All Forum Posts by: Jerrad Shepherd

@Jay Hinrichs

We enjoy the RV park customers much more than the tenants, no comparison. It’s fairly rare to run into a customer in a bad mood when they are on vacation! Our small city “25,000 people” is expanding out towards our RV park. 1 acre Lots less than 1/2 a mile away from us are now selling for around what we payed for the 35 acre park 4 years ago. We enjoy running the place but to be honest I don’t know if the highest and best use of the property is a RV park. We are own it with partners that are getting older as well and the exit strategy at this point is very unclear. I imagine that we will get approached in the near future to sell it. There is a 29 acre parcel next to us that has been for sale for a few years, we are waiting to see what ends up with it. It would be a great place for a amusement park but my pockets aren’t deep enough for that sort of thing right now.

@Brent Coombs

Our personal residence has seen normal appreciation nothing outrageous. We would be able to cash out enough to live in one of our rental properties free and clear. The value of the rental property is around 1/4 that of the current property. We have made great choices in real estate so far, but isn’t the point of sacrificing to reap the reward in the end? Sure our house is great but the lure of the wife retiring and us being able to travel at such a young age is real. Running a successful business “campground” and being a full-time landlord isn’t exactly retirement. We are still trying to decide whether to cash out completely eventually or not. Our net worth is around 25 times what our annual spending would be if we moved and my wife quit her JOB. The struggle is real, keep chugging away to hit some insane cash flow goal or to buy our freedom. I have no desire for the finer things in life. I enjoy fishing at my house but I can fish for free down the road always. What is the saying, don’t buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?

This question is for you older investors out there. Would you have done things differently if you were to start over? Is trading 5-6 years of a JOB worth giving up the dream house? Have you gotten more value throughout your years traveling or living in one great location? My wife and I have been investing in single family’s and small multi family’s along with our small business a 89 lot RV park in the path of development for the last 5 years. We have really grown our businesses and now my wife is looking to retire from her teaching job here in the near future. We can either 1. Sell our dream house, a modern nice open layout house on 18 acres with 2 private fishing/recreation ponds on it and invest those funds into more real estate. After 4 years or so we would have more than enough cash flowing properties to consider her quitting. 2. Keep plugging away with what we are doing and she would be able to retire in around 10 years. She is a guidance counselor in a small school system and we are in our mid 30’s. With the depreciation we claim on our rentals we would be able to qualify for an affordable option through the aca for heath insurance. We are looking to sell our RV park in the coming years as well as entertain the option of selling or getting management in place for our rental properties.

@Page Rosenlund

Will the zoning allow you to rent out any of the empty spots to rv owners for some quick revenue? If there is any kind of work going on in the area there may be workers needing a spot to park their units.

@Dave Foster

Thanks for the info Dave. I am guessing we are around 5 years from buying them out of their share of the place. I will just need to sit my lawyer down with my cpa and have them talk it over I suppose.

@Aaron K.

Yes, I could look at getting a loan for it. My strategy for real estate is to buy more than I plan to hold now and divest later on to eliminate some of the debt on the remaining properties. I love leverage but when I get into my 40’s and 50’s the thought of being millions in debt and managing 70-100 properties doesn’t sound too appealing.

My wife and I are half owners of a RV park in Nebraska and will be buying my parents out of their half at some point. We got into the business as equal partners with equal shares. The wife and I currently have numerous rental properties that we may consider selling at some point to raise capital to buy the other half of the RV park. Would we be able to 1031 some of our rentals properties into the purchase of the other half of the business that we already own? The ownership of the business is currently under one L.L.C. shared by both families. Thanks for any insight you may have!

Shawn Regnier

I will have to look into this option, that may just be the best way of doing things.  Thanks for your input!

My goal is $20,000 a month net.  I am not sure why though, I think it would be really hard to spend that kind of money the way I live.  I get most of my thrill out of cheap hobbies...

I really wouldn't have a reason to sell I suppose except to splurge.  I guess the thought of diminishing our responsibilities and receiving a bonus lump sum of funds every year to play would be  great idea.  We are fairly frugal at the time being and push all the excess into down payments for more investments.  Some day I might just wake up and want to pay cash for the AC Cobra kit car or fancy Lund Walleye fishing boat.   I can relate to the famous quote that Warren Buffet said, I want to leave my children enough to do anything but not nothing...