buying campground

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Supporting any business idea simply because it is someone's dream is irresponsible. Most of the responses here have been pretty spot on.

Really?? Ya think so???

Here is the original question.

jkhorner wrote:
I am looking to buy a campground that has closed. Having a hard time finding them. Any suggestions?

The OP wants to know where to look for CGs for sale. He didn't ask for your advice on running a business or a validation of his idea. He also didn't ask if buying a closed park is a good idea. None of these respondants knows the OP's financial situation or business experience - again, his question had nothing to do with that. Later in the thread, he states that he wants to start from scratch. Who are you to tell him if that makes sense or not?

He's not asking you to support his business idea - he's coming to a place to where a simple question shoul dbe able to be answered.

So no - most of the responses have not been spot on.

Seriously - get over yourselves.

At one time I was a fanatical fan of short track auto racing. Then I got the opportunity to run a couple local race tracks. Ended up doing that for three years.

Made very little money over the long run. Kind of disappointing taking in $35-45,000 per weekend, and having less than $1,000 after expenses - sometimes running negative.

And almost all my time seemed to be spent on petty complaints. There were a lot of great moments (such as taking $129,812 in cash into the bank on Monday morning, and they would not take the deposit until an armored car arrived), and a constant grind of negativity.

I don't know how much your desire to own a campground is impacted by your enjoyment of camping / RVing, however if that is a primary focus - a word of caution.

The very best way to ruin your enjoyment of a hobby or activity - is to get involved in it professionally.

If running a campground is a professional goal - great. If it is a hobby / recreational goal - be wary.

OPer....Good luck on your search, I hope you find your answer. As for the people that make sounding like running an RV park is full time 24/7 job, I disagree. There are plenty of small parks in our travels that have anywhere from 9-40 spaces. They don't do a bang up, party every day, type of business, but they're the sit back, relax, put your feet up and rest from driving type of parks. THOSE are the ones we're looking for. We don't avail ourselves of the pool, hot tub, dances, etc.....so we LIKE the quiet small RV parks.

My only suggestion to OPer.....if you find one, and have to regrade the sites, and can do it, PLEASE put them at an angle ......why are all the parks (or most) having people park their rigs at a 90 degree angle???? That's HARD!!!!!

2012Coleman wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Supporting any business idea simply because it is someone's dream is irresponsible. Most of the responses here have been pretty spot on.

Really?? Ya think so???

Here is the original question.

jkhorner wrote:
I am looking to buy a campground that has closed. Having a hard time finding them. Any suggestions?

The OP wants to know where to look for CGs for sale. He didn't ask for your advice on running a business or a validation of his idea. He also didn't ask if buying a closed park is a good idea. None of these respondants knows the OP's financial situation or business experience - again, his question had nothing to do with that. Later in the thread, he states that he wants to start from scratch. Who are you to tell him if that makes sense or not?

He's not asking you to support his business idea - he's coming to a place to where a simple question shoul dbe able to be answered.

So no - most of the responses have not been spot on.

Seriously - get over yourselves.

When you open yourself up to ask for advice, people give advice. If you are asking the wrong question, it is perfectly acceptable and appropriate to clarify that.

To blindly urge them off the edge of a cliff may technically be answering thier question, it's certainly not helpful.

If he really knows what he's doing, it is highly unlikely he would be asking a question the way he did. If we were getting it wrong, a reasonable presumption is he would come back and correct any misconceptions.

amandasgramma wrote:


My only suggestion to OPer.....if you find one, and have to regrade the sites, and can do it, PLEASE put them at an angle ......why are all the parks (or most) having people park their rigs at a 90 degree angle???? That's HARD!!!!!

If you angle the sites, you get less sites per row. You COULD partially overcome the loss of sites by creating more rows with less sites per row, but that would require relocating the roads, the utilities, removing full grown trees, redoing all the landscaping and probably needing to get new permits from the licensing authority. Older parks were built when there were many fewer giants roaming the earth. Angled sites were not an issue when most rigs were 20 foot Scotties, with no slides pulled by the family station wagon. Other than the fact an existing park would have buildings, advertising and a customer base, it is more expensive to completely re-configure an existing park than it is to build one from scratch.

valhalla360 wrote:

2012Coleman wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Supporting any business idea simply because it is someone's dream is irresponsible. Most of the responses here have been pretty spot on.

Really?? Ya think so???

Here is the original question.

jkhorner wrote:
I am looking to buy a campground that has closed. Having a hard time finding them. Any suggestions?

The OP wants to know where to look for CGs for sale. He didn't ask for your advice on running a business or a validation of his idea. He also didn't ask if buying a closed park is a good idea. None of these respondants knows the OP's financial situation or business experience - again, his question had nothing to do with that. Later in the thread, he states that he wants to start from scratch. Who are you to tell him if that makes sense or not?

He's not asking you to support his business idea - he's coming to a place to where a simple question shoul dbe able to be answered.

So no - most of the responses have not been spot on.

Seriously - get over yourselves.

When you open yourself up to ask for advice, people give advice. If you are asking the wrong question, it is perfectly acceptable and appropriate to clarify that.

To blindly urge them off the edge of a cliff may technically be answering thier question, it's certainly not helpful.

If he really knows what he's doing, it is highly unlikely he would be asking a question the way he did. If we were getting it wrong, a reasonable presumption is he would come back and correct any misconceptions.

So somehow you know what his question should be?

If you tell him where to find closed RV parks for sale, he buys one based of that advice and then fails miserably, your saying its your fault for pushing him twoard it?

So what/who else in the world are you responsible for?

What better place to research CG's for sale than a forum about RV's? Well, maybe he just picked the wrong one. I'm sure he has gone elsewhere where people aren't as presumptious.

Why is it that no threads in here can exceed one page, without members doing battle?

paulcardoza wrote:
Why is it that no threads in here can exceed one page, without members doing battle?

I have my setting at 10 posts per page and it took till page 4.... :h
Not that bad really? :B

v10superduty wrote:

paulcardoza wrote:
Why is it that no threads in here can exceed one page, without members doing battle?

I have my setting at 10 posts per page and it took till page 4.... :h
Not that bad really? :B

Should we now argue about how long it took for members to start "doing battle" ? :B

I know of a campground for sale in Illinois along rt 80!