SBA 7(a) Car Wash Feasibility Study in Texas

The biggest car wash tickets we see

A median loan of $2.2 million stands at 2.73x the nationwide 7(a) figure for car washes, and that ratio defines this cell. Texas holds 336 approvals between FY2017 and FY2026, worth $728.4 million, and ranks second among states for the class by number of loans; car wash is 12 of 39 among Texas asset classes. The middle half of loans runs from $507,500 to $3.4 million. Franchising is rare, at 3.3% of loans, so this is an owner-operator, land-and-equipment business.

Why the size

Express tunnels are built on a purchased site with long conveyors, water reclaim and vacuum systems, which is why the loan is a multiple of what other states record. The code mixes car and truck washes, including mobile washes, so a low-cost mobile operation sits in the same statistics as a large tunnel. The median therefore sits between two very different businesses, and a borrower should know which one is being compared.

Lenders and counties

Metro City Bank has 47 loans and Celtic Bank Corporation 35, then The Huntington National Bank 20, Commonwealth Business Bank 13 and Prosperity Bank 12. These are the holders SBA reports and nothing here says what any of them requires. Tarrant County has 60 loans, Harris 58, Dallas 39, Collin 26 and Denton 19, so the Dallas and Fort Worth area leads over Houston. Volume peaked near 47 loans in FY2019 and FY2021, and fell to 21 in FY2026, with FY2024 dollars at $42.4 million.

Floors

Cancellation reached 11.2% for approvals from FY2017 to FY2024 and 11.9% when undisbursed loans are counted. Charge-offs are low: of 189 loans that funded in FY2017 through FY2021, 1.1% have been written off, and the identical 1.1% fell inside five years. Because open loans can still fail, these are floors only.

What a Texas car wash study has to test

A study must prove traffic: vehicles per day on the road, the share that stop, and the competing tunnels within a short drive, because express washes are decided by access and visibility. It should test the membership model, average ticket, chemical, water and power costs, and the land price and site work that drive a loan near $2.2 million. Debt service coverage has to survive a wet season and a new competitor across the road. An appraiser will value the site as an operating business, so the revenue forecast must be one that can be tested.