Fearless Innovator

If there is one thing I know for sure, I know that marketing is critical to the success of any business, and I know this is one of my least favorite things to do and it's a weakness because I don't like it.  You may be thinking, then how are you going to own an RV Park without marketing it?  

Hi, I'm Mechiel Kopaska the host of the Fearless Innovator Podcast, and today, is my 50th Episode and I'm going to talk to you about something I don't even like and I'm going to share with you how I'm going to market my RV Park.

First, let me give you a little background on what I've been learning about marketing in the RV space.  In 3 words, It's a mess!  What do I mean by that?

I've been searching for RV parks for the last 2 years.  I have done everything from driving around on country roads to find them, I've downloaded I don't know how many Apps in an attempt to locate them, I've Googled and used multiple search engines, I used Prop Stream – a paid subscription for Smart Real Estate Software for Investors, I've used county records, word of mouth and referrals from friends.  And if you're looking to find an RV Park for sale, that's a whole new series of problems!

Do you know what the common theme is?  Mom and Pop and the majority of RV Parks don't advertise, so you can't find them unless you drive around.  Some RV parks will use a combination of different Apps to advertise on like Camp Florida, Campendium, RV Life, Harvest Hosts, etc., but then some won't.  The big conglomerate parks like Sun Resorts will use their own marketing strategy.  

Then you can sign up to use Campspot or Newbook as your reservation system and they help with some marketing too, but it's not broad enough to capture the attention I'm looking for. 

The ole standby is using Billboards!  Billboards are still popular and there's printed materials at rest stops. 

Searching for an RV Park was painful and a huge time suck for me.  This got me to thinking, that if I'm having such a difficult time just trying to locate parks to either go look at or go buy, then people that are searching for an RV Park for their vacation must be having the same problem.

To prove this, I logged into several Apps in an attempt to locate a park I wanted to visit on vacation.  My search proved that not all marketing is created equally.  Each app or Google search yielded different results, but I was able to find a park that I liked but it took some time!

Now to take this a step further, I was now trying to envision me sitting down at a computer and going into each of these apps, setting up accounts and creating my RV Profile to ensure my listing would appear in these apps.  Then I thought, shoot, I also need to be creating profiles on FB, Instagram, etc.  

After thinking about this for a few minutes, I said to myself, "self you need to spend your time somewhere else doing something else you're great at rather than attempting to be great at something you're NOT great at".

So, I began my google search for a marketing team.  I wanted a team of people organized strictly around the RV Market and specializing in promoting my RV park to the world, that had a huge footprint and team players that had specific roles that would market my park across multiple platforms without Me lifting a finger.

I found several in my search but I'm going to be honest that if someone used the word I in the online presence it immediately turned me off, because I knew it was a team of 1. 

I know from my IT days that it's best to use a team of individuals because not everyone is great at everything.  Meaning, web designers are best at web designing and social media gurus are great at creating content and posting daily on FB, Instagram etc., this typically isn't a strength for a web designer.

I ran across a lot of I's, but I skipped right over them. Sorry

Then I ran across a team in California.  At first, I thought California is a bit of a stretch beings we're in 2 different time zones, but then I saw their name.  Their name alone drew me in.  Big Rig Media, I'm not sure their name meant what I was thinking, but when I hear big rig, I think, it takes a big rig to either pull an RV or it could reference a Class A RV.  I read their content on their website, saw they have a team with the specialized skills I needed, and they even shared content on other RV Websites that they had developed.  I then jumped over to look at their RV Websites and found one that interested me.  I went back reviewed more content and then whacked the button to setup a meeting.

When the call was scheduled, it said that Jeff Beyer the CEO and Gregg Kuperstein their Chief Growth Officer, would be attending. 

Within one day, I was on a conference call with the CEO and CGO.   Who does that?  I almost felt a little intimidated. 

What a call it was, we were only on the phone for maybe 20 minutes, but here's what I learned.

The number one search engine for RV Parks is, you guessed it Google and number 2 was FB and all those other apps I mentioned before were just a blip on a map.  I would waste my time setting up each of those apps.

I also learned they have dedicated skills for Web Site development, Graphic Design, Copywriter, social media, and Content Marketing.

Can you imagine if I had to hire out and manage all of those skills just to get my website up and productive and marketed on Google and FB? I wouldn't have time for the RV park if I had to do that!

I don't know how to market on Google and get my park to the top of the search engine and I clearly don't want to learn it now! But I do know who does!

Here was my favorite takeaway, 50% of RV Travelers will use the internet or Apps for searching, the remaining 50% still call the 800 number to talk to a person.  My hope was that this statistic had a much higher internet use.  The main reason that RV'ers want to pick up the phone is because there are too many variables when booking an RV.   If it were to just select your dates, how many people and pick a spot, that's easy.  But when you book an RV, they want to know, are you traveling with a group, the type of rig, your tow vehicle and the length of your rig, bundle this with the date and number of people, it just becomes too cumbersome, so they pick up the phone.

I went on to learn that when I choose them, they will need at least 12 weeks for development and about 6 months before opening the park to begin their marketing.

I now know that my marketing budget will need to be 6 to 8% of gross sales.  This will certainly help me when preparing my budget numbers for the investor.

I learned about Outdoor Hospitality – this is the space that RV Parks are in.  I'd never heard of that before and in a later episode I tell you what I learned when I Googled Outdoor Hospitality.

I also learned the golden number of RV Sites I need to entice the big players when I go to sell my park.   I'll just keep that one a secret for now. 

The best compliment, I can give this team is, they are doing a GREAT job of marketing to me.  On a daily basis, when I get on Google or FB, who's face do I see, Jeff Beyer.    I'm confident that if they are marketing to me on daily basis, that my RV Park will popping up everywhere.  They are certainly in this game to win! I will definitely be calling them back when it's game time!

I'm Mechiel Kopaska of the Fearless Innovator Podcast, I hope you enjoyed this episode. 

Big Rig Media

Camp Florida RV Parks

Campendium

RV LIFE

Harvest Hosts

Campspot

NewBook

No matter what kind of real estate opportunity it is, we must do a thorough job of dissecting all the moving parts prior to a purchase, just like when I was a Project Manager in IT.  What do I mean by that?  Hi, I'm Mechiel Kopaska the host of the Fearless Innovator Podcast, today, I'm going to share the 4 steps that we will take before purchasing an RV Park.

Granted when I was in IT, it was my role to determine the timeline, scope, and budget prior to the sale.  Buying an RV Park is no different, we still need to evaluate and plan out the project.

Every park I've visit, I take extensive notes then go back to my desk and write up everything I learned from the walk thru and from speaking with the seller.  Sometimes I'll even record my voice so not to forget any details.  This is very important to me, because those notes become a useful tool where I'm able to analyze everything I learned, and it helps me to visualize the changes that need to be made ultimately leading me to this first topic.

1). Risk analysis and due diligence. All projects require planning, and a Project Plan will help in doing risk analysis.  Each risk has to be identified, mitigated, and a probability analysis.  I believe that Risk Analysis and Due diligence go hand in hand.

A risk on a project could be the weather.  Let's say we're building a park that is due to be complete in November and the park is in Florida.  Well Florida's hurricane season begins June 1 and ends November 30th.  What happens if a hurricane comes through and destroys all structures?  You have to plan for the worst-case scenario.  In this case, I would ensure we have the proper wind and water insurance coverage.  If it doesn't happen, perfect.  What's the probability that it will happen, we may decide it has a 5 % or less chance of happening, therefore it could be a low risk to the project.

Another risk, How and when does an Angel Investor realize a return on

their money?

We would evaluate the risk tolerance of the Angel Investor and insist 

on open communication and being transparent with our automated 

record keeping and determine a win-win solution for all parties 

involved.  The probability could be 90% or greater, which means this is 

a high risk.  We would also evaluate how this impacts our scope, budget 

and timeline and decide our mitigation plan, which may be to give 

monthly or quarterly reviews to the investor.

