RV Park Appraisal Data Sources

It's important to realize that most RV facilities consist of real property and a business entity, they are going-concerns, rental income is important but net income is also about expenses and specifically management expenses that often loom large in the expense column. 

One of the problems with appraising RV parks is that market data is hard to come by.  The Assessor and data services often have information on only 1 or 2 sales.  Ultimately you may have to accept the fact that a search outside of your immediate market area to find the data that you need for analysis is necessary.  If a wider search area doesn't solve your problem you may also have to go back in time to find RV facility sales.

RV facility rental space information is usually the easiest data to obtain because it's available simply by making phone calls to RV facilities well at least today's rates at the RV facilities are available.  RV facilities generally take advantage of seasonal and locational factors and space rent often varies considerably during different times of the year.  RV facilities are also dissimilar because they offer different types of spaces or pads.  Some RV facilities specialize in spaces for large motor coaches while others focus on smaller 5th wheel and trailer spaces. 

Another factor that is important when analyzing potential RV space income is the finish of the park, are their hardened pads or are they gravel covered.  What services or hook-ups are available to a user?  The more appealing a traveler or visitor finds a park the more likely they are to stay and enjoy the aesthetics that are available.

Finding cap rates and expenses for RV Parks is also difficult.  If you are lucky enough to discover RV facility sales it's still unlikely that the data will include detailed income and expense information.

RV Parks generally fit into one of three categories; campgrounds, RV Parks or RV Resorts.  These categories include facilities that run the gamut from basic tent camping facilities to RV Resorts that specialize in serving luxury big rigs with every possible "hook-up" from 50 amp power, city water, city sewer, cable TV, Wi-Fi, a huge clubhouse with pool tables and other social / meeting places.  So appraisers have to filter through sales data to get to an applies to apples comparison.

I have searched the Internet for RV facility related data and there really isn't much offered out there.  I recently paid $ 130 to rvsforsale.com for RV expense data and RV sales statistics that turned out to be a couple of summary sales stats that provided me with zero usable data.  So beware appraisers, you don't want to repeat my mistake and pay $ 35 to $ 335 for worthless data.

If you have an opportunity to share data an take advantage of the research of others, take advantage of it.  If not, offer someone cash for data sharing.  You can spend many hours searching on your own and asking park managers 20 questions, which you can't entirely escape, but having the data supplied to you in invaluable.

Mobile home parks are generally more profitable than RV facilities since they do not suffer from the swings of low and high occupancy that RV facilities do.  There are many mobile home parks (MHP) that have RV rental segments.  They are established in the pad / space rental market and some can take advantage of seasonal RV traffic.  Mixed MHP / RV facilities must be analyzed carefully based on the supply and demand for MHP / RV spaces and their overall net income.

Some of the best data that I have discovered on RV facilities comes from contacts with RV facility buyers, sellers and brokers who are willing to share more than just the sales price of a facility.  A broker who specializes in RV facility sales can be a tremendous source of information and he or she will usually know details about most of your sales, any may be able to offer you more.

Appraisers should consider rules-of-thumb like gross sales multipliers and gross income multipliers (GIM) when comparing one RV facility to another.  It's often the case that there is little or no value associated with an RV facility's business entity however that is a factor that an appraiser must consider as part of his or her analysis.

Using information garnered from appraisal work files can also be very useful in an RV facility analysis but appraisers may have to note that the source or sources for the information used is confidential in nature.

RV facilities are not the most difficult property type to analyze but they are more challenging than you typical office, retail or industrial building.  So make sure that you give yourself enough time to complete the assignment when you take it.

For more appraisal information contact Glenn J. Rigdon MA, MRICS, ASA is a Las Vegas / Henderson Nevada based appraiser who can be contacted via email or via his business website known as Appraiser Las Vegas  (http://www.appraiserlasvegas.com), or you can also click on “Contact Us” on the home page of this website or visit my public profile at LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/glenn-rigdon-ma-mrics-asa/1a/30b/879/

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