I have 8-10 acres 6 miles south of Kyle field , all highway frontage I want to develop. What would your go to buisiness to develop in that area. Alot of small warehouses in the area.
Would you build a strip center, RV park, More warehouse buildings

I have the opportunity to purchase another road front property along Highway 30 outside of College Station. Any idea what a 10 acre track that is rectangle in shape would go for around that area. It is amongst multiple different warehouse type buildings and businesses.
It is raw land, no improvements

Is it all developable? Wellborn or 6? In the city limits? Subject to zoning?
Assuming no restrictions, available utilities, and 6, I'd put a strip center along the frontage and apartments behind it or warehouse/office space if economic analysis shows apartments aren't needed.

Storage units 100%.

RV park

What would be a good price for 10 acres off a main road, not hwy6. road frontage, all useable
1.5-2 million
There are many business around the area already and neighborhoods are being developed.

In reply to warrington74 Send me a message if u want to do any sort of storage or metal building

In reply to warrington Send me a message if you want to do any sort of storage or metal building

Thinking might do a hybrid RV park storage buildings
Probably be another year before I start into that, but I will reach out

In reply to Mas89

Mas89 said:

---

I took his advice on land but built nothing on it- ag use. Last sale was 40x.

My cousin built an rv park and I'll admit he was not a good manager. It was a huge pita for him until the day he sold it. He even had an overdose death in one of the units on New Year's Day one year. Then there were the ones that could not pay and refused to leave. Waaaay too much drama.

---

Good for you man. Not being able to take that advice has haunted me every time I come back to College Station. I would never do anything that involved living tenants, too much drama.

Storage buildings are such a racket, I pay $120 a month for one that I have not been to in 5 years. Just too busy to go throw all the stuff away!

In reply to JB!98

JB!98 said:

---

A business prof of mine said in 1996, go buy land about 2-3 miles outside of town and build storage units. Draw revenue until College Station development grows to you and then sell the land 10-15 years for a massive profit.

Signed a poor college kid who could not take his advice.

---

there's a 20 acre plot in the middle of my town that is completely engulfed in development.. it's outdoor rv storage, and he bought it/built it 20 years ago when not much was around.

You might think, he's sitting on a gold mine of land value, but in reality, he has roughly 600 storage spots, all generally rented, that bring in about $140 ea a month.

You tell me after doing some quick math, would you sell that land?



I'd take the easy million dollars a year all day until I die.. then my kids would have it.

In reply to 62strat

62strat said:

---

JB!98 said:

---

A business prof of mine said in 1996, go buy land about 2-3 miles outside of town and build storage units. Draw revenue until College Station development grows to you and then sell the land 10-15 years for a massive profit.

Signed a poor college kid who could not take his advice.

---

there's a 20 acre plot in the middle of my town that is completely engulfed in development.. it's outdoor rv storage, and he bought it/built it 20 years ago when not much was around.

You might think, he's sitting on a gold mine of land value, but in reality, he has roughly 600 storage spots, all generally rented, that bring in about $140 ea a month.

You tell me after doing some quick math, would you sell that land?



I'd take the easy million dollars a year all day until I die.. then my kids would have it.

---

Nope! That is some darn good mailbox money!!

In reply to 62strat

62strat said:

---

JB!98 said:

---

A business prof of mine said in 1996, go buy land about 2-3 miles outside of town and build storage units. Draw revenue until College Station development grows to you and then sell the land 10-15 years for a massive profit.

Signed a poor college kid who could not take his advice.

---

there's a 20 acre plot in the middle of my town that is completely engulfed in development.. it's outdoor rv storage, and he bought it/built it 20 years ago when not much was around.

You might think, he's sitting on a gold mine of land value, but in reality, he has roughly 600 storage spots, all generally rented, that bring in about $140 ea a month.

You tell me after doing some quick math, would you sell that land?



I'd take the easy million dollars a year all day until I die.. then my kids would have it.

---

Haven't done the research myself, but was listening to an investing podcast the other day and one of the hosts claimed a lot of storage markets are saturated. I'm sure it's area dependent, but may be something to research heavily if there is a lot of competition for customers.

apartments.

I wonder what it costs to build 40 RV park and 50 storage unit complex.

In reply to warrington Give me some deminsions

Ill let u know a ball park number

In reply to warrington

warrington said:

---

I wonder what it costs to build 40 RV park and 50 storage unit complex.

---

I mean.. I park my RV on a 20 acre lot that has about 3" of crushed rock on it.. and a fence around it. PVC with rope to identify the spot #s.
I don't know that you need to build much for those things.

I have an RV park but have not had many issues like so many people mention. You need a really solid agreement for the folks to sign and not put up with any transgressions. Over time, you learn to recognize the people you do not want on your property. I was told that by a lady whose RV park I was thinking about buying and it turns out she was right. I have about a half dozen folks who have been there for over 10 years.

I would choose ministorage over an RV park because there are fewer things to break or to have issues with, and a lot less involvement. Some RV parks are set up such that you, or an employee, will need to be there quite a bit. I have ours geared to where I am there only 4 to 12 hours a week, no employees. My plans are to sell the RV park and either build ministorage and/or RV and boat storage. Also looking into building a baseball/softball training facility with batting and pitching cages, etc.

You will need to investigate the number of existing RV parks and ministorage or whatever you choose to build.