What is the likelihood of getting all the supplies and at the budgeted 

cost we estimated at the beginning of the project?

We already know this is a high risk due to the economic issues the 

world is facing right now, and the probability will be high.  We mitigate 

the costs by increasing our contingency funds and we mitigate our 

supplies by perhaps checking in with multiple vendors or ordering the 

product well in advance.

We may also identify Show Stoppers!  What is one or two things that 

the risk is so high, you cannot move forward with the project.  Mine is 

Internet Wi-Fi service.  Remember I'm a nerd and I love my technology 

and apparently, I'm not alone.  There is a significant amount of Full 

Time RV'ers and those folks are working out of their RV's, just like me. 

Without exceptional Wi-Fi my project is dead.

Due diligence is also critical to evaluate.  In the beginning of a

development project it is necessary to do all your homework up front

such as working with a civil engineer to determine all county, state and

federal guidelines.  What if we find out that FEMA needs ingress and 

egress boundaries that consume more of what we thought was 

buildable ground?  What if turn lanes need to be added to 

accommodate for the vehicle size and shear number of RV'ers entering 

our park?  We need to know all of that up front to determine if the 

project moves forward or if it's a complete roadblock that can't be 

overcome and the project is halted.   I know of a RV Park here in Florida 

that built the park and was ready to open when the FDOT shut down 

the project because they didn't have the proper turn lanes.  Can you 

imagine what this has cost them?

2). Scope of work – it depends on what type of project this is, this could be a development project, or it could be a rehab project. Scope of work in its simplest form is identifying the tasks we will do and will not do for this project.  For this example, let's say it's a new RV Park development project and we already know that I'm not fond of Pickleball (unless someone can convince me!) – so we won't be doing a pickleball court, but we will be adding a swimming pool. 

The Scope of Work on a development project is much more extensive in the number of tasks in the project plan that need to be done and the amount of money it will take to complete a project like this. In my years of IT Project Management, we went through different phases to identify and manage the Scope of Work.  

First phase being Design – we will need to work with a Civil Engineer or Design Architect to design the RV park layout (often referred to as a Site Plan) and cross referencing that with a Survey.  Once the design is complete and we've passed all the county, state and federal regulations and we received all signoff's required to begin work, we now enter the build phase.

Build Phase – This is at the point you see the large heavy equipment coming in to clear out trees, bring in more soil to bring elevations up to code and the exterior boundaries being identified.  Build is also when roadways are determined, and you can begin to see the RV lots easily identifiable due to the concrete pads, electric, water and septic being plumbed in.  Build phase is complete when the Certificate of Occupancy is signed off on or the park is ready for its first customer.  Let's also assume that the operational side of things, like your website, accounting needs and your Property Management System (PMS) is up and running near the same time the build was complete.

Now we enter the Test Phase – let's also assume that before any visitors arrive that every RV Site has passed the initial sniff testing on electric, water, and septic system and this goes for any structures being built like laundry facilities or showers.  Once that's complete, bring on the visitors.  If we've done a great job, we should get minimal complaints about the utilities and probably more complaints about the systems.  As time goes by, we will learn from our mistakes and adjust accordingly.

The scope of work is now complete.  We know what we're doing from the concept to test phase.

3). Estimate budgets with contingency - Once the scope of work has been determined, we'll need to determine cost estimates to start and complete the project we may even include future projections for the investors.  Contingency funds are almost as important as the bids we will get from the vendors.  Contingency funds are set aside for the moments we may not have evaluated our risks well enough or the rapid pace supply costs are rising these days. We all know that supply costs are relatively high, so we will go plan ahead and put contingency funds in our budget. 

4). What's my exit strategy or timeline for ownership?  We discussed Exit Strategy Disasters in Episode 46 and I won't fall victim to my own advice.  We will know at the beginning of the project or ownership what the plan is and the timeframe it needs to be done.  With a development project the timeline to exit or sell could be 7-10 years if it's a rehab project we might realize our gains in a shorter time from of 3-5 years.  

As a recap, we've now discussed 4 critical steps to consider before purchasing an RV park.  As a side note, this list is not inclusive of all tasks that need to be done, but it should give you a good idea of the amount of work necessary to develop an RV Park. 

I'm Mechiel Kopaska of the Fearless Innovator Podcast, I hope you enjoyed this episode. 

Depending on who you are, what you're looking for or where you're going, prior reviews of a property or experience really matter. 

I'm Mechiel Kopaska host of the Fearless Innovator podcast and That's what we're talking about today is I love bad reviews!  Call me weird, I don't care, maybe you'll see the value too!

I'm not going to focus on how to write a good or bad review, I'm more interested in what you learn from the bad ones!

Let's face it is most rewarding when you get the awesome reviews because people tend to write more about their negative experiences rather than their positive ones.  Although, I think people are doing better these days

The bad reviews keep you honest!

But I'd challenge everyone that has a short-term rental or an RV Park to read the negative reviews because it's teaching you what needs to be improved and that value alone could be worth money in your pocket but only if you choose to make the changes.   It's sad when I go back and read the same bad news over and over again because an owner didn't make the changes necessary to get the good review.  Good review = cha ching more visitors!

I had a review once at my short-term rental where a guy said my cat shit on his car.  Well, I guess not everyone knows that cats bury their poop.   Clearly, I knew he was lying, I had my security team review all footage and I couldn't fix ignorance and besides I knew he was mad because I charged him for the extra guests that he did not register, simply because he didn't read the House Rules.  I don't care where you go there are rules!  Go to Disney, there are rules!  Go drive a Nascar, there are rules.  Shoot, drive any car, there are rules!

One bad review didn't kill me, it made me stronger and more determined.

I read another review from an RV Park where a guest was extremely pissed (those were his words) that upon arrival he quickly learned that there was a gun club next door because of all the shooting noise.  If he had done his homework prior to arriving at the RV Park, which I encourage everyone to do, he would have learned that the RV Park was actually there since 1940 and way before the gun club.  

My question is, how can you hold an RV park owner accountable for something they had nothing to do with, nor can they fix it and you're easily offended by gun noise? 

By the way, this is mainly an overnight park like I mentioned in my last Episode 47 – Differences between Destination and Overnight parks – today we have to plan our RV trips well in advance and do the research to know exactly where you're going and what the area has to offer.  I could see if this guy was at Fort Wilderness in Orlando and heard gun noise – that WOULD BE very suspicious, but dude you were in the Midwest where practically everyone outside the city owns a gun and yes, they practice!

Here's another actual review. "On our third day here, while we were away from the campground from 2 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., we had an item stolen from our campsite. This is the first time this has ever occurred at any campsite we have ever been in. Can't wait to leave"

How do you fix that?  First time it ever happened.  Does the owner now hire a security team?  NO, I would update the terms in the contract to include a clause not responsible for lost or stolen items – which is customary everywhere you go.  In general RV Parks are safe and have very little crime reported.

I read about this one A LOT and that's the cancellation policy!  Here's a clear warning to everyone, you must read the Cancellation Policy.  Most of the cancellation policies are relatively strict and limit the ability to get a partial or any refund at all even under extreme circumstances.  But here's the deal, if the RV park or Short-Term rental is hiding their cancellation policy from their website, then you may have a claim, but if it's clearly defined and in public review, the responsibility lies on you.

Not that I want to encourage you to continue to write bad reviews, but you all are clearly telling me what kind of amenities you like and dislike in RV parks, what kind of activities you like, what you like about the location, what you like to do in the area, etc.  So, keep writing them!  

If you go to Trip Advisor, they have 4 categories that you get to score a facility on, Location, Cleanliness, Service and Value.

Reading the good reviews, I learn you love clean bathrooms, the distance it is to walk to the dumpster or laundry facilities and friendly people in the office with smiles and your Wi-Fi!

The good reviews also share that there are amenities like shuffleboard, cornhole, pickle ball, bocce ball, community fire ring, heated pool, and scheduled activities.  

