I'm consulting a guy buying land for an RV park outside of a state park, and I thought I'd put our whole process out there for the world to see.

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This works for glamping sites too. Here is our exact process, with Texas as an example:

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1. Get a list of all state parks by annual visitors. Just Google it and paste the results in a google sheet

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2. Now use a scraping tool to scrape all RV parks from Google Maps in the state. There's a link to my favorite cheap tool here

You want to do it by the cities or counties near the state parks you're targeting, or all of them, depending on how much time you have.

You'll want to remove duplicates but search both "campground" AND "RV park" terms.

If I were you I'd do all of them in the state. Actually, maybe I'll just send my email list this compiled data when my assistant is done. (mhpguy . com to join).

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3. Now find the population sizes of those same areas

You want this because your RV park needs long term tenants too, not just nightly. Put those numbers in another column. You can get this from wikipedia, copy/paste.

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4. Now go to Airbnb and Hipcamp and search for camping and/or glamping sites in those same areas

Yep, add it to another column.

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5. Now for the fun part: find the averages and then find the supply/demand imbalances

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Let's say there's 1 RV park for every 10,000 visitors as a baseline.

Or 1 glamping tent for every 5,000 visitors.

Find the underutilized areas!

Ideally you find an area that is underutilized for both so you can have RV on one half of your property and glamping on another.

Make your own formula and run with it.

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6. Now find some property to buy. If you want to look off market, I have a bunch of old threads on that on mhpguy.com

But if you buy in the right area, it won't matter so much that you save 5-10% on your basis.

Want to mitigate risk? Do a lease purchase agreement and start with glamping only. If demand is weak then you aren't on the hook.

If it's strong then you buy the property and triple down.

Be sure to check for zoning before pulling the trigger, but it usually isn't a problem in these far flung areas.

There are 6,600 state parks out there. Room for everyone!

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7. Call up the parks in your target areas and ask for pricing and capacity

Are they normally full or empty? When? Is it seasonal?

It's shocking how many questions people are willing to answer. Keep pushing.

Waitlist? Bingo.

But just because a park is full doesn't mean it's because of demand, it may be because their prices are too low.

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BONUS:

Look for news articles talking about the fastest growing state or national parks.

AKA the velocity of park visitors growing year over year isn't the same as just the number of visitors.

Find land on a main road with lots of trees. It's cheaper to take out trees than it is to plant them and wait a decade.

Visitors want trees, and water of course. Super extra bonus points if there's even so much as a creek. Pay 20% more for that and shout it from the rooftops in your marketing.

Get your website and ads cranking before you close. Starting gathering emails.

Be sure to differentiate between an RV campground vs an RV park.

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Campground = higher touch, more amenities but often more profitable.

RV = lower touch, low amenities but less profit.

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It all depends on what you're optimizing for.

You can use this same logic to buy an existing park.

This whole process will take an afternoon and can make you millions. Worst case you own land. Best case you have a cash flowing asset for years to come.

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Follow @mhp_guy for more gems like this because I'm insecure like you and want more followers.

Between these two threads you should be a rural land cash flowing mega trillionaire by Tuesday.

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