Anyone buy Pat Crowe's Carwash Book?

[ninetofive]

I bought Pat Crowe's car wash book from the web site link that I found on one of the threads on here. After I ordered the book I sent an email (maybe 5 minutes after the order was submitted) to him requesting a change of shipping address because I wasn't going to be in the office for a few days due to a CE class. Anyways, I never heard anything back from and a few days went buy and no response. So I tracked down his phone number, which wasn't too easy, and I called him to ask him about the status. Let's just say he was less than helpful and wouldn't even check to see if it had sent. He just said that he saw my email, didn't respond, and the policy is to ship it the day after the order is submitted to the original shipping address. I hate to smear someone about something so simple but I was just kind of shocked at how unprofessional and unhelpful he was. He treated it like I was bothering him and a waste of his time. Hopefully there is just some kind of misunderstanding because I would love to clear this up. Anyone else have any issues like this? It's been a week and I still haven't received the book and it supposed to be sent priority mail, which I figure wouldn't take too long from Kansas city to Arkansas.

 

[dobie]

I feel stupid asking since the OP seems confident his audience will know what he's talking about about but who is Pat Crowe and why did he write a "car wash book".
For that matter what is a car wash book??

 

[Scott R Marshall]

I feel stupid asking since the OP seems confident his audience will know what he's talking about about but who is Pat Crowe and why did he write a "car wash book".
For that matter what is a car wash book??

I am assuming it is this: http://www.propertyvalu.com/pvmwi97r.htm

I am assuming the number of sales is pretty low but who knows.

 

[ninetofive]

Sorry about that, I guess I could have done a better job describing the text I was talking about. Patrick Crowe wrote a book about appraising car washes. It's the "Car Wash Appraisal Handbook" which I came across on a thread here concerning car wash appraisals.

 

[ninetofive]

That would be the one, Mr. Marshall

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I have Mr. Crowe's book and I had no issue. The book is a viewpoint of Mr. Crowe as an investor. It gives an excellent insight as to why appraisers tend to overvalue the real estate and undervalue the on-going concern. He only buys on the basis of income and always tries to sell on the basis of the sales or cost approaches....I see his point after 20 years of dealing with those things. They are "worth" only what they will cash flow.

When ordering from basically an individual and not a book store, keep in mind you might run into such problems....

 

[ninetofive]

I still haven't received the book, emailed him again, and still no response. The web site said it would be 2 days and it's been over a week. I'm starting to get a little frustrated about the ordeal. I understand that it's an individual I'm dealing with, but why go through the work of publishing a book if you are not going to be professional when people try to contact you. I really hope the information in the book is worthwhile because that would be the only saving grace of this situation.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Mr. Crowe is pretty hard on appraisers and should be. He is correct about the lack of consistent approaches to valuing a car wash.

I recently saw the appraisal of a car wash that sold for less than half the valuation of 18 months previous. The report was prepared by a former member of the state board.

 

[ninetofive]

That's the exact reason I want to get a grasp on the "best" way to go about doing them. I have read through tons of information on appraising them and it seems like the vast majority of appraisers are split down the middle on approaches to appraising them (mainly regarding the income approach). I have also seen numerous appraisals that vary a very large amount on the value and I want to make sure I am doing my due diligence in becoming as informed as I can about them. Anytime I see the broad ranges of value I have seen on car appraisals, it throws up a red flag. It makes me think someone is missing the boat and I would prefer that not to be me.

 

[Lost Cause]

Mr. Crowe is pretty hard on appraisers and should be. He is correct about the lack of consistent approaches to valuing a car wash.

There is a lack of consistency in this area. However, what is to be valued is going to depend upon the purpose and intended use of the appraisal. There are two basic kinds of value that may be at question. One would be the value of the real property and the other would be the value of the business; they are not the same thing...