What Is a Good Debt Structure for an RV Park Acquisition?

August 29, 2026 · RV park investing, explained

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Most people asking about debt structure for an RV park acquisition are actually asking about apartment debt without realizing it. They have read about multifamily deals, heard terms like "75% LTV" and "agency debt," and assumed RV parks get financed the same way. They do not. RV parks sit in a smaller, less standardized lending world, and the confusion usually comes from applying rules built for a different asset class.

"You can get 75-80% leverage like you would on an apartment deal"

This is rarely true for RV parks, and when it is true, there is usually a catch. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have deep, standardized programs for multifamily that push leverage high with attractive fixed rates. Nothing like that exists at scale for RV parks. Most conventional bank and credit union lenders land in the 60-70% loan-to-value range for a stabilized park with solid occupancy and income history. Some regional banks will go higher for a park with strong utility infrastructure, paved roads, and a mix of long-term and transient revenue, but 75%+ is the exception, not the rule. The kernel of truth is that leverage this high does exist in commercial real estate generally. It just is not the norm here because RV parks are still viewed by most underwriters as a specialty asset, closer to a hotel or a mobile home park than to an apartment building.

"SBA loans are the easy button for RV park financing"

SBA 7(a) and 504 loans get mentioned constantly in RV park circles, and for good reason. They can offer 80-90% leverage, longer amortization, and reasonable rates. But they come with a major restriction that trips people up: the borrower generally has to be an owner-operator, not a passive investment group. If you are a small operator buying one park to run yourself, SBA can be a strong option. If you are raising capital from passive investors and the property will be run by a third-party management company, most SBA programs will not fit that structure. This is the single most common mismatch we see between what people read online and what actually applies to a syndicated or fund-style acquisition.

"More leverage always means better returns"

Higher leverage can boost cash-on-cash returns when things go according to plan. It also raises the odds that a bad season, a slow ramp-up period, or a rate reset turns a manageable property into a distressed one. RV parks often have more revenue seasonality than apartments, especially parks that lean heavily on transient and seasonal sites rather than long-term monthly stays. A park that comfortably covers debt service in July can look very different in February. Pushing leverage to the maximum a lender will allow, without asking whether the property's cash flow can absorb a rough quarter, is how otherwise good deals get into trouble. Leverage is a tool for adjusting risk and return, not a scoreboard.

What actually matters instead

Instead of chasing the highest leverage number available, focus on how the debt structure lines up with the property's actual cash flow pattern and your hold period. A few things matter more than the headline LTV:

• Amortization and term. A lot of RV park loans come with 20-25 year amortization but a 5-7 year balloon. That is normal, but it means you need a real plan for refinancing or selling before the balloon comes due, not a vague hope that rates will be favorable.
• Debt service coverage ratio (DSCR). Lenders typically want to see coverage in the 1.25x to 1.35x range or higher, based on trailing income, not projected income. Buying a deal that only works if a turnaround plan hits perfectly, with debt sized against those optimistic numbers, is a common way deals get strained.
• Rate type and reset risk. Fixed rate debt for the full loan term is not always available. Many loans are fixed for a few years and then adjust, or are variable from day one with a rate cap. Know what happens to your monthly payment if rates move, and stress test the deal against that.
• Lender familiarity with the asset class. A bank that has financed RV parks before will underwrite more realistically and move faster than one seeing this asset type for the first time. That familiarity is worth something even if the terms are not the absolute cheapest available.
• Seller financing and assumable debt. In this space, seller carry-back notes and assumable existing loans show up more often than in other commercial real estate niches. They can offer better terms than a new bank loan, especially on parks where the seller wants a clean exit but also wants ongoing income.

The right debt structure for an RV park acquisition is the one that matches the property's real seasonal cash flow, gives you enough runway before any balloon payment, and does not require best-case assumptions just to cover the note. That is a more useful question to ask than "how much leverage can I get." At Invest With Zac, this is one of the first things we walk through with investors looking at a specific deal, because the debt structure often tells you more about the risk in a deal than the purchase price does.