If anyone has done this or seriously considered it - would you mind if I contacted you to share your thoughts or experience?

I have a location selected and access to capital. I would prefer a new build site and I could maintain the infrastructure (to a large degree) myself. Site would be bay access property in Alabama. My thought up front is to restrict it to 1-3 month max occupied rental terms.

There is a new park in the area but I still am convinced the market is under-served.

Not my expertise at all, but I'm curious as to why you would restrict to 1-3 month terms. Assuming they don't try to add a permanent structure, I'd let them stay however the hell long they'd want.

They could stay, they would just need to re-up the term 4 times or 12 times per year or somewhere in between. My thought on the area is that prices will increase faster rather than slower and I don't want to lose the ability to reprice contracts. The plan is more vacation spot than perm residence but I certainly see the cashflow upside of perm residents. Maybe a mix of both makes the most sense.

A pricing adjustment within a long term contract is an option too. I definitely don't want perm structures added and that's easy enough to deal with directly.

If you ever plan on exiting this property, those short term leases aren't going to look great.

Lenders won't love them either.

I think the potential upside of market rent is pretty limited compared to the numerous downsides.

I can't help you from the ownership side, but we've been full-timing for more than a year now and have travelled A LOT/been to lots of different parks. As a user of parks, I can tell you first hand that the parks that have longer-term rentals (where we've been at least) tend to attract a very different type of clientele - think trailer park vs. high-end RV park. Nothing wrong with either model, but those are two very, very different customer types, and they don't always mesh really well.

This is why the better lots don't let people stay indefinitely.

you have to figure out if you can sustain yourself on a seasonal tourist crowd or you want long term renters.

I agree with the poster that said it's hard to do both.

My company has zoned/permitted/designed several RV parks in central Texas. Be aware of the following things.

Cities are terrified of RV parks. Learn the city codes backwards and forwards so when they tell you have to do such and such you can say nope and cite the code. Many cities regulate lease lengths.

If you have to get zoning on the property, don't even tell the City what you intend to do. Stick to whatever basic zoning criteria will allow you to build an RV park by right. Play everything very close to the chest.

It will cost significantly more than you think it will right now. Whatever number you have in mind, just go ahead and double it.

You want to open a trailer park in Alabama? Are you interested in investors?

If you have to get zoning on the property, don't even tell the City what you intend to do. Stick to whatever basic zoning criteria will allow you to build an RV park by right. Play everything very close to the chest.

Sellthefarm,

Please give more insight to the above zoning strategy. Are you saying to build the park then start the zoning process later?

bearmw said:

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If you have to get zoning on the property, don't even tell the City what you intend to do. Stick to whatever basic zoning criteria will allow you to build an RV park by right. Play everything very close to the chest.

Sellthefarm,

Please give more insight to the above zoning strategy. Are you saying to build the park then start the zoning process later?

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I think he is saying figure out what type of zoning is required for an RV park, get your zoning done without telling them what you plan to build, then build the RV park. For example, if they require commercial zoning, get it zoned commercial. I am generally clueless on zoning, but that was my read on his post.

Ok I thought you had to get a "specific use permit" for RV parks in most all zoning situations. I don't know how one would "play it close to vest" in that environment.

Make sure to find out if you need any DOT approvals for access. Those cut ins are not standard.

Goose06 said:

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bearmw said:

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If you have to get zoning on the property, don't even tell the City what you intend to do. Stick to whatever basic zoning criteria will allow you to build an RV park by right. Play everything very close to the chest.

Sellthefarm,

Please give more insight to the above zoning strategy. Are you saying to build the park then start the zoning process later?

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I think he is saying figure out what type of zoning is required for an RV park, get your zoning done without telling them what you plan to build, then build the RV park. For example, if they require commercial zoning, get it zoned commercial. I am generally clueless on zoning, but that was my read on his post.

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That's what I meant. If it requires a special use permit of some type then you obviously can't hide it but I'm just speaking from experience that the less the city knows the better of you'll be. City planners don't have a clue about development cost. You could be planning to spend 100k to get the thing running and then they drop a perimeter street improvement on you that runs 200k just for that. And because they don't see RV parks as incredibly desirable from a planning standpoint they won't pull any punches.