How does a laundry room make money in a small apartment building, and should I own the machines or lease them?
A laundry room earns money one of two ways: you own the machines and keep every dollar they collect minus the costs, or a laundry company installs and services machines and pays you a share. Owning pays more on a busy room if you can handle repairs and cash or card collection. A leased route pays less but removes the repairs. Price both against your own unit count before you choose.
The two ways to run a laundry room
In the first model you buy or finance the washers and dryers, pay for the electricity, water, gas and repairs, and keep what the machines collect. In the second, a laundry service company provides the machines, services them and shares the collections with you under a written agreement. The terms of that agreement are set by each company, so get them on paper before you compare.
| You own the machines | A company leases them | |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | You pay for machines, installation and any payment system | Usually none for you, but ask in writing |
| Repairs and service calls | Yours, including vendor calls and parts | The company's, per the agreement |
| Utilities | Yours, unless you meter or bill them | Usually yours; check the agreement |
| Share of collections | All of it, before your costs | A percent or flat payment set in the agreement |
| Contract length | None, you can swap or remove machines | A term, often with a renewal clause: read it |
Whichever you pick, ask who owns the machines when the agreement ends, who can set prices, and whether the company can take machines out if usage is low.
Run the numbers for your own building
Use your own collections for a few months before deciding. If you have no history, ask any company that bids to show what a similar building collects, and treat that as an estimate, not a promise.
Example a made-up 20-unit building whose laundry room collects $1,800 a month. Owning: $1,800 collected minus $350 for water, gas and electricity minus $150 average repairs equals $1,300 a month, or $15,600 a year before any machine payments. Leased route: the company keeps its share and pays you 40 percent of $1,800, which is $720 a month, or $8,640 a year, and you pay for nothing else. The difference is $6,960 a year, which is what you would be paying the company for taking on repairs and collection.
Then ask whether you want that job. Owning means calls about a machine that took a payment and did not start, and a dryer that needs a vent cleaning. See dryer vent cleaning for who handles that.
Coins, cards and apps
Coin boxes need someone to collect and count them, and the cash can go missing. Card or app readers send the money to an account, which makes the record cleaner, usually for a fee from the reader company. If you own the machines, ask any payment vendor what it charges per transaction and when the money reaches your bank.
Price per load follows what nearby buildings and laundromats charge, and the cost of running the machines. Raise it in small steps and post the new price where tenants see it.
How to book laundry income
Laundry money is income from the property. The IRS defines rental income broadly as any payment you receive for the use or occupation of property (Publication 527); how laundry collections are reported on your return is for your tax preparer to decide. Keep it in its own income account, separate from rent, so you can see what the room earns.
- Deposit collections to the property's own bank account, not to a personal account.
- Record each deposit with the date and the machine or company it came from.
- Book repairs, utilities and any lease payments to the same property, so the room has its own profit figure.
- Keep the agreement and every statement from a leasing company with the books.
Mistakes to avoid
Signing a long agreement without reading the renewal clause is the most common trap. Ask what happens if you want the machines gone, and whether the company can raise its share or change prices without your agreement.
Leaving laundry money in a drawer or a personal account is the second. It blurs your books and makes a theft hard to show. Count and deposit coins on a fixed schedule, with two people when you can, and note the total each time.
The third is forgetting the safety work. Lint builds up in dryers and vents, and a clogged vent is a fire risk. Put cleaning on the monthly building walk and keep the invoice. If tenants report a broken machine, answer within a day and post the phone number in the room, so reports reach you instead of the neighbors.
How DoorKeeping handles it
Each property in DoorKeeping has its own books and bank account. Laundry deposits that reach the bank feed can be matched and coded to a laundry income account, and a repair on a machine can be a work order sent to a vendor by link. DoorKeeping does not collect laundry money or run the machines. It costs $2 per unit per month with every feature included.
Sources
- IRS Publication 527, Residential Rental Property, read Oct 31, 2026
Questions
- Is a laundry room profitable in a small building?
- It depends on units, usage and costs. Add up a few months of collections, then subtract utilities, repairs and any payments to find the real figure.
- Should I charge tenants for laundry or include it in rent?
- Both are used. Pay-per-load keeps heavy users paying for what they use. Included laundry is simpler but you cover the utilities. Check your lease and local rules.
- Who is responsible if a machine eats a tenant's money?
- Whoever owns the machine, per the agreement. Post a phone number and keep a log of reports so you can show what you did.