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Car Wash Underwriting Tool

Score an acquisition target on the six factors that decide a deal — Market Quality, Site Quality, financial quality, membership durability, operating quality, and risk — rebuild the EBITDA, and get a score-guided valuation. No narrative, just the scorecard.

How to use the underwriting tool

  1. Optionally enter the target's ZIP to pre-fill Market Quality inputs (income, population, existing supply, competitor rating) from the WashIndex dataset.
  2. Work through the six factors. Numeric inputs score automatically against the published site selection benchmarks; judgment calls are dropdowns.
  3. Rebuild the EBITDA in the financial section — the bridge from seller EBITDA to maintenance-capex-adjusted EBITDA drives the valuation.
  4. Read the scorecard panel: total score, decision band, suggested multiple, valuation with sensitivity grid, and a copy-ready IC summary.

Enter the target's 5-digit ZIP to pull income, population, existing supply, and competitor rating from the WashIndex dataset.

01 Market Quality · 20 pts · —

"Is this a good trade area?" Measure inside the 3–5 mile trade area or 10-minute drive time, not the metro.

02 Site Quality · 20 pts · —

"Is this specific parcel advantaged?" Operations are fixable after close; the parcel is not.

03 Financial Quality · 20 pts · —

"Is the EBITDA real?" Rebuild it in three steps: seller → normalized → maintenance-capex-adjusted.

Seller EBITDA—
− unverified add-backs—
− rent / manager / maintenance—
Normalized EBITDA—
− maintenance capex—
Capex-adjusted EBITDA—
Haircut vs. seller—
04 Membership Quality · 15 pts · —

"Is the recurring revenue durable?" Score quality separately from size — 2,000 loyal members beat 4,000 discounted ones.

05 Operating Quality · 15 pts · —

"Do customers keep coming back?" Pull these from review data — the seller can't dress it up. WashIndex scores every wash on 7 pillars and 55 signals.

06 Capex, Legal & Environmental Risk · 10 pts · —

"What can blow up after close?" Anything unverified stays at the middle score until diligence proves otherwise.

Guide
How to underwrite a car wash
The complete prose version: six factors, the worked EBITDA bridge, and the DSCR math.
Checklist
Due-diligence checklist
44 checks by factor plus the 15-document request list. Printable.
Reference
Valuation multiples
What washes trade at by segment and format — and on which EBITDA.
Framework
The six-factor scorecard
Where the weights and decision bands come from, with metric tables.
Reference
Site selection benchmarks
The AADT, income, and saturation bands the tool scores against.
Platform
Score targets with real data
Market Quality, Site Quality, and operating quality measured for every wash in the US and Canada.

Get updates when the benchmarks refresh

Optional — the tool is free either way. We send market analysis, data insights, and industry reports; the scoring bands here update when the underlying data does.

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