An uneventful waste of a trip - low money - 2cd in a row.  Hey Ben!  I get a text today. I need you to do another one!  I replied that will be 3 in a row.  Didn't even mention her apparent lack of memory about the promise of a Brownsville trip on the next run.  It's all in writing.  I'll make it up next week!  

So I'm going on a 3rd worthless run in a row.  However, if she tries this a fourth time I'm going to refuse the load.  Come what may, I'm not doing a 4th garbage run in a row.  I'll sit and do nothing before I let her play that game on me.  

Anyway, onto another more important subject swirling around in my brain - property. I have been giving a lot of thought to this property situation.  Bigger is better? Yes, if you have the money to afford everything that comes along with "bigger is better".  The 32 acres I just gave up on that.  Annexation.  Petition for zoning change.  Try to find another water supplier.  Just too much stuff and too much money involved with it.  They make it too difficult and I think it's by design. 

If I had a 400k loan to turn that property into an RV oasis, maybe.  But I don't and I'm not looking for business loans on this first venture.  

My mind went back to the 8 acres that I had originally said no to after finding out it was residential zoned - and finding out subsequently the county has no zoning, they don't care what you do with your property, tho it still falls under state code.  

So I pulled the trigger today, asked the realtor to make an offer of 3 grand per acre.  Look, the guy that bought it bought it at the same tax lien sale that I did.  He only paid $10,500 for it.  He had to sit on it for a while before he could try to sell it.  I will go up in my offering if he demands more. If he's stuck on 69k for 8 acres - good luck.

I'm doing my homework. I knew there was an easement and I knew there is a functioning gas well on the very edge of the property.  This devalues the property - 10k is way to much money per acre for an operation like that going on.  I called the company that has the easement and doing the gas operation - their name and the lot number was posted at the front of the property.  Well, we use the road going through there, of course, the man replied.  Okay, I said, what else?

Well let me warn you, that with a functioning gas well, we have tractor trailer rigs going in there hauling off salt water.  Or bringing it in? I didn't ask that much questions about that, I don't know and I don't care. What I do care about is the volume. How many trucks come in there? And how do they mitigate that muddy road on a slope?  

Oh, I forgot to say I went back there today to take a second look.  What I hadn't noticed the first time I went but was definitely looking for the second time was the power pole.  This property has it's own pole with a feed from the main line across the street.  There is thousands of dollars worth of electrical work I won't need done.  I then found a water meter in the ground.  A lock on it - of course, but it's there. There is water.  I don't have to pay anything for any of that if I did get the property, it's right there. I can run my own line and I don't need a contractor to do that for the water. The electricity?  Well I dunno.  We'll see about that, but there is a power pole and a box on the property, that is literally thousands of dollars worth of labor and parts right there that I don't have to pay for.  

No sewer? I have no idea. Couldn't find any sewer lids anywhere, probably isn't any. Most of this property doesn't have sewer and you resolve yourself that you have to pay to have septic installed.  

The exciting part? This is the first property I have been able to actually place a bid on.  Whereas other properties I liked and found out they were already under contract.  The dude got a steal on this property at 10k, probably how he got rich.  Buying and selling properties.  It's what I want to get into more, eventually, after I get more money saved up. For right now? I'd rather try and get the land and get a business going.  Even if I were to buy more tax lien sale properties, I only want acreage.  No more city lots.  I have 3 and that is good enough for now.  If I can eventually sell them, that's great, I'll buy more. It's acreage that sells.  

But, over-priced acreage doesn't sell. This property has been on the market 70 days.  So I know at least no-one is busting down his doors wanting to buy it. The easement is undoubtedly a major part of the issue.  The road going half way back is good enough, it would be shared for I won't take up more of the property to have a separate road going in there and I don't have to.  The the portion of the road going down to their well? They can have that. I'm not going to do anything with it and it's a mess.  How they get trucks in there without them getting stuck is unknown to me.  I did examine the tracks, there were no dually big-truck tracks in there, just pickup truck tracks. 

What I know of these operations from truckers that do it is that there are times when they will send in trucks to sit and wait out loading, it can go on for a few weeks at a time. After that, you might get 2 or 3 months in between the trucks. 

From that aspect, I can develop this property so that people don't have to be exposed to excessive amounts of noise like that.  The property is rectangular. The easement road starts at one side of the property, goes halfway back and then cuts down a hill to the gas operation.  The hill - is mud.  I wasn't even going to drive my SUV down in there, I don't have 4 wheel drive and my feet work fine.  Most of the gas operation is on someone else' property next door.  The lots can be on the opposite side of the property in the back.  There's enough land in the front and back for at least 40 lots. maybe more. 

But I won't do that many, at least not to start. I'm thinking 20-25 to start with.  Just money. Electricity, sewer and water to each lot isn't free and building the lot - which in my case is going to be a leveled piece of land 65 x 15 - well not that bad.  Just level it, compact it and put rock over it. I've seen a lot of RV parks that don't have cement pads. That would be costly and I just don't have the money to do that right off the bat.  Maybe could do one at a time over a span of time.

I'm getting well ahead of myself since I don't know that they're going to accept my offer, or counter offers.  I gave the realtor a maximum amount I would pay, it's well short of 69k, I can say that.  My highest price at least for now is 5k per acre. It's probably worth that considering the surrounding area. It's so beautiful, the entire road.  So, if they insist on 69k, I'll think about it - long and hard.  Lol, if they did take my offer? My payments would be less than $300 per month for 90 months.  That's not that bad.  Even if the offer went up to say 40k, the payments still wouldn't be terribly  high.  

I'm hopeful, but I won't be crushed if it comes to the fact that they want too much money. I have at least at this point come to the conclusion that a large property is just too much, unless I can find something with load payments. I don't have to develop the whole property.  At first anyway.  