Did you catch the pickle ball?  If you recall in my previous episodes, I've mentioned to you that I have yet to see anyone playing pickle ball.  I was just at another park over the weekend and while they "offer" pickle ball – no one was playing.  And to that end, the reviews that I read are people talking about ALL the amenities but I have yet to read one where it may say, "we played in a corn hole competition and I won first prize" or perhaps, the pickle bar court was perfectly located under some trees and we didn't sweat to death while playing"  You all talk about the amenities but are you actually participating?  My takeaway is you're still not getting a $100,000 pickleball court at my park unless you can prove me wrong!  And if I'm wrong, I'll even join you in a game, but I'll warn you I'm pretty competitive!

Ok, what's wrong with this picture?

Here's another actual review from a customer.

"Our first stay was disappointing. We hadn't planned a stop here, but due to a delay in Tampa, we found ourselves racing sundown and decided to stop. No one was around to assist - office closed. Flyer said to choose a spot and pay in the office in the morning. We literally pulled in at sunset, did not hook up water or sewer - only electric for lights and furnace blower. Tried to sleep through loud highway noise and were ready to leave long before the office opened. We were eager to be on our way but waited an hour for office to open. Since buying our RV we have traveled this country more than we've stayed at home and the only place we can recall being more expensive was Yellowstone. For a little bit of electricity and a parking spot we're paid $62 this morning. NEVER AGAIN! This place is simply not worth it. Sites are small; area noisy; and WAY OVERPRICED. 

The park they decided to stop at was combination between a Destination Park and an Overnight Park! It was a destination because of the amenities it offered, and its closeness to everything Florida and it was an overnight park due to its proximity to the interstate.   

Do your homework before staying that way you are not disappointed with no one to assist you at check-in, loud noise or you're not upset about the price point.  Food for thought, why didn't you use the water and septic?  You paid for it?

I have another take away from this example but I'm not ready to let that kitty out of the bag until I get my park.

Please keep writing those reviews because I'm taking notes so that when I get my park, I should have most of your issues resolved before I even open the park! 

It's not likely that all negative reviews will go away, shoot even Fort Wilderness get's their share of negative comments. 

I'm Mechiel Kopaska of the Fearless Innovator Podcast, I hope you enjoyed this episode. 

TripAdvisor

Fort Wilderness – at the time this episode was published, Fort Wilderness was still shut down and I'm unable to give you a valid link to their website.

Back in the day when I was little, we planned camping trip routes to our destination like Opryland, but we didn't necessarily plan where we would stop for the night and park our motorhome.  

If we came upon a campground that was full, we'd just keep driving until we saw a billboard for another campground.  When we found one it was anyone's guess what type of adventure we signed up for.  

The kids of course just wanted a swimming pool, and we were always disappointed when there wasn't one.  Why wasn't there one?  I'm Mechiel Kopaska host of the Fearless Innovator podcast and That's what we're going to discuss today, the differences between overnight parks and Destination parks.   

Overnight parks really haven't changed that much, but what has changed is the amount of people travelling and looking for their perfect camping spot.  

Today, you need to do your homework before you start travelling and you need to make reservations well in advance as the shear number of RV travelers has increased significantly in the last 2 years, so finding your perfect spot may be a bit more challenging.  

You also need to know your family's needs while travelling.  Like I said before one of our needs were the kids wanted a swimming pool, mom and dad didn't much care what else as long as the kids could be preoccupied. 

I'm sure if I'd ask my dad, he would have said he wanted a level spot large enough for the camper with hookups.  Hookups back then were nothing like they are today, our generator was not built in and there was no cable or fiber because there were no TV's or internet.

I know there are a lot of new RV'ers hitting the road these days, so I'd like to help everyone understand that not all parks are created equally and you should know what type you're going to because it could save you from writing a bad review on the park!

Let's first talk about Overnight parks.  

• Overnight parks are generally well advertised along the highways with HUGE billboards because they are only getting 1-2 nights of revenue, they need to do a lot more advertising. 
• The overnight parks are generally found within 5 miles just off interstates or major roadways. 
• Once you're in the park, most have no frills, no swimming pools just the basics and just looks like a parking lot.
• The guests that generally come just stay for 1 or 2 nights and then they move on to their destination park.
• They usually have a higher vacancy rate as people are just passing through.  Which means it's much easier to get into one of these parks. 
• The overnight park will have limited employees and more of a self-park feature.  You may not even see anyone as you can book your reservations online and pay online.
• Pricing for an overnight park will be less expensive because the park itself has less to offer and they have no overhead.

The overnight parks have a definite purpose and are very much needed as the average RV traveler will only drive 4 hours a day.  If your destination is 800 miles away, that's possibly 3 overnight stays before you reach your destination.  If my dad was driving, he'd only stop once!

Destination parks.  Our destination one year was Opryland in Nashville. These days destination parks have a lot to offer.  I just visited Renegades on the River 2 weeks ago, it had a marina for the fishermen, a Tiki bar with live music and a restaurant onsite.  The Spirit of the Suwanee River Park here in Florida is nothing but a Music venue that brings in BIG Music names.  I know of another park that has hosted Burger challenges, Car Shows, Corn Hole Competitions, Chili Cook-offs, Super Bowl parties, the ideas are limitless, and I have yet to see someone playing pickle ball!

• Destination parks are also well advertised, however now the billboard is going to attract you with all the amenities the park offers like 4 tickets to Opryland, Swimming pool, 4 show tickets, free shuttle, a kids play area and an ice cream shop onsite, etc. 
• Destination parks are typically located near the destination or may even offer a music venue onsite like the Spirit of the Suwanee River Park.
• Guests will normally stay for a week because this area can keep your family occupied with a number of things to do in the area.  If you're a snowbird you will stay for a season typically just to get you out of the northern weather.  It's not every day that you have to have an activity but it's nice if the area has a lot to do.  Most snowbirds love to eat out – so good reasonable restaurants are always a hit with you. You will also look for a good car swap meet or flea market.  Here in my area, we have the Florida State Fair and the Strawberry Festival, and they used to have a Grand Ole Opry day.
• These parks will require advanced booking, sometimes even the year before.  Most snowbird parks allow you to prebook for the following season with an advanced down payment. If you're the summer vacation RV'er make sure to plan ahead!
• The destination parks will have a lot of employees such as greeters at the gate to show you to your exact RV spot.  You will notice how well the property is taken care of by the maintenance crews and the well-manicured lawns.  There will always be someone in the office to answer any questions that you have from prebooking to exiting the park on your departure day.
• Some destination parks allow for an overnight parking. These parks are capitalizing on both markets.
• Pricing at a destination park will be significantly higher based on what the park itself can offer.  If you're Fort Wilderness, you can pretty much charge what you want, because the people will come strictly because there is SOOOO much to do at this park.

My last bit of advice is read the reviews!  The reviews will tell you what others did not like about the park.  Now, take each with a grain of salt as there can be some sketchy reviews and certainly dig in and find the good reviews.

Key point is do your research ahead of time to ensure you know the surrounding area and you know what your park offers or does not offer in amenities before you book!

I'm Mechiel Kopaska of the Fearless Innovator Podcast, I hope you enjoyed this episode. 

Grand Ole Opry - Home - Grand Ole Opry

Renegades on the River - Home - RENEGADE'S (renegadesontheriver.com)

Spirit of the Suwanee River Park - https://www.musicliveshere.com

Florida State Fair - Florida State Fair

Strawberry Festival - Florida Strawberry Festival

One of the best ways to ensure you get the best price on your RV park when you sell it, is to keep great accounting records of everything you do in the park.  I'm Mechiel Kopaska and this is the Fearless Innovator Podcast and today we're going to discuss several things you can do as an RV park owner to ensure you get top dollar and we will talk about the things you shouldn't do.

I believe that as an RV park owner when you get into a deal you also need to plan for your exit strategy.  If you have no end game, you have no goal to make it to the finish line. 

I also believe that many owners think that when they start their journey, they enjoy the ownership and managing and the money that comes along with it.    However, they now realize that they are now 70 years old and possibly struggling with health issues and need to get out, but they had no plan on how to exit.

