The shock of purchasing a route

[agrantha]

Good morning Bulk men and women

There is a thread in vendiscuss talking about the advantages of purchasing a route.  I currently purchase one machine at a time.  This keeps me from borrowing money and it is also gentle to my psycho.  I don’t know how I would react if I acquired 15 new machines/locations instantly….especially with me working a full time job.  Don’t get me wrong I like the idea of purchasing a route.  I just wonder how I would react to the instant amount of additional responsibility.

Should I stop buying one machine at a time and save up $500 to $1000 to purchase a route?  Or, should I continue to buy one machine at a time?  It usually cost me around $150 to buy a machine, pay charity (annually), get machine located and fill with candy.

Maybe you all are right because I may be able to pay $600 for 12 to 15 machines already located.  Should I factor in all the work I will need to do?  Swap machines out, clean them, etc.  As many have mentioned, abandoned routes and nasty unmaintained machines is a positive correlation.  In many cases, I would need to bring in another machine…take the existing machine home to clean/repair it and put back into production.

I guess I could handle the shock of an instant inventory if the price is right.

Anton

[sherlock]

Because you are paying $150 total for equip, product, and location I am going to assume you are buying your machines new.

You can continue doing this and build slowly or purchase a route as you've described above.

BUT, you can also go for this 3rd option: look for good deals on gently used equipment.

This gives you the best of both worlds  -

1. Buy used machines and place them at a pace you are comfy with to avoid that rapid growth "shock" that you may get when buying a whole route.

2. You get to pick your locations (or at least which ones you will market to) instead of accepting whatever locations the previous route-owner had.

3. You don't have to clean up somebody else's mess at neglected locations.

4. You will drop your per machine/location price well below $150, which allows you to grow your route a little faster...but not too fast.

[agrantha]

Thanks Sherlock

You always give good advice.  Will you be my personal mentor? 

Anton

[havending]

I tend to shy away from buying a route because you never know what you have until you have already bought it.  People normaly do not sell off great  locations. 

[JEREMYTINA]

Buying a route isn't so bad if you try and negotiate to get the route for the cost of the machines used.  Worst case, if you have underperformers, you could pull them, and sell the machines off on EBay or CL and be out nothing for them.  Or keep them if they are in good condition like Sherlock says and recirculate them into new locs you find yourself.

[JPVendCo.]

i think a route of 15 machines wouldn't be that hard for you to handle. I recently added a route of an Additional 110 machines. that was a bit difficult, but I paid 50 bucks on location a piece, can't beat that price.

I would say, buying a small route would be okay for you, keep adding new machines to the mix and you could build a nice part time income.

[joebob051977]

Dealing with a neglected route can be quite challenging, but for the right price it can be worth the price. I'm dealing with a lot of the issues right now on a neglected route I just purchased. It requires a lot of time. I'm sharing this experience in Taking a route to Kakalaki if you'd like to read about all the "opportunities" to make positive changes on this route.

http://vendiscuss.com/forum/index.php?topic=8718.0

[kai1836]

Havending gives some very good advice on this. Unless you are buying something that has records and some way to prove the income, you'll never know.

[mainor5251]

Got some information today while I was out placing and servicing some machines, that there was a guy here in my city that was looking to sell a small route of 22 doubles for $900.  Got to find this guy and find out if he still has them and what kind of machines, condition, locations, etc.  This could be a sweet deal.

[havending]

Buying a route isn't so bad if you try and negotiate to get the route for the cost of the machines used.  Worst case, if you have underperformers, you could pull them, and sell the machines off on EBay or CL and be out nothing for them.  Or keep them if they are in good condition like Sherlock says and recirculate them into new locs you find yourself.

I get your point but if you but junk then have to unload it on ebay  it takes time from making you money.