All Forum Posts by: Robert Glover

Thanks for the input.  It's not a matter of IF it's for sale... it HAS to be sold.  It's part of their divorce.  So we're trying to grab it while we may be able to get it cheap.  It needs a lot of work.  We've spent two summers here in a row and have been discussing it for a long time.

We'll be living here to manage it.  The guy who is the current manager will stay on-staff; he's a good guy and is reliable.  My business partner will live here year-round; I may disappear during the winter months when it's super cold and the only people here will be people willing to live with ONLY electricity... no water, no sewer; bathrooms/showers in the clubhouse.  I had suggested shutting down from Dec-Mar but since he lived here last winter, and from talking to others, we can make enough to at least cover expenses.

The place is small, but popular.  It's probably 80% booked from April through October.

There are 27 total RV sites and two non-hookup tent sites, though there's room to expand a bit.  Only four sites have full hookups, and it's on septic.  Water is from a well.  It's super scenic... has a good-sized creek running through it, and about half of the sites are on the creek.  There's good fishing in the creek too.

The last appraisal done recently was just over $900k... we're looking to come in quite a bit under that.  If we can't get it for our price, we'll walk and wish them good luck.

The goal here is to clean the place up, try to expand the number of full hookup sites, add some more tent sites, renovate the "club house" and try to get occupancy up above 90% for at least 7-8 months of the year.  And within 10 years or so, sell it and hopefully have a modest retirement from it.  Oh... there's actually a small storage facility included with the purchase that has I think 10 or 12 units, all of which are occupied.

Lessee, how do I make this short 'n sweet.  There's a campground somewhere in central Montana where I've stayed a number of times over the years.  It's small... only like 25-30 sites.  Its current owner is going through a nasty divorce and the place has to get sold.  We think we can get it pretty cheap.  I have a partner in this... he has $100k cash in the bank and a modest income; I have very little cash in the bank, but I have a good income as a software engineer.  We both have credit scores in the high 600's to low 700's (depending on how the wind blows).

Based on what I learned while dabbling in commercial real estate about ten years ago in SoCal, I know we'll need a business plan.  My parter, we'll call him Tim (may or may not be his real name) says we need to have an actual appraisal done.  I tend to agree.  Then we need to get copies of the campground's financials (to build the business plan and ultimately decide if this place is worth going after in the first place).  Do we need to get a commercial real estate agent involved?  We were going to hire an attorney too.  But to be honest, we're both fairly clueless about this and would very much appreciate any info we could get on how to proceed.  We just figure that if we have a solid business plan, and can show that to the bank along with an appraisal that's well above our purchase price, it has a chance of succeeding.

Help please? :)