I've already designed this lot in my head lol.  Just from looking at a satellite pic and seeing the road, the woods and yes, I trudged through the woods today as I have at any property I was considering. It just rained and the ground was moist, of course, but no standing water anywhere. That's pretty easy to explain. On the west side of the property is that slope going down - about a 4% grade I'd say - the water goes down there - there where I have no plans for anything since it's easement property.  

Oh, this wouldn't be the only business in the area. Camp Bee - whatever that is - is across the street.  The only reason that is of interest is they must have water to that sprawling campus, meaning whoever the entity is supplying it must not care if there is other than residential such as the issue with that 32 acre property.  

I could be going on about nothing.  I might not get this property. I might be getting excited about things that won't come to pass. It won't be the first time and it doesn't affect me, I just move on.  

Or, it could come to pass and then what? Well, I can tell ya, whatever property I end up getting - it's going to happen sooner or later - ?  I'm not going to have an RV park opened up and ready for business the next month.  It will be a long period between purchase and park opening.  I want to do most of the work myself or hiring out individuals, not contractors.  I don't need high priced contractors for much of this work. Electricity - probably.  Septic? Definitely, too many state regulations on that one, I could do it myself but it would entail renting earth moving equipment and it's just more than I am going to get involved with.  Pads? probably not. Water? Definitely not.  Road? dunno, I need to figure out how to operate a bulldozer.  

This is why I want a lower monthly payment versus higher.  I can't really afford higher - or I suppose I could but scale back on my lifestyle in certain areas.  Or get a small business loan - who knows what that entails or what qualifications you need to get one.  I really would like a land payment I can afford right now on my current income that won't really affect much of anything.  

This property - at the right price - would fit that bill.  

I could say  more, but I won't.  I'm going to work in the morning - but not too early thankfully.  10:30 load means I don't have to get up until 8:00 am.  The realtor sent the contract via email.  I will hear back whenever she hears back.  What to expect? I have no idea. No thanks. Yes.  Counter offer. Those are the options.  Oh, what I can say is the property next door to the east is undeveloped as well. Not up for sale, but, there is no law against asking the owner about selling it.  

I think well beyond the current.  Always, especially anything that's going to drain my wallet.  In this case, will it fill the wallet back up and then some?  Would it be the boon to my retirement I'm seeking it to be?  And county land - I can put some mobiles on it.  Separate of course from the RV's, but that's a more permanent situation that brings in more money over the long run per unit.  Casitas, camp sites, log cabins - there's a lot you can do with these types of properties to lure people in.  

My mind gets so - twisted up - thinking about all of this stuff and all of the aspects there are to it.  It isn't as simple as it sounds.  

Oh, I have thought about how to take overnighters in without being there and not having staff there.  Simply do a Paypal transaction - or whatever payment they will make online - and online agreement that they sign off on with automated signing feature, such as I did today with the realtor.  No, I don't know how to do that, yes, someone else does and I will pay them to set that up for me lol.  The park would need wifi - not only for guests but also for cameras.  Entrance camera - who's coming in? did they pay?  Office camera - there will be a small portable building there.  To start anyway. 

I can't stop myself. I could just go on and on and on.  And on.  I have filled my mind up with so much information after doing so much research - and yet I feel like I don't even know the half of what I need to know to successfully operate a park. At the same time, I've lived in RV's and I can tell you, you want sewer hookups at every lot.  Try emptying a holding tank out without getting that "stuff" on you.  

The office? Big enough for a small office space, a few shelves of convenience items for sale, a couple of washers and dryers and a small living space on the side, separate by a wall and locked door.  Yup, I would love to find someone to live there - free of charge - and help run the place. I have someone in mind.  No, that wouldn't be feasible, the office couldn't be a living space as well. So, she would have ot have a separate living space.  I think she'd love that setup.  She could have her dogs and parrot, I could have someone there fulltime.  Small salary on top of free living.  

A pile of firewood for sale outside and fire pits at every site.  RV'ers like that. They like trees. They like a playground for the kids. They like a fenced in doggie park.  They like laundry facilities. They like showering facilities.  

There are so many trees that are offered for free around here from property owners that a tree has fallen, they "just want you to take it out of there". Show up with the trailer, cut it into sections. load it up, take it to the property, split it and sell it.  I'm not exaggerating. I see offers for free trees - oak mostly - all the time.  Come get it!  It's not something I'm interested while working a more than full time job such as I"m doing now, but if I were to get out of trucking, I would definitely be looking for any extra income opportunities associated with an RV park as I could get.  

There are so many options with an RV park that go well beyond RV's, again, I have been doing my research.  

Okay, I do have a question, that I may not get resolved. Why did the original property owners pay to have water and electricity run to the property?  I couldn't find any old structures that would suggest the need for it.  You don't get the power company to run a line over a street to a pole they have to install and put up a box for the meter and main power breaker for - free.  

Sorry, I just can't get myself out of this mode.  Once I get property the mode is going to go into all kinds of different directions as every step is taken and more steps needs to be taken after that.  It's definitely a process. 

Oh, and these aren't just trees on this property. These are tall, gorgeous pine trees.  Yes, I know, they make a mess with pine needles. And?  Every time I ask people that are doing the RV life, they always want trees. Nobody says, no, I want a barren spot like most parks.  Every tree in this area makes some kind of mess, I would far rather clean up pine needles than all the mess that oak and other types of trees around here make.  

I'm going to have to stop with this, for now.  If I do end up getting the property, I will take videos of it and the surrounding neighborhood and post on my Facebook account.  

For now?  I think I'm going to clear my mind of this stuff - or at least try to - and watch some TV.