Building/Buying RV Park Houston / Galveston TX

[Jessica Martin]

My husband and I have been talking about building / buying an RV park for a few years now but just recently decided to really start looking into it. There are many parks here in Houston / Galveston areas and all are near full if not completely full. Most have waiting lists to get a month to month spot, so we are not worried about vacancy issues here. We are trying to decide if we should purchase an existing park or build our own. I personally would like to build our own. We could make it our own and also enables me to hire my own staff according to my own standards. We would have our own reputation to build, rather than take on a business that may already have a bad reputation and have the struggle of convincing prev customers with a bad experience that management has changed and therefor the experience of the park... exc... I frequently feel frustrated with today's level of "Customer Service" in MOST businesses.. I'm not sure I want to go through an employee "clear out" if I took over a place either... 

So with all that said, Im leaning towards building obviously. So does anyone have advice on this? How does the process work? Where do you even start for something like this? Lenders? Planning? City zoning? Utilities? Exc.... Time frame from start to finish?

Also, I have run across a property I already really like the location of. It says they have already spent over $100k on engineering and planning, exc... Says city has approved the park, just need building permits and to start building. Near Galveston, TX. Thinking of looking into this property to save time and frustration over the planning and engineering? Anyone know how long a process it usually is just for Engineering and planning on something like this?

Any advice or knowledge on this topic is welcome and appreciated. Thank You!

[Aaron Mazzrillo]

Unless your bank account balance has at least two commas in it, your business plan sounds less like a profitable business venture and more like an ego trip to bankruptcy. Build your own park so you can hire your own staff and create your own reputation? That's what big, inexpensive, "Under New Management/Ownership" signs are for. There is no "employee clear out" like starting from scratch! Whose to say some of those existing employees aren't any good and it sounds like you'll need some people with experience to teach you the business. 

Look for a mismanaged park you can buy at a big discount and create your own, new customer base through inexpensive marketing. Change the name, add some landscaping, and start cleaning the place up. You can give perks to customers who write great reviews online, create a dynamic website showcasing your park's new and improved benefits and features, and market to the existing customer database to generate immediate income. If they had a previously bad experience and won't come back, so what! There's new customers entering the RV world every day.