Building an RV Park from scratch under 50k?

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
One thing we always need to remember is that the 'RV owner' covers a vast range of people with vastly different needs and desires.

Most of what we talk about on this fourm are RV parks for recreation. Either destination or traveling parks. Some discussion about long-term parks for snowbirds and full-timers.

We are still pretty much mobile.

But there is a huge group of people with RVs who seldom, if ever, move their rigs. The RV is just a small, relatively cheap, place to live. Most would vastly prefer to have a S/B house, but it isn't in the budget at this time, nor is a 'better' RV park.

They are generally called "trailer parks". But regardless of what they are called, they operate under licenses and permits. A gaggle of 15 RVs, whether permanent or mobile, is going to draw immediate scrutiny. If the park is comprised of people whose rigs never move and they are paying rents in the $200s and $300s, you can bet the local police will have the place on speed dial.

One thing we always need to remember is that the 'RV owner' covers a vast range of people with vastly different needs and desires.

Most of what we talk about on this fourm are RV parks for recreation. Either destination or traveling parks. Some discussion about long-term parks for snowbirds and full-timers.

We are still pretty much mobile.

But there is a huge group of people with RVs who seldom, if ever, move their rigs. The RV is just a small, relatively cheap, place to live. Most would vastly prefer to have a S/B house, but it isn't in the budget at this time, nor is a 'better' RV park.

Thank you, PawPaw_n_Gram that was very informative. Farther west the $350/month places do have those amenities. Not always a pool.

Though they are often mostly filled with very poor permies, as you describe. Good folks, in my experience. I imagine the bad ones get kicked out.

Naio wrote:
NOBODY is going to pay $350 a month unless you have a laundry room, shower house, and maybe a pool.

We were recently looking at a place for a month long or longer stay north/east of Dallas. The truck had to go into the shop for hail damage repair. The only COE park that might give me an extension beyond two weeks didn't have sewer connections.

Looked at 30+ small parks (10-25 spots) charging $300-350-400 per month plus electricity within 40 miles Plano. You will not find but four of those parks on RV Park Reviews, RVParky or a web site. You have to drive down back roads, and some dirt roads, following a normally hand painted sign/ directions you happen to see while exploring.

Only about 1/2 had a laundry room - and most of the time it was one washer and one dryer in a 6x6 metal building/shed - pay the owner $3 for doing a load of laundry. None had a shower house, none had a pool.

These were bare dirt, maybe a little gravel parking spots - no more than 10 feet apart.

And not a single one had an open spot for the month of July - with is not a prime camping time around Dallas - daily temps at or above 100, nightly lows around 85.

The people who live in those type parks are workers, or a few retirees. They don't have much income. They aren't oil field or construction workers - but Walmart, McDonalds, Dollar General, etc. Probably half the TT/5ers/MH in each park looked unable to ever move again without a lot of work.

There are a bunch of school age and pre-school age kids running around all the parks with no recreation facilities except their own imagination and maybe an old bicycle.

These are the folks who when I was growing up lived in the cheapest rent houses in town, or shacks that used to be sharecropper quarters on a local farm.

This is where the rural poor are living today - small RV parks that are just a place with electricity, water and sewer. Almost nothing more. They pay bottom dollar, and accept bottom level services. If a land owner can provide the facility, he/she will find customers.

His biggest problem will be how to deal with someone who can't pay their monthly rent. It will happen. While in Texas, the tenants have no rights, no lease - getting a rig moved off the property is still a hassle.

(We did look at the much smaller group of reviewed - 'real RV' parks. No luck with them having space either. The higher end traveling workers were filling all their monthly spots. As it turned out, we had a hub failure, and the insurance company decided both axles on the rig had to be replaced - so we had the rig and the truck both in the shop for a month - and we bunked at my daughter's house.)

winnietrey wrote:
Sounds to me like, they are not trying to build an actual RV park/ business. As in one that gets permits and pays taxes. What the are trying to do is build an old fashioned commune, of like minded people.

Who knows, maybe they throw 50K at it, bootleg in some minimal infrastructure, and as long as no one complains, they fly below the radar scope, and it all works out. If it miles from anywhere and out in the scrub brush, maybe they will get away with it. Don't know.