RV parks can actually pay you twice if you think about it.  You get monthly cash flow and hopefully, if you've managed the property well for several years, you can now sell it for high gains. 

I'm going to share with you several life examples of owners that didn't have an end goal in mind and how I believe that hurts them.   I hope by sharing this information with you that it's helpful in making your exit strategies less painful. 

Let's talk about the project I went to in GA.  This gentleman, for the most part did everything right, the property was listed at a fair value, his record keeping was in line for the operational years, although it was mostly done on paper it was still recorded, the park was in great condition and in a position to be rehabbed and updated.  The issue here was his health issues resulted in shutting down the park, in other words perhaps he should have considered his exit a bit earlier because he wasn't able to run the park for the last two years, making this property more difficult to sell with no accounting records.  Accounting records are very important especially if you want to use a bank for financing.  The bank will make you get an appraisal, and that appraisal will consider the lack of income as a negative on the report therefore reducing the property in value.   The only option for financing here is, pay in cash, use an investor, or use seller financing.  We already know that you learned in Episode 45 – The Best Ways to Fund an RV Park that this seller was encouraged by his daughter to just take the cash and run.   This seller did sell his park, but it took him 1 year + to do so.

I evaluated another park in Tennessee.  This park is located near the Dragon's Tail.  The Dragon's Tail is a bikers dream road, it's 11 miles of nothing but 318 hair pin turns!  I've done the tail twice and by the time I made it to the top, I was dizzy but what a thrill!  This park obviously is a draw for bikers and fast car enthusiasts.   I was drawn to this park obviously because I can relate to the biking, but it has room for improvements, upgrades and the possibility of expansion acres and I'm very familiar with this area.  It is owned by an older couple. It was listed for $1.1M.  

After reviewing the financial data that was supplied, I learned that the sellers in 2018 decided to lease the property, well that lease did not go as expected and they had to take the property back and to make matters worse in 2020 their Campstore burned to the ground and fast forward now the sellers have health issues.  For the last 3 years there is no financial data to review.  In hindsight, these owners would have been better offer to sell the year they decided to lease the property while they still had financial data.  

Why is the financial data important?  Its important because your gross income can be used to calculate what the property might sell for or at least it can give you a range of it's worth.

After my evaluation, I determined what I was willing to pay, but since they had already turned down a much higher offer, I didn't feel they would entertain my offer.  I also didn't want to spend $1,000 to travel there if I couldn't get an accepted Letter of Intent first.  

You may be thinking, why didn't you get an appraisal?  I believe appraisals are more relevant in the residential market than they are here.  An appraisal in its simplest form is a person doing an educated guess based on costs and recent sales within the area.  This park was unique and there was no data from the surrounding area to compare it too, besides the only time an appraisal in necessary is when a bank is involved.  I won't be using bank money for my RV Park purchase. 

Why did these owners stay in the game?  If I had to guess, they really enjoyed what they were doing and just got caught up in the game.  They enjoyed the income they were making and let's face it, sometimes we just feel like we're all invincible and age and health issues won't catch us!

This property was a development project sitting on 21 acres and listed at $1.5M.  In other words, this was 21 acres of vacant land with one structure on it, but the RV park would need to be developed.  The property itself is well groomed and well taken care of. It seems to be ideal for an RV park.  The seller operates a cash business and according to the seller he does well however none of it is recorded.  Here lies the problem.  Because the seller and I got along very well, respected each other, I did dig in under the sheets on this one.  

Why did I do that?  It's simple, I felt, and I still feel there is an opportunity here.

What did I do?  I went to the county and presented my future use of the property and got a soft approval to move forward.  I went to my civil engineer that I told you about in Episode 43 – My Civil Engineer Rocks and he validated that because this was in a 100-year flood plain that FEMA would be involved at a much higher cost, and we could potentially lose 1/3 of the property for flood elevations which equates to only 15 acres that are buildable.  If we only have 15 acres, we can no longer get 85 sites on site, we could only get income off of 50 sites and when we compare the income to just the vacant land cost of $1.5M, it's not doable for MY exit strategy of 5 to 7 years and because this is technically not a business.  I have no financial data to move forward.  Something has to give.  In this case, it's the cost of the land. 

I believe what this seller is doing is seeing the potential future value after the park has been built and up and running for 3-5 years. Yes, it will be worth much more than his $1.5M. The potential is there, for sure!  However, today it's vacant land.  I certainly don't fault him for seeing his vision.  I can see it too but not at that price.  The numbers don't lie.  anything X 0 = will always be 0.

This property has been on the market for some time and the seller isn't in a hurry to sell, but I am hopeful that at the end of the day he finds his win-win solution.

This next one is a doosie!  This next 5-acre parcel is owned by a couple, it sits on a nice lake, with 3 boat slips, a marina that sells fuel, Campstore, 16 RV Spots, 6 cottages, 3 park models, they hold fishing tournaments.  The place is immaculate and well taken care of but after it was built spending over $1.5 Million dollars the sellers discovered that they were not good managers.   So here's a guy that could create the vision by hand but can't implement.  Now, I'm not faulting them for their vision but here lies the issue – they have no business income and no financial data, and they want over $2.5 million.  In other words, they got so wrapped up in their vision that once it was built, they didn't know what to do with it – they had no exit strategy. 

Remember that RV parks pay twice and, in this order, monthly cash flow and equity when you sell it.  It doesn't happen any other way.

Here's a valid case of "If we build it, they will come!"  Open the flood gates - the RV'ers and fishermen are ready to come but there's nowhere to go!

Their exit strategy now, they just want to sell.  But once again, there is no business so a bank won't lend a person money on it, so unfortunate for them the people that could afford to buy this would be someone with cash or a bunch of investors go in together to purchase it.

The point to this whole episode is make sure you know why, how, and when you want to exit the game.  Exit the game on top, consider your age, and the possibility of health issues in the future and if you know you can build it, but you don't have the people skills or technology skills to manage a property, find that solution before you end up in a bind.  

And for God's sake always track your income and expenses – you need great record keeping for a fair selling price and it will save you time during the negotiation process. 

I'm Mechiel Kopaska of the Fearless Innovator Podcast, I hope you enjoyed this episode.   Catch me later! 

Fearless Innovator: My Civil Engineer Rocks on Apple Podcasts

Welcome back!  In this episode we're going to discuss the best ways to fund or invest in an RV park?

In Episode 43 – My Civil Engineer Rocks – you learned of 2 development opportunities that I had evaluated.  When working on development projects there are a lot more costs involved.  First, you have to procure the land.  One of those projects cost 1.5M to secure the land only.  2nd you need solid estimates on the cost for development.   That would involve working with the civil engineer and the developer to obtain the costs.  This project had expected projected cost estimates upwards of $2 million dollars.

So now you're thinking, where on Earth do you get 3.5 million dollars? And you might be thinking that I have it in my back pocket and the simple answer is no, it's not in my back pocket but I wish it was.   How awesome would it be if I found 1 real estate investor that had that kind of money and was willing to risk everything on my success? I know you're out there; this investor is called an Angel Investor.

It's likely that I could find an Angel Investor, but it would take a bit more hunting, so the next best answer is I'd have to raise the capital.  Raising capital although it can be done, and I have friends raising capital right now for a project in Key West is a huge undertaking and you have to have several team members in place.  One of those players would be an SEC Attorney that would help you setup for Syndication.  

What does that mean?  It just means that I would have the ability to raise capital from multiple sources.  Hiring an SEC attorney is also another added expense.  

For now, and for the costs listed above developing a park may not be in my near future – unless my listeners, now of an Angel Investor? …..I still know of a great development opportunity I'd be willing to partner on!   

Let's look at buying an existing park.

In the past 2 years, I have evaluated 13 parks and now I'm on my 14th.

8 of those parks I dealt directly with the seller and for different reasons they never came to fruition.

