Asset sale or share sale.

Nearly every laundromat deal is an asset sale. It is what we typically use. The buyer purchases the store itself: the machines, the lease, the name, the customer base, on a debt-free, cash-free basis. Your company keeps its history, its cash, and anything the deal excludes. The other structure, a stock sale, moves the whole company, owners and all, and both sides of it are worth knowing.

The stock sale, both sides of it

What it offers a seller. The company itself changes hands, so contracts, licenses, and the lease can stay in place without reassignment, and some sellers see better tax treatment on the sale of their shares. In larger multi-entity deals it can be the cleaner path.

What it costs. The buyer inherits the company's entire history, known and unknown, so diligence goes deeper, the lawyers write longer, the price usually carries a discount for that risk, and many buyers simply decline the structure for small businesses. The two tax treatments also pull in opposite directions, which is exactly why the structure belongs in the price conversation with your accountant, not after it.

Why an asset sale works in your favor

A clean break. You sell the store, not your corporate past. Whatever your company did over twenty years stays your company's business, and you walk away with the proceeds and anything the deal leaves out.

A faster close. Diligence covers the store: the revenue, the lease, the machines, the bills. Nobody has to underwrite your company's full history, so the lawyers write less and the closing date comes sooner.

Room for your accountant to work. The purchase price gets allocated across equipment, goodwill, and the rest, and how it is allocated changes what you keep after tax. That is a planning conversation worth having before the LOI, and your accountant will know exactly what to do with it.

How the money can arrive: the annuity

Most owners assume a sale means one check. We usually put two paths on the table, and many sellers pick the second. The first is the cash path: a market price, most of it up front. The second is the annuity: a higher valuation, paid to you as level monthly payments over the term, often ten years.

Owners choose the annuity for three reasons. The monthly payment is set in the purchase agreement, so you know exactly what is coming and when, the way a pension works. No bank sits in the middle of the deal, so we can close in 45 to 60 days instead of 90. And the tax lands across the years you are paid instead of all at once in the year you sell, which gives your accountant a decade to plan instead of one filing. Sellers who just sold a store for cash know that tax bill well.

There is flex between the two paths. Many owners land on a majority-cash split: most of the price up front, the balance as monthly payments, which spreads some of the tax without waiting a decade for the bulk of the money. And for owners who want to stay in the business, there is a partnership path, where you sell part of the company, keep a stake, and grow it with a bigger balance sheet behind you. We structure deals in tax-smart ways around what you need. The right split depends on your situation, and that is a conversation, not a formula.

What to do with this

Ask your accountant and your attorney about both structures before you sign anything, and bring them the numbers. We will put both paths in writing so they have something real to react to. A first conversation is confidential, our process is public, and what happens after the LOI covers the closing stretch.