I had two family groups as tax clients who had strip centers and did very well.

You probably already know this, but you need to meet with whomever is in charge of economic development to find out what you can and can't do. Some areas are not receptive to certain things and the permitting and approval process is a deal killer in some situation. One place I was looking to develop was such that the cost of the roads alone (not including the sewer facility, nor electrical, nor plumbing) was more than I paid for an RV park.

180mx220m

In reply to warrington

warrington said:

---

I wonder what it costs to build 40 RV park and 50 storage unit complex.

---

Assuming you are talking about on the land you already have, so no land cost.

The cost will vary widely depending on the location. And by that I mean the requirements and restrictions that the county or city places on the project. Some places will not allow rock roads, has to be concrete or asphalt. Some places have size minimums on the RV spaces that might differ from what you wanted to have. You likely will need an engineering firm to determine your water detention requirements. Hopefully your tract has municipal water and sewer availability, if not you have much more costs relative to water wells and a septic system.

In my area, someone wanted to put in an RV park and the city required public restroom/shower facility within 150 feet of any RV. Despite the RVs having restrooms and showers in them. I think they would have had to build 4 of them based on the size and layout of the park.

Looked at a 19 acre site along I-10 and it would have taken $80,000 to get water to it. Had to have a water line due to fire hydrant requirements.

I looked at building an RV park, around 50 spaces on nearly 9 acres. The cost of the roads and electrical were very high. This was around 12 years ago, and as I recall, the total project would have been around $800,000 (no land cost). I had two tax clients that did road building work so I got somewhat of a deal on the quotes for the roads. I would guess the cost would be closer to $1,500,000 now. This place was bare bones, no swimming pools, no rec room, no pavilions in the cost figures. Just RV spaces and a small building to house washers and dryers. Wound up buying an existing park at about what the roads would have cost to build.

RV parks are typically decent passive income generators but you have to ask yourself why people would utilize yours. Is it a destination thing, i.e., do people come to the area for recreation (beach or lake sort of thing) or for nearby work. Mine is the latter and if you go that route, you have to gauge how long the work will last. If they are building a large facility nearby, once they complete it, your pool of potential tenants falls drastically. We have had several projects where there were 2,000 to 3,500 construction jobs that lasted 2 years or so, but resulted in only 50 to 65 permanent jobs.

As you look at RV parks, storage facilities, and the like, be pretty cautious in how you estimate your occupancy. Things will look rather rosy if you assume 100% occupancy, they have a different look if you actually wind up at 60%. If there are RV parks in the area, drive through them to see what their occupancy is. I would suggest middle of the week, not weekends. They will likely have some overnight people on weekends and that will skew your numbers. I generally do not rent to overnight people.

You can do something similar with ministorage occupancy. Some of them are set up such that you can reserve spaces online. Some use software that will tell you how many 5x10s or 10x10s, etc. are available. You can calculate what their occupancy is if any around you have that setup.

Edit to add about your ministorage cost question. About 5 years ago, it would have cost $55k to $65k to build 50 to 60 units, depending on your size mix (how many 5x10s, 10x10s, 10x20s, etc. Plus the cost of the road to access the units. I only checked with one company, perhaps it could have been done for less by another company.

I just realized you're talking about a campground when you said rv park.

I thought we were talking about rv storage lots. I don't know why you'd run a campground if you're looking for easy passive income. Those seems like they all have pretty low margins, except for the huge resort style ones which is a massive capital investment.

Anyway. Campgrounds need employees and constant upkeep, and as you said, restrooms and other structures. Storage lots need next to absolutely nothing. The ones around me don't have any employees, structures, office, etc..
if you already have the land, your capital cost is low as well.

That's the reason I come here. Great info

In reply to JB!98

JB!98 said:

---

Mas89 said:

---

I took his advice on land but built nothing on it- ag use. Last sale was 40x.

My cousin built an rv park and I'll admit he was not a good manager. It was a huge pita for him until the day he sold it. He even had an overdose death in one of the units on New Year's Day one year. Then there were the ones that could not pay and refused to leave. Waaaay too much drama.

---

Good for you man. Not being able to take that advice has haunted me every time I come back to College Station. I would never do anything that involved living tenants, too much drama.

Storage buildings are such a racket, I pay $120 a month for one that I have not been to in 5 years. Just too busy to go throw all the stuff away!

---

We are about to unload our $200 per month storage unit after 2.5 years. Can't wait to end that dumb payment.

Not an RV park, but covered/enclosed RV storage. Electricity at each unit. Good RV storage will fill up and stay full!

$10 a foot- 45 ft with hooked up to electricity is $500+ tax a month. Not bad cash. Place I called has a wait list

My son is looking for some property for boat and RV storage. More and more subdivisions don't allow people to keep boats or RVs at the homesite. Even if they did allow it, more and more of these places are on lots that are 50' or 60' wide so there is no room for them anyway.

In reply to TxSquarebody

TxSquarebody said:

---

Not an RV park, but covered/enclosed RV storage. Electricity at each unit. Good RV storage will fill up and stay full!

---

Sounds good but a copper thief could routinely put a dent in profits.

In reply to Mas89 Good point

Plus if you made any money, a money thief could take it

RV parks are good and make decent money but they are not "passive" and the don't have the flexibility of self storage. If you want to talk about the ins and outs of self storage, owning, operating, etc , I'm happy to share knowledge of it.