I'm going to focus now on the 2nd park I ever evaluated because this park had loads of opportunity's that were missed by the sellers and by me too.

This opportunity was in Waycross, GA.  It was 40 acres, that had a 200-person banquet hall, barn, a stage, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The sellers had owned this property for over 40 years and in it's day it was a local attraction.  The seller was getting older and due to health issues wanted to sell this property, but he didn't want to change anything about the Historical features.  I presented making this into an RV park on the undeveloped ground, hosting large events, placing some tiny homes onsite and using the barn as a wedding venue.  He loved the idea, and we began negotiating. The seller wanted $425,000 and I had put together an extensive estimate for the build-out estimating another $2M in costs.

I was working with the seller to hold the paper.  What does that mean?

I had already predetermined that the seller liked me and my approach, and I knew that the seller owned this property out right, meaning he didn't not have an existing mortgage in place.  And he was in position to make more money off of his investment or so I thought.

Balance is $425,000

My offer was this, I would make a down payment of $85K, leaving $340,000 on terms.  My terms were 5-year note on the $340K, amortized over 30 years at 4% interest and the first payment being due 1 year from closing.  I needed the 1 year to turn around the business to start producing income.  This park had been shut down for a couple of years, so I needed time, which effectively 1 year wasn't enough time, but I was up for the challenge. 

What were the benefits to the seller for holding the paper?

• His investment was collateralized by the property.  Meaning if I failed, he gets the property back.
• He would get 4% on his money over time.  You only get 1% by putting your money in a bank or a CD.  Even IRAs aren't doing that great.
• We could close quickly as we didn't need to wait on a bank loan for approval. 
• Let's not forget the tax benefits.  If the seller had received the $425,000 in cash.  At the end of the year, he would have to claim that amount and pay income taxes on it.  Even at 20% that's $85,000 in taxes.  He would save in taxes by just receiving the monthly payments of $2000 or $24,000 for the year.  He'd only pay taxes on the $24,000.
• One of the sellers' concerns was his health issues, for that a Trust could be setup for future payments should something happen to him before the end of the term.

The benefits for me:

• I didn't have to qualify going through the lengthy bank loan approval process.
• The loan didn't have to go through underwriting.
• I could negotiate my own terms.  Banks won't do that.
• Down payments are also negotiable.

Here's the only downside challenge I ran into.  I wasn't just negotiating with the true owner of the property.  There was also a daughter that was looking after the best interests of her father.  The father was all on board, but the daughter was encouraging her father to just take the money and run.  At the end of the day, this encouragement ultimately won. They had decided to pass on my approach, and we parted ways. 

I learned several things that day.  One being, I really needed to understand their pain point better.  Perhaps, there was a reason they needed the money, and I didn't fish that out in my due diligence. If I had understood their pain point, I could have solved that problem and perhaps been in a different situation.

What made it even worse was to learn that several months almost a year later, the property did sell for their asking amount and the new owners are doing exactly what my plan was.

Was I disappointed?  Sure, I was but at the end of the day, I still feel that negotiating terms with a seller is the best option for everyone, making it a win-win solution. I just needed to get better at negotiating.

Today, I'm working on a park in TN.  Again, this is another Seller Financing opportunity with a twist.  The twist being there is an existing mortgage in place at a small local bank.  The sellers are open to seller financing, and I can see an opportunity to use the small bank.  My plan is going to be to go establish a relationship with this bank. I love small town banks!  I'm from a small town and it's all about the relationship you hold with them.  Smaller banks are more willing to do business with you because they "know" you.  Big time banks, that I don't like, treat me like I'm a no body.  I'm just a number to them.  I learned this lesson way back in the 80's when I lived in Kansas City.  I realized that my name alone was no longer good.  But if I walked into my hometown bank even today, they know me, my character and are more willing to work with me. 

For this park in TN, I plan to approach the sellers with seller financing and the bank may come in useful in the future for an expansion to the park.

Another way to fund a park is by using the Small Business Administration – they even have loans specifically for women in business.

Here's another win-win opportunity for my listeners.  Have you ever wanted to own an RV park, but you don't want to do the work, but you still get interest payments monthly?    (As a side note, I know of another opportunity that's doing just this.)

Well, with every opportunity I've researched, most require down payments. Down payments can generally be $50k to $100K or even more

Sometimes, that down payment is more than I have in my pocket and quite frankly I'd be pretty stupid to use my own money anyway because this is an opportunity for you to earn income on money you either have laying around in a savings account (earning nothing) or in an IRA account (earning nothing).  

I can't share online what your return would look like because I'm not certified to do so, but I can guarantee your return has the potential to be much higher than you are currently receiving depending on the opportunity, of course. 

Rich Dad Poor Dad teaches this very principle.  I'll leave the site in my notes. 

I'm Mechiel Kopaska of the Fearless Innovator Podcast, I hope you enjoyed this episode. 

Rich Dad Fundamentals: Other People's Money (OPM)

Welcome back!  In this episode of Find your dream RV destination, I'm going to share with you 11 ways to locate your perfect RV destination.

When my mom and dad decided in the 90's to get their first camper (back then they weren't called RV's) they wanted to come to Florida for the month of February to visit me because it was my birthday month.  The only source for locating a "campground" was to use the yellow pages or their other option was for me to go drive around and find one.  Dad had predetermined that he wanted to be in the Zephyrhills area. My dad was very resourceful and had done his homework.  He had already learned that there were several parks in that area.  The rest was up to me.  One weekend, I drove up to Zephyrhills and I bet I stopped at 6 parks. I gathered all the pertinent information, pricing, location, amenities, and availability. I reported back to dad and then he made the decision as to which one he and mom would like the best. They had decided on Grove Ridge on US98 for the next 13 years until dad's death in 2007.  They faithfully travelled from Iowa every year for 1 month, except the year dad passed, they were here for 2 months.

I remember taking a vacation in a rented motorhome when I was very young.  There was no need to plan for a predetermined stop over for the night, as the parks simply were not full and there were road signs along the interstates telling passersby where the next park was. It's kind of the same thing I say about biking.  We used to bike when biking wasn't cool and now it is.  Well, we used to camp when camping wasn't cool and now everyone wants in!  This isn't just a sport for baby boomers, the millennials love it too!

Things have changed!  Now we need to pre-plan our stop overs and book in advance, and I mean in way advance because suddenly RV'ing is cool!

So where do we begin our search?  How do we find our perfect RV vacation spot?

Let's first figure out what we're looking for.  Are you looking for a campground or an RV park?  Yes, there is a difference and it's often confusing when you're doing internet searches. Typically, campgrounds offer RV Sites and Tent sites, but RV Parks are exclusive to RV sites.  Campgrounds usually have a more casual and relaxed atmosphere where RV parks will offer more premium amenities.  Shoot there are even RV parks just for the premium Motorcoaches, yeah, they are not called motorhomes any longer and there are RV Parks exclusively for Airstreams.  I don't have and probably won't have an Airstream, but I love concept!

If you're the baby boomer, you may or may not yet be App or internet savvy, and that's OK, because there are still choices for you!

1).  If you've been traveling for a while, Word of Mouth is a great way to find your next destination.

2). KOA's are still popular.  If you call or stop by one, they will give you a book with all their state destinations and they offer discounts when you join their club.

3).  Everyone has heard of Good Sam.  Good Sam also has a book with all their listings, and you can find their book at Camping World locations.  Who hasn't been to a Camping World for supplies?

4).  Billboards are still popular so be on the lookout as you're travelling busy highways and interstates.  When I get my park, I have a clever idea that I'll be using on a billboard to grab your attention!

5). Here's the best advice yet for the not so savvy internet or App users!  Let's face it, the internet is the probably the most useful tool at finding an RV Park so, don't be afraid of it, just ask your kid or your grandchild for assistance!  I know they will gladly help grandma or grandpa and ta dam they will enjoy hunting and booking your winter trip to Florida!

