It is easy to fall in love with a laundromat site before the lease has been properly checked. The shopfront looks right, the foot traffic looks promising, the numbers the seller or agent quotes sound reasonable, and the temptation is to move quickly before someone else does. That instinct is exactly how good-looking sites turn into expensive lessons.

Before signing anything, or paying a deposit that puts real pressure on the timeline, a buyer should be able to answer a specific set of questions with confidence, not assumption. What is the remaining lease term, including any options, and are those options genuinely secured or dependent on landlord discretion? What does the permitted use clause actually allow, and would it support adding services later if machine revenue alone is not enough? What are the total occupancy costs once every outgoing is added to the base rent, and how does that compare to realistic, evidenced turnover rather than an optimistic projection? What are the true operating hours the site can trade under, once lease terms, centre or strata rules and practical access and safety are all accounted for?

On the physical side, has water pressure and supply, drainage and trade waste capacity, gas availability if relevant, and electrical supply capacity been confirmed directly with the relevant authority or a qualified trade professional, rather than assumed from the current fit-out? Is metering dedicated to the tenancy or shared, and if shared, how are costs apportioned? Does the lease contain a relocation or demolition clause, and if so, what protections exist around notice, compensation and the standard of any alternative space offered?

On the exit side, what does the make-good clause actually require, has it been priced in dollar terms rather than left as an abstract legal obligation, and if this is an assignment of an existing lease rather than a new one, has the incoming make-good liability been confirmed rather than assumed to sit with the outgoing tenant?

Finally, has the lease been reviewed by a solicitor who is acting for the buyer specifically, separate from anyone connected to the seller or the selling agent, with enough time before any deposit becomes non-refundable to actually act on what that review finds?

None of these questions are exotic. Every one of them is answerable before a lease is signed, and every one of them has a direct, sometimes very large, effect on what the business is actually worth. A site that survives this checklist with clear, confirmed answers is a genuinely different quality of investment from one that simply feels right on a first inspection.