7 Mistakes First-Time RV Park Investors Make

August 13, 2026 · RV park investing, explained

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Most of the money lost in RV park investing gets lost before closing, not after. It happens in the diligence period, when a buyer trusts a number they should have verified or skips a walk they should have taken. This post covers the seven mistakes that show up most often with first-time buyers, what they cost, and how to catch them while you still have time to walk away or renegotiate.

What you need before you evaluate a deal

• Trailing 12 to 24 months of actual profit and loss statements, not a broker's pro forma
• A site map showing amperage per pad (20/30/50 amp mix), water source and well capacity in gallons per minute, and septic or sewer capacity
• Occupancy broken out by site type: nightly transient, seasonal, and long-term monthly
• Zoning verification letter from the county or city, plus any conditional use permits
• A recent FEMA flood zone determination for the parcel
• Local comps on nightly rates, monthly lot rent, and occupancy for parks within a similar drive radius

The 7 mistakes

1. Underwriting off the pro forma instead of trailing actuals. Sellers and brokers often present a projected income number that assumes full occupancy, top-of-market rates, and zero vacancy loss. Real parks run seasonal swings, no-shows, and rate discounts. Ask for the trailing 12 months of bank statements or tax returns, not a spreadsheet built for marketing.
2. Skipping the utility and infrastructure check. A park's income potential is capped by its water, power, and septic capacity, not by how many pads are drawn on a site plan. A well rated at 15 gallons per minute cannot support 60 full-hookup sites at peak season. Get well flow test records, septic capacity ratings, and an electrical load assessment before you assume you can add sites or convert to full hookups.
3. Confusing occupancy percentage with income quality. A park showing 85% occupancy sounds strong until you learn half of that is long-term monthly tenants paying $400 a month while nightly transient sites nearby command $50 to $75 a night. Mix matters. Ask for occupancy and rate broken out by site type, not a blended average.
4. Missing zoning, permit, and flood zone issues. Some parks operate as legal nonconforming uses, meaning if the park is ever destroyed or shut down for a stretch of time, it may not be allowed to rebuild at the same density. Others have sites built without permits, sitting partly in a floodway. These issues do not always show up in a title search. They show up in a zoning letter and a flood determination, both of which cost little and take one to three weeks to obtain.
5. Underestimating the true expense ratio. First-time buyers often model expenses at 25% to 30% of gross revenue because that is what they have seen in other real estate niches. RV parks, especially ones with amenities, pools, or heavy seasonal staffing, commonly run 35% to 45% of gross revenue in operating expenses, sometimes higher for smaller parks without economies of scale. Underestimating this by even 10 points can turn a projected 9% cap rate deal into a 5% or 6% deal.
6. Ignoring deferred maintenance in roads, pads, and utility lines. Gravel roads that look fine from a drive-through can have washout issues after one hard rain season. Sewer lines from the 1970s and 80s in some parks are original clay or thin-wall pipe nearing the end of useful life. These are expensive to replace and hard to spot without a real walk of the property and a conversation with the seller's maintenance staff, not just the seller.
7. Not having a real management plan before closing. A lot of first-time buyers assume they can run the park part-time or hire someone quickly after they own it. Reservation systems, seasonal staffing, mowing, trash, and guest issues do not pause for a hiring search. Parks that go three or four months without a clear on-site presence after a change of ownership often see occupancy and reviews drop fast, and that drop is expensive to reverse.

Where this goes wrong

The pattern is almost always the same. A buyer gets excited about a strong headline number, moves fast to beat other offers, and treats diligence as a formality instead of a real investigation. Then, a few months after closing, they discover the septic system cannot support the sites they planned to add, or the expense ratio was 20 points higher than modeled, or half the park's income was long-term tenants at rates well under market. By then the buyer has already closed, financed at a certain leverage level, and has little room to absorb the surprise. The result is a capital call, a distribution cut, or a forced sale at a worse price than they bought at.

The second common failure mode is buying a park that looks fine on paper but needs a management presence the buyer is not prepared to provide. Absentee ownership can work at some parks with strong systems and staff already in place. It does not work as a default assumption on a park that has been run informally by an owner-operator for twenty years.

When to stop and call someone

Bring in a septic or environmental engineer before closing on any park where you plan to add sites, convert to full hookups, or where the seller cannot produce a recent capacity assessment. This is not a DIY inspection. A land use attorney should confirm zoning status and any nonconforming use risk in writing, especially in counties where short-term rental and RV park ordinances have changed in the last five years. A CPA experienced in hospitality or park-specific businesses should normalize the seller's financials, since owner add-backs and personal expenses run through these businesses more often than in typical commercial real estate. And if you have never operated a park or managed one remotely, talk to an experienced operator or a firm that has underwritten several of these deals before you sign a purchase agreement, not after. Invest With Zac exists partly because this diligence gap is where most first-time buyers get hurt, and it is far cheaper to ask the hard questions before closing than to solve them after.