6).  Here's another helpful hint I bet you don't know anything about this site.   This will require your kid or grandchild's help.  Did you know that you can find RV spots for free across the US?  YES, you can!

Have Susie go look up www.boondockerswelcome.com. You will pay a very small nominal fee to join, but this site gives you access to over 2909 + camp stays with NO camping fees.  The best part is you'll get to stay for 1 night free of charge at cool places like wineries, someone's farm stay or perhaps on someone's beachfront property with an awesome sunset view.  I know, you're saying, what's the catch, right?  There is no catch!  It's true that if you stay at a winery for a night, you may indulge and purchase a glass of wine, maybe the farm stay offers homemade soaps that you can purchase for a nominal fee.  You will meet amazing, gracious people across the US.   This option will require you to preplan your trip across the US as I'm sure most of these places stay busy – so plan ahead! 

I'm planning on doing this at my farm.  I won't be selling anything (yet) so it's a complete free stay, but you'll need to deal with 2 very friendly Iowan's that love entertaining!

Ok, for the Millennials – here we go!  It's all about the internet and Apps for you because you like Glamping – or glamorous style of camping which means you want all the amenities (electric, water, etc.) while sleeping in luxury but still enjoying the outdoorsy feel.

Glamping site locations can often be found on RV Sites.  Here are several types of glamping, perhaps you want to find a Tee Pee stay or a tiny home stay.  These are typically individuals that placed a Tee Pee or Tiny home on their property and offer a stay for a nightly fee.  There are also Tiny Home developments popping up all over the country, but I haven't really located one because I haven't looked for Tiny Home at a daily rate, I usually see people living in them. 

Here are a few of my favorites.

7) Campspot - Offers RV Sites as well as Glamping sites.

8) Campendium - You can find Caravan Parks or Unique RV Camping sites.

9) HipCamp – Offers outdoor stays, cabins, RV Parks, and Glamping

10) Airbnb and VRBO – also offer unique glamping stays, as well as unique camping stays.

11) GORving.com You can find Tiny Homes, Bungalows, RV Spots and Fish Camps.

There you have it folks!  I just laid out part of my marketing strategy for when I get my park.  One day soon, you will see my park on these sites!  I hope you found this information useful.  If you know of another site or information I missed, I would be interested in adding it to my list!  Please reach out to me at [email protected]

Catch me later!

References:

Boondockers.com BoonDockers Book for Free

Camp Florida has a book - Florida RV Parks & Campgrounds

KOA has a book - KOA

Good Sam - Good Sam

Camping World - Camping World

Airstream - Airstream of Tampa

Campspot - Campspot

Campendium - Campendium

HipCamp - HipCamp

Airbnb - Airbnb - RV's, Cottages, Bungalows 

VRBO - Vrbo Cabins, Cottages, Bungalows, RV 

GoRving.com - Find a Campground | Go RVing

Over that past several months, I have been trying to determine if I want to develop an RV park or purchase an existing RV park.  Today, for the most part, I'm still undecided. Here's why.  It all depends on what makes the most sense from a resource, financial and management perspective.  The team I need for development is much more than if I just purchase a park.

Option 1 – I could develop a park; it will take quite a bit more time until my books see green and I'm pretty sure that won't fit my timeframe for my exit strategy.  There are numerous other factors to consider, I would need to add additional team members to my team, how much money will I need to fund a development project, where will these funds come from, and who will I get to develop and manage all the city, county, state regulations for the park?  

While I believe I'm capable of managing a team from a high level, I would need an extensive team to pull that off.  One team member I have already added to my team is a Civil Engineer.  I'm not going to share his information here as I have not asked for permission to use his name or the company he is associated with simply because I have not yet engaged with him at a contractual level because I haven't found "THE DEAL" that I'm looking for. However, when I do engage with him at a contractual level in the future, I will ask his permission. 

Option 2 - I can always purchase an existing park.  My best scenario would be to buy an existing park that needs work and perhaps there's the ability to expand on adjoining acres.  This option would give me the best of both worlds - developing and operating.

Option 3 – Buy an existing park.  Perhaps, I can find a mom-and-pop park that's already up and running located here in Central Florida that's just plain tired of working with the public and they are ready to retire.

I'm going to share with you a couple of development opportunities that I have recently evaluated. 

Development Opportunity 1 – This property was centrally located in Florida in an area that was heavily travelled.  The location itself would draw in the people.  It was an 80-acre parcel, that had been subdivided off from an existing RV Park. Back in the day, one owner owned the whole property, and his plan was to build a much larger park than the one that exists now.  This owner went as far as hiring a Civil Engineer to draw up the Master Site Plan for the 80 acres.  Upon my review of the Master Site Plan, it appeared to be doable.

I'm thinking, this property has potential, as part of the battle with water, electric and septic had already been won. 

Upon further inspection of the Master Site Plan, I noticed the name of   the Civil Engineer, so I called him.  He was quite helpful and offered to get me original copies of the Master Plan and then he gave me this useful tidbit.  He told me that the existing park had an HOA.  This was significant because according to the Master Site Plan the only way to access the 80 acres behind this HOA was to drive through the HOA and use their well-manicured roadways.   This meant we would need the HOA's permission to have construction vehicles and future RV's traveling through their development.  Then when I asked him if he'd like to take on this project, he simply replied, no.  Hmm?

I believe he had said no because he had indicated that he was at retirement age, and he was very picky on the opportunities he worked on.  Nonetheless, I was still curious, and my driving nature wouldn't have me stop here.  I am the type of person that needs concrete evidence or a complete roadblock before I call it quits.

Now, that I had a lot of documentation in hand, I reached out to my civil engineer for his high-level review and opinion.

Before I dive into that, I would like to share that this Civil Engineer that I'm working with came to me as a referral as being the best there is.  

Why? Its simple, he has extensive knowledge and experience with RV park developments and is well seasoned at his craft.  You will learn that much later in another episode.

I gathered all my documentation and sent it via email over to my civil engineer.

His initial review yielded that this property was within the 100 Year Flood plane.  This would complicate the design and require extensive research meaning a costly Feasibility Study amongst other costs and it would reduce the number of RV spots from the original plan which would impact future projected revenues.

What I haven't told you yet, that on this project I was working with an investor, who would ultimately fund this deal.

I gave my investor the direct feedback and for whatever reason, he wanted to continue to do more research.

Ok, so I kept digging!

From here, I pointed out to the engineer that there was an HOA in place with the current RV Park and that the only access point was through this HOA.  I thought that since this parcel was so large, then maybe we could locate another possible access point.  I asked the engineer if he could validate moving the access point to another location, therefore avoiding the HOA.

The result as expected, there were no other access points anywhere on the property due to low lying water areas.  He then told me that the HOA will most likely stand in the way of further development.  As we both knew, the development had been planned at one point in time, but now the HOA had the control.

My investor would now have to sue the HOA to gain the necessary access.

After reviewing the roadblocks of suing the HOA and dishing out a lot more money than expected, the investor was out. Now, I understand why the initial Civil Engineer did not want to play this game.

Development Opportunity 2 – As with each I property I evaluate.  I not only determine my exit strategy, I determine the best use of the property.  The last project I just mentioned would have been a Destination Park – meaning people will come to stay here for longer periods of time.  This next project I considered would have been what I'd call an overnight park – simply because of its location.

This is a 21-acre parcel sitting right in the cross hairs of 3 major highways but by my own definition it's out in the boonies which makes this property attractive for several reasons.  It's quiet, rural and an easy stop over for snowbirds heading to their destination park.

Another unique feature of this property was that it has an existing 3500 sq ft building that was currently being used to host large events such as music festivals, car shows and other local events.

I worked directly with the owner on this project.  Let me just say, that I wish every owner/seller was like him.  He was kind, easy to work with and he gave me the time I needed to make an informed decision.  I always kept him the loop with all my actions, and he did the same.

My vision for this project was to take the remaining acres, call it 21 acres minus the building and develop an RV park with the possibility of putting a convenient store onsite. Let's face it, the nearest town was 10 miles away.  This project also came with a predetermined Master Site Plan and a Topographical Survey that was years old and had been drawn up by a prior landowner.

