Sell a Laundromat in Tennessee

By Jason Taken, business broker · HedgeStone Business Advisors · Updated 2026-09-04 · 8 min read

The Tennessee Laundromat Market in Numbers

The 2023 County Business Patterns file reports 136 employer establishments and 539 paid employees in NAICS 812310 for Tennessee — an average of 4.0 paid employees per establishment.

136 employer establishments puts Tennessee 19 of 50. That is a mid-sized market: enough transaction activity that comparable evidence exists, and few enough operators that word travels, which is the practical argument for a blind marketing process.

Two cautions before anyone builds a thesis on that number. NAICS 812310 is titled Coin-Operated Laundries and Drycleaners, so it mixes two business types. And County Business Patterns counts only establishments with paid employees, which excludes the unattended, owner-run stores that make up a meaningful share of this industry. Treat it as a consistent yardstick between states, never as an inventory.

Where the population and the renters are

Source: American Community Survey via Census Reporter; metro areas as defined by the Census Bureau.

Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN is the largest metro in this extract at 2,079,596 residents and a 34.8% renter-occupied household share. The highest renter share among these metros is Memphis, TN-MS-AR at 39.5%, against 25.9% in Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA — a 13.6-point spread inside one state. Renter share is a demand screen, not a performance prediction: in-unit laundry access, household size, parking, visibility, hours, and competing machine capacity all move capture rate inside the same demographic profile.

What Laundromats Sell For in Tennessee

There is no published Tennessee multiple, and any page that gives you one has made it up. What exists is a national closed-sale distribution, which is the right anchor:

Source: BizBuySell Valuation Benchmarks, 2021-2025 closed sales reported to that platform.

What Tennessee changes is not the multiple — it is the cost structure that produces the earnings the multiple is applied to. Rent, wages, water and sewer rates, and electricity all vary by market and feed straight into your bottom line. Tennessee's all-sector average retail electricity price was 10.9 cents/kWh in 2024, about 16% below the U.S. all-sector average of 12.94 cents, ranking it 34 of 50 states from most to least expensive (Source: EIA State Electricity Profiles, 2024). Do not oversell that. A below-average electricity rate is a mild positive; it will not offset a short lease or undocumented revenue, and it says nothing about your water and sewer bill, which is set locally and is usually the larger line.

Where your specific store lands in the 2.72x-4.50x range is decided by five things, in roughly this order: remaining controllable lease term, how many independent sources document your revenue, equipment remaining life and the cost of the next replacement program, utility cost as a share of revenue, and whether the store runs without you. See laundromat valuation multiples for the full driver analysis.

Selling Confidentially in Tennessee

With 136 employer establishments in the state, there are enough active operators that a leaked sale reaches a competitor quickly. The process is built so that no one local learns anything until you decide they should:

1. Blind teaser. Revenue and earnings ranges, store size, machine count, general region. No name, no address, no photos, no cross streets.
2. Buyer qualification. Proof of funds or lender pre-qualification, relevant experience, and a timeline that matches yours — before anything identifying is shared.
3. NDA. Executed before the package moves.
4. Redacted package. Full financials, equipment schedule, lease terms, utility history.
5. Management call. Your operating detail, history, and reason for sale.
6. Discreet site visit. Scheduled so employees learn nothing.
7. Under contract. Only then do landlord, vendors, and staff conversations begin, on a schedule you control.

Your Tennessee buyer pool is not limited to Tennessee. Buyers relocating into Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, existing operators adding a second store, and out-of-state investors all bid on the same listings. See selling a laundromat confidentially.

Tennessee Rules That Touch Your Sale

Brokerage licensing. IBBA's state-licensing list does not identify Tennessee as a state that generally requires a real-estate license for a pure business-asset sale. That does not end the question: a transaction involving real property, a seller note, an equity interest, or a securities-adjacent structure can still trigger licensing or registration. The rule is confirmed with the Tennessee regulator and counsel before an engagement, not assumed (Source: IBBA, Guide to the Business Brokerage Profession).

Sales tax and bulk transfers. Tennessee imposes sales tax, and the 2023 Pruvent 50-state survey records an occasional-sale or isolated-sale provision that may apply to a transfer of business assets, subject to statutory exceptions. Do not read that as "equipment transfers tax-free." Occasional-sale provisions carry exceptions, registration conditions, and documentation requirements, and the survey is a 2023 research index rather than current law. Whether Tennessee requires a bulk-sale notice, tax clearance certificate, or withholding at closing should be confirmed by counsel for the specific transaction. Most states have moved away from the old UCC Article 6 model, but tax-clearance and successor-liability rules survive it in many places. Your CPA and attorney decide these, not your broker. What a broker does is make sure the question gets asked in week one instead of the week of closing.

ADA. A laundromat is a public accommodation under ADA Title III, which applies in Tennessee as it does everywhere. Existing-facility obligations and alteration standards are fact-specific: accessible parking and routes, entrances, maneuvering clearance, controls, folding areas, restrooms if provided, and accessible machines. A buyer's inspection will raise it, so know the answer first.

Environmental. If the premises — or an adjoining suite in the same building — ever housed dry cleaning, PCE releases can affect soil, groundwater, and vapor. Review environmental records before marketing. A Phase I ESA is common where real estate or a lender is involved and can be prudent on a leasehold deal with former dry-cleaning use. This is the one diligence item that can create a liability larger than the sale price.

Local approvals. Zoning and use, certificate of occupancy, business licensing, fire inspection, boiler and water-heater permits, plumbing and backflow, signage, and any local wage ordinance are municipal, not state-level. They are confirmed against the actual city and property file for your store.

What Tennessee Buyers and Their Lenders Will Verify

Assume every number is independently tested:

1. Three years of federal returns reconciled to P&Ls, bank deposits, and card-processor settlements
2. Machine-level payment-system exports, with stored-value card loads distinguished from machine cycle revenue
3. Multiple attended coin collections with dated count sheets
4. A physical revenue rebuild: machines × capacity × vend price × observed turns
5. Water consumption compared against manufacturer per-cycle usage, as a range rather than a ratio
6. Dryer revenue tested for a sensible relationship to washer volume at the store's actual time pricing

A seller who can supply all six sells near the top of the range. A seller who can supply one sells near the bottom, whatever the asking price says. See how buyers verify laundromat revenue.

Preparing a Tennessee Laundromat for Sale

More detail: preparing your laundromat for sale and documents needed to sell.

Selling in Tennessee Metro Markets

• Selling in Nashville — 690,130 residents, 47.6% renter-occupied households, $77,371 median household income
• Selling in Memphis — 618,980 residents, 55.1% renter-occupied households, $51,736 median household income

Each of those pages carries place-level renter share, household income, and the local utility and permit checkpoints that a statewide page cannot answer.

Summary

Selling a laundromat in Tennessee is the same discipline as anywhere else, applied to Tennessee's cost structure and transfer rules. Price from normalized earnings against the 2.72x-4.50x national distribution. Fix the lease before you market. Assemble the six evidence sources a buyer's lender will demand. Confirm Tennessee's sales-tax and clearance treatment with your CPA in week one. Then run a staged disclosure process so nobody local learns anything until you decide they should.

The Next Step If You Are Thinking About Selling

This page is general information about laundromat transactions, not legal, tax, or investment advice, and not a guarantee of sale price, timing, or financing approval. Verify current rules with your own CPA, attorney, lender, and the relevant state or municipal agency before acting.