All Forum Posts by: Mark Lawson

I have built and bought a lot of them. If done correctly it can be very profitable. There are really two sides to the RV parks. Some are basically affordable housing and some are vacation type rentals. The vacation side is more of a business and requires a lot more work but the affordable housing side is less labor intensive. 

I have a 14k sq foot home in east TN that has been on Airbnb in the past (at $1700 a night) that I am looking to partner with someone on. We have the property purchased at about $800k under appraisal. I have financing lined up and will provide the personal guarantee on the property as far as the loan. I am looking for $250k for 25% ownership and open to more ownership. 

We are adding a wedding venue area to the property and it is a beautiful property with a full outdoor pool bar and 5 acres of land. This will be a short term hold around 12-24 months and we can pull funds through a refinance with some seasoning. I can send you pics and the appraisal if you will PM me

We have a 105+ pad RV park that was once uses for construction workers that we are looking for one (maybe 2) partners to get the deal closed. This is a JV and not a 506. The property is located in Metro Augusta GA and still has a lot of construction jobs in the area.

The property is 20 acres and we have it under contract at $6400 per pad and the average park sells for $49k per pad. We have a tiny home supplier who can provide homes for $38k each. Looking for $150k for 25% ownership and open to more or less ownership or will sell it at $675k with owner financing (land contract) with $165k down. 

I have a large parcel of land in southeast TN that I purchased to build an RV park but I have about 100 acres more than what I need. I have a owner carried note that is around $800k (the property is worth $3.5m to $4m and I wanted to subdivide off some of the land. If sold in smaller tracts the land is worth almost twice what I paid for it not counting the RV park park of the property. The issue I have ran into is the previous owner will not give me partial releases. I have a few parcels sold but he wants it all paid off so I am looking for some options to refinance the land that would provide some flexibility in being able to sell off lots. 

Has anyone had any luck with this type of financing? 

I am looking for a private lender for a second position at $250,000 for 12 months or less for a property in east TN. There is close to $1m in equity even for 2nd position. I have owner financing for about 40% of the purchase price and I am paying down $700k so still looking for around $250k. Will either pay a very good rate of return or an equity partner on the project. This is a mix use of commercial (RV Park) and residential development. This is a lakefront property with over $1.5m in improvements (commercial buildings) and 150 acres of prime land. 

There is a new residential development about 900 yards from the property that has sold most of the lots at $100k per lot which are 1 acre lots and this land offers more amenities.

 The homes are easy to remove and the value is in the infrastructure and zoning more so than the homes. Most Rv pads are $500 to $600 a month for the lot rent so with no upkeep cost it is much more profitable than trying to rent run down mobile homes. I often just give them away or sell them cheap to get them removed and use the pads for RV's.  

I build a lot of parks and there are a few things to consider. The SBA will not loan on real estate speculation so the park must be for overnight camping only or at least a large percentage of the income must come from nightly rentals. I own over 800 pads and I can tell you our average stay is close to 5 months so that makes SBA loans very difficult. Your local lenders or partners are your best bet on the finance side but most lenders will want more than 20% down and it is hard to find lenders who will even loan on them. Independence bank finances the KOAs but you have to have experience. 

I am building one now in east TN and it was appraised for almost double what I paid for the land and I still had to pay 50% down and I have a lot of cash and experience so it is hard to get them financed. If you are not just dead set on that particular parcel of land I will tell you a trick. Look for a run down mobile home park with junk trailers in a county close to a major metro that has no zoning. If they have income you can use the income to get the loan approved and then convert it over to RV's. I have done this many times and you will save hundreds of thousands of dollars and a lot of time. 

This may be a little to complex for just residential flips but I deal in RV and mobile home parks and when I take on investors I pay a preferred rate of return and then a 70/30 split between the limited partners (investors) and general partner (the one doing the work). With the preferred rate which ranges from 8%-20% depending on the amount of investment the general partner does not take any profit until the preferred return is paid to investors. Once they are paid the rest of the profit is split between the LP and GP. 

My primary business is MHP's and RV parks and most cities hate them because the tax base is not very profitable for them so I only buy in areas where there is little to no zoning. I have a database of all the MHP's in the country (there are over 53k MHP's in the US) and a database of county regulations for each county and I first find areas with little to no restrictions and then hunt deals in those areas. 

I can give you a ballpark price. I develop a lot of RV parks and some marinas so I can give you a typical cost per pad.