I knew that in talking with the current owner, that this property was already zoned C3 -commercial for the RV park but I may need to meet with the County Zoning department, if I intended to change the use.  

Off to the county I went.  To make this story short, I dropped off a letter that I had created to describe what I wanted to do and the positive impacts it would have for the county, in hopes that someone would call me. 

I didn't get a call, but I did have the opportunity to have a Zoom meeting with the Zoning Director and her assistant.  After presenting my idea, she soft approved me.  Meaning, she was allowing me to move forward with the 10 Step Special Use process that would ultimately put me in front of the Board of Directors for approval.  That didn't scare me, I used to present for CEO's and CFO's back in my IT days.

My next step was to once again, pass this along to my civil engineer and at this point I did not yet have the topographic survey.

Upon his initial review, he said it would require re-zoning and work regarding the flood stage, but he would need the topographic survey.

Upon his review of the Survey, he found that the elevations of this property were several feet below the 100-year event.  This just meant that any buildings, septic systems, or water systems would have to be 1 ft above the elevations or 3' to 5' above the current elevations.  

I clarified with the engineer, you're just saying this is not cost effective, but what if someone had enough money to jump that obstacle?  He then pointed out that yes, money solves that problem, but it doesn't solve that you now no longer have 21 acres to build.  Due to the fact, that the elevation was taken away then that increased the ingress and egress, which ultimately means that the future income projections I calculated for 75 RV sites just dropped to under 55 sites.  This means that it would take longer to see the profits.  This didn't fit within my exit strategy timeframe.  So now, I was out.

I really had high hopes for that project, but the numbers don't lie but I must say, I really enjoyed working with the seller and I really do pray he finds what he's looking for.  He has the right attitude and I'm certain it will work out for him.

I'm also very thankful for the referral I got for the Civil Engineer and the opportunity to one day soon engage with my Civil Engineer.  As it is, he has gone above and beyond to help me out!

For the record – developing an RV Park does not scare me. In its simplest form it's nothing more than playing in the dirt and burying some water and electric lines.  Shoot, I'd even drive the bulldozer! 

With every opportunity I review, I gain more knowledge and one day, I'll be ready to implement!

If you know someone that is selling an RV park or maybe they are just tired of dealing with the public, please reach out to me at [email protected] or go to fearlessinnovator.com to connect with me. 

Every January, since I don't know when, Tampa has hosted the Tampa RV Super Show.  I believe it's called a Super Show because all the heavy hitters are in town.  Who are the heavy hitters?   General RV, Lazy Days, Camping World and Airstream of Tampa to name a few.  All of which are centrally located here east of Tampa on I4.  If you want to know anything RV, this is a show you must go too.  Even if you don't have an RV (yet), it's still a must go show!  If all you get out of it is dreaming that one day you could own a Class A Motorcoach or a more conservative pull behind trailer or you're looking for something to haul your golf cart or motorcycles in, this show will knock your socks off!  This outfit that put this on, knows what everyone is looking for.

Everyone that goes, has their own purpose in mind.  I first went years ago to evaluate all types of RV's to match my need.   I went looking for a Fifth Wheel Toyhauler. You get to compare all manufacturers designs and new features.   The manufacturers also have their RV units on discount, so if you're looking to buy this may be a great place to hunt for your next RV. 

I would be lying to you, if I didn't tell you the real reason I go. I go for the Kettle Corn!  Every Iowan, loves popcorn and my favorite it Kettle Corn!  This year, we were so focused on why were there,  I completely forgot about the Kettle Corn – nor did we even smell it!  I know it was there, I saw someone eating it!  I should have stopped and asked but I didn't.  You'll have to wait and see towards the end of this broadcast to see what my number 1 thing I learned at the Tampa RV Super Show!

Why did we go to the Tampa RV Super Show?  We went specifically to learn more about RV parks.  How did we do that?  We talked to a lot of people!  We got so wrapped up in talking to people that we closed the place down, and in fact, we should have gone back for a 2nd day but we simply didn't have enough time.

I'm going to list out our take aways!

First off, let's talk about where is everyone coming from?  Well, unless you're like me and you just walk up to someone and start talking to them to find out, just check out the parking lot!

I counted 10 state license plates including Canada as we were walking into the show. I'm sure there were others.   Of course, everyone is from the North, LOL.  Here are the states I saw Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New York, Maine, Michigan, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and drum roll please……Alaska and then of course, there was Canada.

These same states have appeared in the RV parks that I've visited.  Funny how Iowa doesn't have a grand appearance. I attribute this to Iowan's like to go to Texas and Arizona for the winter, along with Minnesota and Missouri, must the the Mississippi divide.  LOL  I don't know.

These same states visit my short term rentals.  So for me, it's safe to say I'm confident where I'll be marketing in the future!

When you first walk into the RV Show, they conveniently route you through the Airstream display.  It's a red carpet display and it's inside out of the weather!  The day we went it was blistering cold, so it made it nice inside.  Airstream revealed it's new eStream Concept Travel Trailer – what is that?  Think about the green energy Tesla – same concept but in an RV.  I'll leave the link so you can see it for yourself.  My takeaway from this is a no brainer, I'll need to research what type of connections they are using for the Electric hookups.  Hmmm.

Once you move along the red carpet you now enter one of the 3 vendor rooms.  OH, the vendors and let me tell you, this is where the bulk of everyone hangs out except if you're RV shopping. 

Why?  Some vendors offer Free Stuff, if you sign up for there newsletter.   I don't typically like to collect junk mail, so we only collected 2 free items.   1 was a fly swatter!  Every RV'er needs a fly .swatter, so this was a useful free thing.  As luck would have it this same vendor which I'll share in a moment also gave us a free T-shirt.  That I'll either sleep in or work in.  I'm always on the hunt for a good t-shirt.

This Vendor, RVezy caught my eye because they offer a service, where I can advertise my RV on their site for rent.  In other words, it's kinda like a short term rental, but you're renting out your RV.  You might have this awesome mountain view where you could allow someone to come stay in your personal RV.  This was attractive to me, because we just put in 100amp service in our front yard and soon we will hosting RV Farm Stays or they can even rent out the RV space and bring their own.  This is also applicable to RV Parks, it may be an option where we purchase  RV's and place them in our parks for rent.  This would allow those who have not yet decided to purchase their own camper but it would give them the experience first!  Then they could decide.

Here's something else about RVezy we found quite entertaining, it's their logo on their T-shirt.  It features a picture of a camper on the front of the shirt and it says – "I Sleep Around".  We definitely thought that was a catchy marketing strategy!  I'll post a picture in the notes. 

Another cool thing I saw this year, is a lot of vendors starting sharing their own QR Codes on their booths.  This allowed you to download either an app or information about their products.  So if you're the shy type and don't like interacting with people or don't want to get stuck talking to a sales person, you click and keep strolling.  I did this at Camp Florida.  I didn't need to talk with anyone to download an App that basically has a bunch of RV parks listed in their app.  This was interesting to me, because I want to see parks that may be new or it may list a park that I missed in my google search, as I search for a mom and pop park that may want to sell.  This app just made it a lot easier for me to locate a park in the area that I'm looking to purchase in.  And this just became a site that when I get my park, I'll be marketing it!

Cool stuff!!    I told you from the beginning, you can go to a show and learn a lot!!

As I continue, my search to find my ideal RV park in Florida, I like looking at what other RV parks have to offer.  We ran across a display that was advertising a new RV park in Webster, FL that we hadn't heard anything about.   We collected the information on Oak Valley RV Resort as we will be booking a stay with them in the very near future.  When you go to their website, the first thing you see is a YouTube video on their new Fiber Service.  They know that a lot of RV'ers today need or want great WIFI service, as a lot of RV'ers today are full timers and work from the RV, so they tout their new fiber service.  It was interesting to learn how they setup their fiber service, reminded me of my old IT days.