That could be. But their friends probably don't have $350 a month and will want to be doing some sort of work trade.

NOBODY is going to pay $350 a month unless you have a laundry room, shower house, and maybe a pool.

On the permits: Call the local planning commission and ask what the penalties are. In jurisdictions I'm familiar with, you pay double what the original fees would have been, and pay to make everything comply with current code.

elialane7 wrote:
Thanks for the tips guys! I like the start small think big! I really hope it works
I haven't voiced my concerns to them and probably won't, a picture of the land is even my cover photo on fb lol. I just wanted to see what you guys thought and if there was anything useful I could encouragingly run by them. I think though from the feedback that it's best I just sit this one out and let them learn as they go, I'm certain a simple phone call about an estimate will awaken them to permit considerations and the like . I'll update for sure! I hope it can work bare bones at least

For having multiple Ivy League degrees, you are having a very hard time wrapping your head around the fact that starting big, small or in between won't work if you do not have the proper permits and infrastructure in place. They don't have those permits, and don't plan on obtaining them. The authorities aren't going to have too much mercy on them. They will shut them down in a heartbeat and won't care how much they have put into it. There isn't any place so isolated that the officials are just going to miss it.
Hopefully, the guy giving the $50,000 is someone who can afford to lose it, because as currently outlined, the plan is doomed to failure. And if he doesn't want to be on the hook for unwinding all the unpermitted construction and all the bills these people are going to run up in the "business" name he better structure his investment as a loan, or he will be on the hook as a partner. All the people who put in materials or labor and expect to paid at the completion of the job are going to go looking for the deep pockets to get their payment, and the people $200,000 in debt don't meet that criteria, but someone with $50,000 to throw away might.

elialane7 wrote:
Thanks for the tips guys! I like the start small think big! I really hope it works
I haven't voiced my concerns to them and probably won't, a picture of the land is even my cover photo on fb lol. I just wanted to see what you guys thought and if there was anything useful I could encouragingly run by them. I think though from the feedback that it's best I just sit this one out and let them learn as they go, I'm certain a simple phone call about an estimate will awaken them to permit considerations and the like . I'll update for sure! I hope it can work bare bones at least

My guess, they already know about the "permit considerations" They are just hoping they can bootleg stuff in and fly below the radar scope.

Thanks for the tips guys! I like the start small think big! I really hope it works
I haven't voiced my concerns to them and probably won't, a picture of the land is even my cover photo on fb lol. I just wanted to see what you guys thought and if there was anything useful I could encouragingly run by them. I think though from the feedback that it's best I just sit this one out and let them learn as they go, I'm certain a simple phone call about an estimate will awaken them to permit considerations and the like . I'll update for sure! I hope it can work bare bones at least

I recently listened to an interview with a KOA owner. They took over a run down park in the middle of nowhere in New York state (I believe). They had money, did much of the work themselves and turned it into a beautiful park.

That said, not everyone with an idea has a million dollars to invest. $50,000 is not anything to turn your nose up with but at the same time it's not like they're going to lose a million dollars.

Not all great businesses are started by people with PhDs in Marketing and Administration. Some people are good learners as they grow. I've seen many a park that started out with just a few sites and as time went by they were financially able to add more sites. Start small and think big. It works for lots of people. I realize that businesses fail all the time and in fact according to the SBA most fail in the first six months.

If they own the land out right, that's a pretty good start. Maybe start with five sites and do them well.

Let's take a look at the other side of the coin. I will say though that if they are far away from any type of connection, internet will cost them a fortune and that is a driver for most rv parks, hotels, and retail businesses.

Sounds to me like, they are not trying to build an actual RV park/ business. As in one that gets permits and pays taxes. What the are trying to do is build an old fashioned commune, of like minded people.

Who knows, maybe they throw 50K at it, bootleg in some minimal infrastructure, and as long as no one complains, they fly below the radar scope, and it all works out. If it miles from anywhere and out in the scrub brush, maybe they will get away with it. Don't know.

End of they day, you can talk till you are blue in the face, but people are going to do what they are going to do. And after 60 years on this planet, all I can say is I have no idea why people do some of the stuff they do. And why they self inflict such major wounds to themselves