Mortgage rates today — vending as a low-capital alternative to real estate [8anGXdKWFxW]
I almost signed a 30-year mortgage. Then I ran the numbers on a vending machine. Here's the comparison nobody puts on a spreadsheet: 1. A $300K rental at 7% costs roughly $2,000/mo — before one repair call, one vacancy month, or one bad tenant. That's the gross-debt number. Net cash flow in year one is often negative. 2. A smart glass-front vending machine (cooler, card reader, AI planogram) runs $3,000–$8,000 to place. Across 4–6 operators in our network, months 6–12, net return after COGS, commission, and card fees ranged from $180–$520/machine/month. No tenant. No eviction court. Wait. That's not a flex — some machines underperform, some locations fall through, and year one is rarely the headline number. The point is the capital barrier: a down payment on that rental would fund a 5-machine route with cash left for product. 3. Smart machines average $4–8 per transaction vs $1.25–1.50 on traditional coil machines. Location and product mix drive that number more than the machine brand. 4. The piece most people skip: track gross AND net from day one. A machine clearing $600 gross but costing $380 in COGS, gas, and fees nets $220. Know that number before you add machine #2. Save this before your next conversation about "passive income" real estate. Want to see what your route math looks like? Start free at vendbuddy.io — no card needed.