A laundromat is a serious capital business, so it is worth saying the number plainly. $50,000 to $200,000 is realistic once you account for commercial washers and dryers, the buildout, the lease, and the utility hookups a laundromat demands. Buying an existing store can shift where that money goes, but not that it is a lot.
The bigger correction is the myth. Laundromats get sold as passive income, and they are not passive. The equipment is expensive up front, breaks down under constant use, and a single dead bank of machines on a busy weekend is lost revenue you cannot get back. Somebody has to maintain, clean, and secure the place, and pretending otherwise is how first-timers get burned.
Your make-or-break decision is location. A laundromat lives on the renters around it, the ones without a washer in their unit. Put it where people own machines and it sits empty. Put it in a dense neighborhood of apartments and it runs itself full. You are really betting on a few blocks.
Then watch utilities. Water, gas, and electricity are your largest ongoing cost, and an old building with bad plumbing can quietly turn a busy store unprofitable. Check the utility setup before you sign anything.
The rest, evaluating a location honestly, buying an existing store versus building new, and the equipment and utility math that decides the margin, is in the full plan:
See the full laundromat plan →
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