What is your favorite RV app that you use to locate a park with all of your needs?  Please email me at [email protected]!

Ok, listeners, you gotta help me out with this one.  A lot of newer parks are starting to add Pickleball courts.   Just to keep this real, I have not yet played pickleball to understand the draw to this game. Believe me, I am the competitive type and if I could have played basketball all my life I would have, if I could have earned a living.  Sorry, I digress but here's the deal.  I can't tell you how many RV parks that I've been in and I have yet to see ANYONE playing pickleball!  Quite frankly, I really don't understand it either.  I mean the average age of RV'ers years ago was 69, it's closer to 49 these days.  Along with age comes knees and hip problems, ask me how I know! I just don't see RV'ers getting into Pickleball.  Give me your feedback on this one, because I truly want to know if pickleball is something you all are interested in.  If I get compelling evidence that you all enjoy this, then I'll consider adding it to my park but for now I'm going to hold off.

Please email me at [email protected].

After a couple of hours in the vendor hall, we ventured outside to go look at all the new designs and features the manufactures had to offer.  WOW! Not only were the upgrades fantastic but there were new manufacturers there that focused on green technology.  There were manufacturers focused on newer travelers on a budget.  Some units even had a tent on one side for the kids and inside was for the adults.  The point is they have RV's, Coaches for your desired purpose and all shapes and sizes.

As we were turning the corner looking at the tons of RV's, out of the corner of my eye, I see a guy carrying a camera and filming who I believed to be his wife.  I said to myself, that looks like a YouTuber.  So beings the shy person that I am I walked over to them and say, "that just reeked of YouTube!"  The girl giggled and said, yes, we actually a host a YouTube channel.   I said, that's too funny, then she said the name of it is, Enjoy the Journey.  I said, cool.  She then went on to ask us questions about our journey in RV'ing and once she learned that we were full timers and said could you mind sharing a bit of your story and then giving us credit for the show.  Of couse, I said yes. So we did a little segment.  That was fun!  In complete transparency, I had never heard of the Enjoy the Journey and this was just a complete random event that occurred, I wasn't star struck or anything like that.  I now subscribe to their show!  They have over 158,000 subscribers.  Who knew?

Another little tidbit for clarity, we actually ran into these folks at a much smaller RV show, it wasn't the Tampa Super Show but I thought it was worthy of telling you.

I can't tell you how many people we ran into that day at the Tampa RV Show but I will tell you about 2 of my favorites.  When I say, we ran into them, they actually ran into me.  I have this tendency to check out what you're wearing, and if you have something that I either recognize or just happen to know something I about, I will strike up a conversation with you.  

So Kurt and I were in line to get something to drink and I see this couple, their doggie a German Short Hair had on a sweater that matched the guys hat!  It said, they were Iowa Hawkeye fans, well you bet I hollered out, GO IOWA! The guy smiled and then I asked where they were from and they were from Eastern Iowa – and of course, they were super friendly, just like all Iowans!  We actually hung out with them for several hours and then the guy says, hey, you want to go see the RV we picked out, of course we said Sure.  So they took us to the Road Warrior by  HeartlandRVs – (heartland, go figure!)  The specific module was RW414 – I'll put the link in my notes.  Gosh, when Kurt and I looked at this module, we immediately went into dream mode.  This module fits our needs to a T.  It's a toyhauler with plenty of room for the bikes, the kitchen has a lot more space than our current one, the seating area is comfortable for 4 people to sit and visit, our current module, not so much.  The best feature was the KING bed vs. our now cozy queen bed, but even better there was room to walk around the bed.  Keeping this in perspective, we were just dreaming and we will afford a change much later down the road.  We are comfortable for now.  Although, I will tell you that in comparison to other models from other manufacturers, the discounts with this one was worth considering!

I decided to poll this couple and find out what they most desired at an RV park.  Here are their top 2 choices.  Pool was their number 1 and number 2 was to have plenty of activities and the activities did not include Pickleball.  Bingo, oh I didn't mean play BINGO… I meant, see I can't find anyone that likes it.

Help me out here, what's your favorite feature that you look for in an RV park?  I'll give you hint what mine is as I work out of my RV – it's high speed internet with as many WIFI connections that I can get.  Our RV has 3 TV's, 2 cell phones and 1 computer – so I need at least 6 connections! 

Later on I noticed an older gentleman with a Jimmie Johnson hat and shirt on, now of course, Jimmie had been my number one driver in Nascar, since 2002, he's since retired so I found it interesting that this gentleman was still representing.  I approached him and Said, so how's Jimmie Johnson doing these days?  He jokingly said, maam, I got this shirt at a garage sale!  I really didn't follow him. We were more into drag racing.   Man, I got a chuckle out of that.  We learned that they were 'good' bikers back in the 70's when biking wasn't cool.  He said we didn't hang with them gangs, you know.  I said, oh yes, I know all about that.  They were at the show looking for their next RV.  Super cool couple.

Now, my favorite thing I learned at the show, may not be sexy to you, but it sure lit me up!  While we were in the 2nd vendor hall, I think.  We ran across CampSpot.  Campspot is the software that many parks use to manage not only their camping store inventory but their RV spots.  They have unique algorithms that can move your RV spot inventory around to wisely manage the inventory most efficiently!  While we were in Waukee, Iowa this summer at Timberline Campground the park owner there Marta had told me about CampSpot so I actually saw a demo of it in action and I was able to bang some ideas around with Marta.  So to run into them at this event, was epic!  There were 2 ladies in the booth, one focused on marketing their product and the other lady was very helpful as she was on their development team.  It's not that often that a company will client face a member of it's development staff, developers are usually not client facing and they do their best work when everyone else is sleeping…..so I took advantage of the opportunity and shared with her the IT specific functionlity that I would like to have at my park.  I bet I pelted her with 20-30 different ideas.  As expected, she'd have to take my ideas back to the development staff, but I did learn more about how their software worked and some possible work arounds that may work for the functionality that I'd need.  This encounter just made my day and made me hopeful that my park design one day will become reality.

That concluded our Tampa RV Super Show experience, remember if  you have any great ideas you'd like to see in an RV Park, I'm your girl.  Reach out to me at [email protected], I'd love to share your ideas or may be even interview you on a future show!

I'll see you next Thursday on the Fearless Innovator Podcast.

2022 Florida RV SuperShow 

General RV

Lazydays RV

Camping World

Airstream of Tampa Florida

eStream Concept Travel Trailer | Airstream Electrifying Adventure

RVezy

Camp Florida RV Parks and Campgrounds

Oak Alley Resort

EnjoyTheJourney.Life

Road Warrior - Heartland RVs

Campspot 

Timberline Campground | RV Park

RVEzy – T-shirt

Good morning, I bet you've all been wondering where did that Fearless Innovator, go? Right?  Well, I owe, YOU, my listeners a huge apology and I think you can tell by the sound of my voice, that I've not been feeling well.  Yup, I caught the dreaded virus 3 weeks ago and it knocked me down.  I mostly suffered with absolutely no energy, even after 3 weeks I'm crawling back.  This episode will be short today.

I really tried to produce content, I promise you I did,  but I just couldn't get my brain wrapped around it.  So, for that I'm very sorry for the lateness of my show but rest assured I have been working behind the scenes on producing my next content.

You all know that I want to own an RV park by now, so my next few shows are going to focus on RV Parks and I even have one very interesting character who's  a friend of mine.  She's going to share with us her RV journey.  Her name is Melia Jacobs and her RV is called Lilo – yes, she names her camper and she works out of Lilo.  I can't wait to share her story with you!

I also recently went to the Tampa RV Show (prior to being sick!) and I specifically went there to investigate everything RV Park and I even polled a couple of the guests to find out what they like and don't like in RV parks. 

In the last several months, I've been evaluating a couple of properties that I was hopeful could be turned into an RV park, so I'll share with you my experiences and where I'm at today with them.

Again, I'm very sorry for my lateness and thank you for following me..  I'm now back on track!