, the working skills are reading a solicitation to confirm you can actually perform it, submitting a competitive bid, and then invoicing the government correctly once you win.

Her warning is about pace: once you engage, everything in government contracting moves fast. Don’t bid work you aren’t staffed to deliver.

How long do government service contracts run, and how do you get paid?

Mouton’s contracts run five years, which is why she treats each win as five years of consistent revenue rather than a one-off job. That duration is the reason she plans to add two or three more contracts before buying a second location.

Payment runs through an invoicing process you have to manage yourself. It is the one function she admitted does not survive her absence — if she stepped away for a month, the shop floor would run fine but the invoices would not go out, and the cash timing the business depends on would break.

Is owning a laundromat actually passive income?

No. Mouton’s position is that passive does not exist in business, and in this one specifically you should expect to handle dirty laundry and clean bathrooms. During the interview she was personally running the morning pickup and delivery route because the business was short a driver.

An attendant can cover the floor and let you step away during the day, but the delivery arm, the employment churn, and the back-office contract administration all demand owner attention.

The bottom line

If you want this asset, start with the list: map every laundromat inside a radius you’d actually drive daily, walk each one to find the self-service-only shops with an older owner, and get letters in the mail. Everything else in this model — the seller note, the added service lines, the federal contracts — only becomes available after an owner who never listed decides to have a conversation with you.