Looking for advice from experienced investors in RV parks

Member since 2023 · 2 posts · 1 vote

My wife and I have been mostly focused on small residential investing so far but we're considering expanding into RV parks. We've seen a trend in our area of Houston where increasingly more people are getting into RV's and RV vacationing.

Anyone here experienced in the RV park sector? Any advice for someone just starting out looking into it?

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Michael Eskenasy
Investor · Pacific Northwest · Member since 2026 · 538 posts · 307 votes
3w
The biggest mistake I’d avoid is underwriting an RV park like it’s just a different version of multifamily. It isn’t.

You’re really buying land + utilities + transient demand + an operating business. In Houston especially, I’d get obsessive about drainage/flood exposure, water/sewer capacity, electrical service, permitting, and exactly who the customer is supposed to be — long-term workforce, monthly residents, snowbirds, or true vacation traffic. Those are very different businesses wearing the same “RV park” label.

The attractive part is that a well-located park can have multiple levers residential investors rarely get: site count, utility billing, storage, laundry, propane, premium pads, and operational upside.

But I’d validate the demand source before I ever fell in love with the real estate.

Brandon, if you start narrowing down actual parks around Houston, feel free to reach out. I’d be interested in looking at one with you.
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- Brandon Spiller Sr.Pro Member
  OP
  Member since 2023 · 2 posts · 1 vote
  3w
  Thank you for the advice! We really appreciate your help! That's a really great point about drainage, flooding really is a huge problem around here. The city keeps growing faster than the infrastructure can keep up. If we do find one that looks promising, we'll reach out!
  Thanks again!
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James Mumma
San Marcos, CA · Member since 2017 · 2 posts · 0 votes
2w
Brandon - I don't know much about your specific Houston market but as a RV Park owner with 55 sites and 5 cabins in the Midlands of South Carolina, our success has been the location between two metropolitan areas (one a major) (Charlotte, NC and Columbia, SC) just off an interstate - less than 1.5 miles from the exit ramp in an area that has continued success with construction workers, military tenants, retirees, traveling nurses and snowbirds. We are on well water and septic which works for us.
Good luck.
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Don KonipolBusiness Member
Investor · The Woodlands TX / Avon, CT · Member since 2009 · 6k+ posts · 10k+ votes
1w
Thou sometimes limped together, and sometimes having both in one location, RV Parks differ SIGNIFICANTLY from MHP.
Successfully MHP offer a less expensive, per square foot, housing option than conventional housing. Successful RV Parks offer a “vacation” or perhaps “temporary housing” experience.
The RV Parks where most tenants actually live in their RVs full time is typically much less successful that ones where the vast majority are vacationing.
The reason is rental rate. You can charge a much higher daily, weekly or monthly rate for people hooking up for a couple weeks vacation than you can to someone living in their RV full time.
The RV Parks I’ve financed were successful when the owner paid attention to detail. In the case where the owner ow ed multiple parks they had a management team to oversee operations.
The RV Parks that ran into trouble were the ones where the owner became incapacitated or passed away, or where the owners interest moved to other endeavors.
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