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What's the furthest away you would purchase a route?


Determined

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Hi! I found a route for sale and I think it's a decent deal. The catch is its like 3 hrs from my house. I don't know if I'm seriously considering it but I've had it in mind for awhile. So I'm looking for opinions! He has 22 routemaster's on location and another 6 in his garage. There all charity locations. He's asking $1500. He just reduced his price. He says it takes 5 hrs to service the route. He says the route makes 600-800 every 2 months. It seems a little light and probably an honest number to me. Say the route does 350 a month you could stretch the service cycle to 3 months and collect $1,050 for a day of work. It would be a long day of work but it seems like it might be worth it.

Like I said not sure if I'm serious about buying it because of distance and really don't like candy. But for $1,500 it might be worth it.

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Best case scenario margins are good you make your investment back plus more and only service 4 days total throughout the year (if you stretch it to the 3 month service cycle like you said).

Worst case scenario you have 28 machines and 22 locations, even if the route sucks you can re-locate them to your town or re-sell.

 

I would say if your trying to go full time it might be worth it,  even stay an extra night in a cheap motel 1 night to help reduce the workload and drive time per day. 

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40 minutes ago, BCB434 said:

Best case scenario margins are good you make your investment back plus more and only service 4 days total throughout the year (if you stretch it to the 3 month service cycle like you said).

Worst case scenario you have 28 machines and 22 locations, even if the route sucks you can re-locate them to your town or re-sell.

 

I would say if your trying to go full time it might be worth it,  even stay an extra night in a cheap motel 1 night to help reduce the workload and drive time per day. 

The dream is to go full time someday but I'm a long ways from there! 

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25 minutes ago, QuikVend said:

Probably doable, especially if you stretch it to 3 months. The only thing you might want to consider is, what if you get a service call?  

Out of order sign I guess. Wouldn't be able to offer a great service unfortunately.

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I would probably buy it. Then start locating all along the route you take to the machines. I just bought a few that are about 2 hours away and I'm stretching it to 3 months. 70$ for a machine on location would be a good deal around here. If you don't like it, run the route a couple times and then just sell it for at least what you paid.

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$54 per machine and 22 of them making money already, so they're isn't much risk. One long day or two every 3 months isn't going to be too much of a pain. I'd probably do it myself. 

I was looking at a pretty large route myself about a month or so ago. 100 locations with mostly racks and triples that was 5 hours away, but the numbers wouldn't work for me. The route you're looking at is relatively cheap, so it makes it an easier decision. 

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1 hour ago, QuikVend said:

$54 per machine and 22 of them making money already, so they're isn't much risk. One long day or two every 3 months isn't going to be too much of a pain. I'd probably do it myself. 

I was looking at a pretty large route myself about a month or so ago. 100 locations with mostly racks and triples that was 5 hours away, but the numbers wouldn't work for me. The route you're looking at is relatively cheap, so it makes it an easier decision. 

Yeah there's no way I could set up a route like that for $1,500. What questions should I be asking him?

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2 hours ago, Determined said:

Yeah there's no way I could set up a route like that for $1,500. What questions should I be asking him?

I've only bought a few small routes and all I think you have to go on is the vibe you get from the person, their reason for leaving the industry, and their numbers. The guys I've bought from seemed genuine and had legitimate reasons for selling. The numbers ended up being pretty close to accurate. If it's really big or expensive, try to draw up a contract.

I had one guy who wanted a down payment before showing me anything. I asked if it was refundable and he said we couldn't make a deal. I passed on that one. Don't be afraid to pass if you get an odd feeling. I never spend more or take jobs that the material cost was two or three times more than I can afford to lose.

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I've purchased 2 routes so far, along with a few other machines/boxes on location. I like to ask about numbers (sales, how long they've been on location, how long they've been vending) and reasons they aren't doing it anymore. 

Unless they have financial records to verify anything, you're just going on their word. I like to break it down by location and if I could duplicate it for the same price or less. So in your case, 22 locations for $1500 or $69/location. Even if you could find 22 machines for that price, you'd need the time, or money for a locator, to get them placed.

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