Is this a crazy dream?

[Kennhesgurl]

Brand new here, because I'm totally single & have no one to bounce my ideas of off. I don't want support, I want frank, honest feedback.

I'm 61 years old & have nothing for retirement (not my fault). When you live your life as an abuser's wife, your earning power never develops.

I've decided my best option to supplement my $1100/mo social security income (if I retire at 65) is to purchase around 5 acres of land & put half a dozen RV pads on it. I plan to go USDA, zero down & put a mobile home on it, in North Central Texas, near the OK state line, near where I live now, near family. Legally, I can't collect income from the land for 2 years. That will give me time to throw down some rock, run some water & electric, even put in a roadway.

I know people's first thought is, it's seasonal. But I want a place people can live permanently, with a little partially fenced yard, a stock tank for fishing, & I like the idea of using a storage container for a laundry & contracting that out to someone who will bring in & maintain the machines.

At my age, I can't do the work myself, so my plan is (this is where it might get hankey) to 'hire' someone to live free in a camper trailer, which I supply, & just do the work on the weekends, weather permitting. I drive a truck over the road & I'm rarely home, so I worry that squatters could move in or electrical boxes could get stolen with no one around to watch over the place.

I really just want to make enough money to pay my house/land payments, taxes, insurance & maintenance costs. A few thousand a month, I estimate.

Does my plan sound feasible?
Should I copy & paste this to a different place in the Forum?
And feedback is appreciated.

[R.M.A]

Boy, that sounds like a tough row to hoe.
Your electricity requirements are going to be expen$ive.
But do-able.
6 sites 50 Amps = 400A service.
Your mobile 200A service minimum.
A daunting task.

Mark

[Flyer15015]

You want to build a 6 pad RV park on 5 acres and have a permanent live in
"helper" and a base camp for you?
Watch out for the zoning laws where you plan this.
Commercial wells need permits and at least quarterly sampling to the state.

Long ago, I learned how to make a small fortune in the 100 site RV park business here in central Colorado. Start with a large one. 10 years and some very expensive friends was enough for me.

JMHO
Mike in Colorado

[AveryF]

Maybe not crazy but really ambitious and will take a lot of planning.

[rarebear.nm]

I have no idea what labor goes for in that area. How close to utility lines, cell service, Internet serive and water your site might be? I'd contact the proper companies to get estimates to bring power and other services onto the site. You may need to drill a well and install supporting plumbing and built a septic system large enough for the six sites. Contact some good electricians who understand RV parks for estimates early in your planning. Likewise for the water system.


What I hear is that it frequently costs between $10,000 to 30,000 for each RV site. That does not include your overhead costs.


Who and how will you market the sites and provide on site support. Stuff breaks.


This can be done. Just carefully plan everything for the first few years while cash flow will likely be negative. Undercapitalization is one of the biggest dangers of these projects.

[MSHappyCampers]

Hi ! Welcome to IRV2! We’re sure glad you joined the gang here!

I admire your ambition but it's gonna be tough! As for the problem with squatters, give someone a free site to handle the check-ins and watch over the place. Hope it works out for you!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

[Old-Biscuit]

Had a friend that bought 8 acres , lived on site in double wide, had his own dump truck, backhoe/front end loader, and did his own plumbing, water, electrical (except hooking up to power pedestals) .......cost out of pocket after 2 yrs to opening day was $400,000 (50A sites ----50 sites)

Took over 2 yrs before he started making money only because of workcampers do daily chores, his wife running front office and him working a FT job to support their 'dream'

Good luck!

[joerone]

Big Plans, but if it's your dream/goal...go for it..Best of luck!!

[twogypsies]

It's going to be very expensive to do. First make sure the zoning is OK for what you want to do. Then you'll have to apply for various permits.

You've got a lot of work to do. Good luck.

[NLOVNIT]

Anything can be done, if you've got the funds to do it. I'm going to assume you've got a substantial nest egg to pull from, or at least investors, not just your SS income. You said you have "nothing for retirement". I hope that means you have nothing to do; not that you don't have money. Getting a loan for what you want to do might be problematic without some kind of collateral or business plan.

You could do a search on our site to find threads on the subject. Search for "building a campground".

You might also want to check out this section on our sister site RV LIFE Campgrounds:
https://campgrounds.rvlife.com/forum...-management.2/

Park owners & wanna be park owners have threads there that may give you an idea on just what you're getting into.

[OldBaldFat]

Where are you? Where thinking of building? North Central Texas is crowded.

Along US-82 between Wichita Falls and Paris - the area is pretty saturated with that type of small RV park for the market. I've been looking in that area about possibly moving my base from the Lake Whitney area.

If you drive much in the area between US-82 and US-380 - there are more parks, land is more expensive, building costs higher and regulations more restrictive.

East of Greenville there might be some potential customers. After 40+ years in the area, I really can't understand why so many folks commute from Hunt County to downtown Dallas. I think you need to get out near Tyler/ Paris to find a place where the numbers might work in your favor.

Now, you have to build things to be able to survive a full week of temps below freezing, which seem to occur every winter now.

Sewer is going to be a tough permit to obtain. Also, various cities.

Much of the land in that part of Texas is in an area already designated as part of the water resource of the large cities. (Fort Worth Water owns Richland Chambers Lake and anything in that area must have EPA approved aerobic septic systems (for small locations), or arrangements to pump the wastewater to an approved waste treatment plant. Dallas owns the water in Lake Fork, Tawakoni and Cedar Creek and in those watersheds. You will have to hire lawyers to teach with Dallas to drill wells, or put in spetic systems.

I'm not saying it cannot be done, I'm just saying it won't be cheap, easy or done quickly. Could easily take 6 to 10 years.

Texas is a very highly regulated state when it comes to water and land usage.

Sure, out near Van Horn, it's almost unregulated. But east of a line from Amarillo to San Angelo to Uvalde - it gets as bad as some east coast states.

Also, Texas recognized about a hundred years ago they had the same long range water problems as California or Arizona. More people and agriculture than the average yearly rainfall can support.

The City of Dallas started buying up water rights in the 1890s.

If might be easier in Oklahoma north of the Red River, or Arkansas south of I-40.

[Bigceasar]

You have no money. You don’t own any property free and clear and you can’t do any of the work.
The Declaration of Independence says “we hold these truths to be self evident” and then there was a list of things like the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They could have added to the list “This project has no chance.”.
You can’t expect other people to build you a park for free.

[zrock2010]

As a person that has worked and upgraded a park and the owner already had all the equipment for installations walk away from that dream. By the time you purchase the land, landscape and put pads in, run hydro, water, septic and build any amenities you want to have on site. You monthly out gong will far exceed what you are going to pull in even if you could find someone to run the park for free. By the time you pay off all those expense's you will no longer be on this earth. The best month i had at the park of 54 sites was about 60g canadian and i had every site full for the month as well some of the sites the customer double stacked and i made double off of that. Usually it was around 20-30g per month and by the time all the outgoing was paid and winter was factored in it just broke even. Since i left that park it makes less than 10g a month and is usually emptie as they have no customer service, campers like to feel welcome and i found it was a full time job just going around the park saying hi to everyone every day..

[spock12]

It’s a pipe dream at best, that’s my honest answer. You didn’t say what your income is now. $1100 a month to live on is going to be tough. I would look for a used camper to buy now and have it paid off in 4 years. Then look for a place to park the camper at and pay a monthly rent to park the camper on. Look for a part time job, driving a school bus is not hard or working at Walmart part time. Meet another woman that is your age and pool your Social Security money.