Buying used equipment

[Jesse370ss]

"Looking for Opinions"
I am taking a business loan for 150k to buy a fully equipped 2018 GMC Box truck with 18k kilometers. Equipped with a sapphire scientific 370ss with 1500 hours. Also Revolution hybrid Duct cleaning package bought bran new in 2018. Fully equipped.
Tools and wands included:
Large Titanium wand
Rotovac 360i
Stair tool
Multiple other small tools and attachments
Drimaster 3 upholstery tool
Portable carpet cleaner with titanium wand
Dustbane integra 2 dude speed
Vispa 35b floor scrubber.
All kinds of sprayers and 1 years worth of chemicals.
Operates with no Competition in a small town in Northern Ontario. Owner is Retireing and wants to sell me his Equipment.
Have been working for him and learning and have seen his business make good profits without Advertising or putting very little effort. I believe I can Advertise and take this to the Next Level.
Thoughts??
Is this a good buy?

 

[gordon qian]

It depends on how many loyal customers he has and how successful his business model is. All I can tell you is the estimated price for the used equipments, which is about 32k usd/40k cad (being generous on the estimate here). Electric duct portable+accessories, 12k usd/15k cad. 370ss 14k usd, 2" vac hoses+1/4" pressure hose 1k usd. Rotovac+wands, 2k usd. Electric portable, 1k usd. Miscellaneous, 2k usd. You can figure out the gmc truck's worth compare to the ones on the local market. Imo, the electric portable duct machine is the weaker part of the business model, most guys in Ontario are running older/newer heatseal diesel slide-in duct cleaning truckmount. Hypervac H2 or pto are even more superior. Yes I know you can do duct zoning to get good result with electric duct portable, but good luck if the basement is finished or the house has 35+ vents on one furnace.

 

[Jesse370ss]

Update,Just seen this now, I haven't been on the forums in awhile. So yes the price for the used Equipment alone is high I know. But the business it's self is very profitable. I am the only carpet cleaning truck mount or Air duct cleaning service in my smaller city. I have been swamped. Took over officially August 1st and did over 30k in sales in 3 months. The hypervac 220v has worked great for all my jobs so far. I only do residential and it's mostly bungalows or 2 story mid size homes. Town is full of them. The carpets are the most profitable cause I do commercial hallways of some apartments. I have only started and I think it will get better in time. There was also a ton more stuff he gave me as we were clearing out his shop. I have a spare blower and cat pump for the 370ss. My loan payments are going to be easy and this will be payed off within 5 years. I think it was one of the best investments I've made. I went from making $17 bucks an hour to $150 with a bit of overhead. I've gotten great reviews since I started as well. Thank you for the input tho it's good to get opinions.

 

[gordon qian]

You are on the right track, 10k canadian rupees gross per month in the summer is reasonable for a new guy to become successful, especially if you have at least 1 employee. Long term and short term operational cost will set you back anywhere from 15-30%. 370ss is a great equipment if used and maintained correctly, commercial and residential. Hypervac 220v is good for condos and will work in smaller homes, but it can never compete with 50hp heatseal or pto truckmounts which can clean out the heavier garbage inside bigger detached home or commercial or newly constructed homes (these experienced owner/operator can often easily inspect the hvac build quality and even offer repairs for visible duct+furnace problems). But if you have two different type of vehicles for the business, it'll be very difficult to manage without a permanent employee to manage one vehicle for you.