Well, one thing has occurred concerning the property since my last post.  We were out last night over in Shreveport when my realtor texted that the title company is done with it, has only one minor item that needs rectified and they will sign off on it. 

If you remember, the Finklea property was held up by title issues that were related to heirs.  Those 3 properties are still off the market.  That Finklea property would make an awesome cabin site for personal use.  

I said I had backed off doing any research for a while, and I have, but an interesting post came up on one of the RV park sites I'm in, these are specific to owners of the parks and some of them relate to actually building them.  My interest in doing this myself has rekindled now that I have seen the laundry list of required information to obtain an SBA loan.  It's long, detailed and some of it very involved information they want that I would have to acquire the services of professionals to accomplish.  

Here is a partial list, these are shown because of the need to acquire professional help in making the determinations:

• Architectural/engineering drawings and general contractor bid for new construction   
• Vendor quotes for new park models, furnishings, fixtures, and equipment   
• Market/competitor analysis with site feasibility conclusion   
• Business plan including marketing plan and management plan   
• First year cash flow projections monthly (sample format attached) and second year cash flow projections annually   
• List of assumptions for cash flow projections   
• Address attached COVID Considerations in a memo provided with loan application.   

 Obviously drawings have to be done by a professional firm. I don't want park models, that's isn't even in the equation.  Market analysis - more professional work.  Business plan, cash flow projections, assumptions and COVID considerations all would have to be done by a firm or firms to get the required information. That would cost thousands of dollars.  Now, putting out money for all of that wouldn't be a big deal, but would it result in my getting the loan?  No guarantees on that.    

I'm now back to the drawing board: Do I do this myself and just get a small number of lots going to start up with?  No bath house at the get go, either. It isn't off the table, it's just the money isn't there.  Or do I find a person that is a handyman, get blueprint for plans to build a bath house and try to get it done a cheaper route?  My mind will be filled with such things for a while.  I will not be in a rush to make the wrong decisions even after the property closes.  

My city lot is done.  One of the lots I bought at the tax sale. They got out there early before the heat sets in and finished it, sent me pics of the entire property showing they had mowed it all down. They had a crew of people working on it, the guy must make some good money at it, he pulled up to our house in a late model GMC 4 door pickup.  Now my realtor will go out there, take pics and then get it posted online.  It's not showing yet on any searches, I'm assuming she is waiting to take pics first before listing it.

I ended up having today off as well.  I'm going to have to push for work now that I've had all of this time off.  Tomorrow is a Brownsville run but I'm going to need another run the next day after that one is over.  If she doesn't give me one I will have to start asking my manager about this.  My paychecks are going to start showing the lack of any real work starting this coming week, when it will be a $1,200 gross pay check that will have me netting well  under a grand.  As much as that feeling of never wanting to get into a truck again runs through my veins, I cannot do that just yet.  

I do intend on getting this project going at the outset - some decisions are easy: water, septic and power all have to be installed, I need quotes.  The 20 foot wide driveway on the west side is also a no brainer.  Hire a person with a machine to get out there and clear it from front to back, get the construction permit first of course. I don't need trouble with the county.  They just want soil erosion control and that's nothing more than those 2 foot tall black retaining pieces of plastic installed with wood stakes into the ground.  They can come out and look at it I guess, but none of that can be installed until that driveway is cleared out. It's just clearing it, no gravel until later on in the project.  

After that driveway is finished, I can measure out the first lots and have that cleared out as well, then the next driveway clear to the back, clear out the back for a turn around and access to all 3 driveways.  How much money we talking for that? Unknown.  It's a touch decision whether to rent my own bulldozer or pay someone to do it. Tough because I simply don't have the vacation hours available to take a week off for that kind of rental.

Others in these RV park communities advocate for buying your own machine, that you will get more use than the initial land clearing and lot building.  Maybe, but a backhoe isn't exactly cheap.  I'd need a machine big enough to uproot the trees and get the entire root structure directly underneath the trees out of the ground. I don't want to have to add stump grinding to the list of things to get done.  Those trees aren't that big and the root systems aren't enough to be able to withstand a decent sized machine.

Yes, I'm strongly considering doing this myself. Not that I will do all the labor but I will be overseeing the entire project and hiring out whatever needs to be done by others.  And getting some paid help to help with the land clearing.  Get 20 lots cleared out and attempt to get them all up and running. Or even 15 lots.  Heck, even 10 would work from the start.  

We'll see, but this list of things the government wants to be able to get a loan is pretty extensive. The other not so great part about this particular lender that helps acquiring the SBA loan? It's a minimum 400k loan.  You want to talk about some pricey monthly payments, that park would need to get up and running quickly, all 70 or so lots fully developed and all of the amenities in place.  There are other lenders that work the SBA loans, I'm going to check into a few others and see what the minimum loan amount is. I was thinking more in the 200k to 250k range.  I don't need 400k to build a park and get saddled with a huge amount of debt right from the start.  

It's kind of a conundrum that I'm just going to have to work through.  Once I decide either way, I'm stuck with it. The 401k would have to be down money for a large loan or it's working capital to build the park myself.  Can't have it both ways is the point.  

Anyways, no great plans today.  Just enjoy a day off. It's going to be hot outside and no, I'm not going hiking in this heat. I would have had to get up much earlier than I did today.  We didn't get in until late last night.  I'm going to go over and double check the man's work, they sent a bunch of pics as I had requested showing the work they did. It looks good, but I still want to check it.  

And maybe, at least, look up names of local firms that specialize in getting the info I would need for the SBA loan. I can at least look into it...

G'day.