We have the opportunity to purchase an RV site. We would only be using it for about 4 months out of the year. The rest of the time it would be available to rent out. Is this a good investment? What are the pros and cons?
I’ve no idea what area you are considering buying in, or which months you will be looking to rent, but I do have a word of advice.
I live on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and many of the homes here have been bought by out of state individuals, that want to spend their summers here, and rent the home during the fall, thru the spring.
Most of these homes go unoccupied during the off season, because off season demand is almost nonexistent.
Several of these homes have been damaged or destroyed by squatters and vandals.
And local sentiment is not friendly towards the owners, because they have made the area unaffordable to the year round residential renters.
Just a few things to consider.
Make sure you are able to sublease your site. A lot of places that give a discounted yearly rate or the ability to purchase a lot inside the park don’t allow you to sub-lease the lot out. Just double check your are able to do that per the contract agreement
A few years back, we stayed at Gulf Waters RV Resort in Port Aransas, TX. It’s a beach front RV resort on the Texas coast. All of the RV sites are individually owned and the resort is very high end in the furnishings and landscaping. We looked into buying a site, but couldn’t quite bring ourselves to pony up a quarter of a million, which at the time was the going rate for an RV site. Well, fast forward five years or so and the cheapest sites are now about $400k. I wish I had bought one back then.
As far as rental income, this particular resort is always mostly full, so good potential to rent your site, which is all handled by the resort. I spoke with one owner, and was told that ownership is not making him a profit, but he did say the his rental income offsets most of his ownership costs.
Is there anything RV related that should be treated as an investment?
Endless RVing just did a video on this very subject. As u/PitifulSpecialist887 pointed out, you’re probably going to be using the property during peak rental time. Endless RVing ran into the same problem.
Something to think about.
They have been good investments for us. We have owned 10 lots in our time RVing. Biggest issue is HOA bullshit and renters abusing our lot and stuff. I expect my lots to pay for themselves via rentals and nothing more. Hopefully the property will appreciate of time.
Time shares are NOT a good idea.
Source: Purchasing an RV site
