So, with the guy asking to stay additional time, I got the same amount from him for 13 days as I would for someone moving in long-term with my $100 discounted ad rate. Now, if I could get people doing this all the time, my financial problems wouldn't even exist.  But, as long time readers probably know, it simply hasn't been happening that way.  This is what I was erroneously basing my income off of for the 14 lots initially.

Like, the park would instantly fill up with people for overnight stuff and I would be living in paradise. If my 14 lots were constantly full with short term - whether a few nights or at my weekly rate - I would have no need to go back to trucking. This is a fact.  My net income would be around 5k per month.  It was a pipe dream, I soon found out and not sure why I thought I could just "instantly" fill up a park. There are SO many factors to getting a park full, as I found out the hard way.  

And now, I am going to have even more competition when that new, 36 spot park opens.  My discussions with that other park owner 20 miles away, however, had him thinking that they can't really compete with me unless they go "crazy ridiculous" with the amenities. Well, I found out the people buying the park have multiple parks already, they know what they need to do. Paying a million dollars? I figure they're going to go crazy with the amenities. 

But, with that much of an investment for only 36 spaces, they are going to have to have high rates to make any net revenues off of it. The payment as it stands will be somewhere around 5 grand a month.  That's no upgrades, just a plain jane park.  Now, you start adding pools, clubhouses, restrooms, etc and you have a lot more invested.  The only way you really jack up the income is to add more spaces.  I really don't think that many people are going to want to rent at a park that is way out of the way for higher than everyone else near town prices without some serious amenities.  

You know, I mentioned "luring them in" a while back and people jumped on my case about using the "wrong" word and appealing is the appropriate word. Uh no, it's not.  You are literally trying to lure people away from other parks by offering amenities that will be so appealing, they can't resist. That is, IF they have the money to spend on such things. 

I used lure and appealing correctly in the same sentence, thank you.  

The focus when I get this job and start paying down debt will be to add another septic system, add more rv spots and build cabins.  Actually, more like tiny homes on wheels. If you keep it on wheels, you don't have to pay state taxes.  What's the difference? Technically? I guess it's not a permanent foundation, considered a vehicle that can be moved.  Reality? Ridiculous.  

James just happens to have a 20 something foot long trailer in the back of the front portion of my property.  It's just the frame and axles with wheels. The structure is gone - it was a travel trailer at one point.  You start from the frame up, you can build a tiny home that never has to be moved anywhere.  Get a set of plans for it - easier to let some engineer who knows what they are doing than trying to guess work it.  James could build the thing. I could probably do the electrical if I have a schematic.  And the plumbing for that matter.  

The goal with this job is to get debt paid down but at the same time start investing in upgrades and the very first upgrade that has to happen is another septic system. At 7 grand, it will take a while to save up that kind of money. It's another 15 or more spots worth.  Get me 30 spots in that place, get it filled up or mostly filled up and I can quit trucking.  I can quit corporate life. I can quit being treated like an animal by abusive management. I dunno, this company I'm going with here - if i can last that long financially - sounds decent.  It's a smaller company but they've been around a long time.  They flat out admitted they have older trucks.  Do you have a automatic transmission only on your CDL? No, I don't like automatic transmissions in trucks.

Good, because we only have manual transmissions.  I'm all good with that.  They're going to have to give me a few minutes of "gee, I haven't driven a truck in a while, let me get reacquainted with shifting" when doing any driving test.  Pre trips are easy.  None of it is hard. The hardest part I think is just learning loading and unloading a new type of product that I haven't dealt with before. This is a hazmat tanker job.  

Anyway, I'm a lot more upbeat now that I will have some money coming in. It was a dry period for a while there and it totally sucked.  I hope not to have to go through that again, at least not that bad.  You get 6 empty lots in such a small park? You're kind of screwed. You don't take a paycheck for a month or more and you wonder if it's going to last forever. You start to second guess yourself. Was this a bad idea?  It's hard to imagine that all it took was re-wording everything? Was that the only reason or is it just happenstance that I wrote that ad and people started calling at the same time? It could be a bit of both.   

And the more that I think about it, it seems to me that my area is more of a "seasonal" thing with travelers - not the  long term people.  It's nice in my area for the most part in the winter. Yes, it can get very cold and even snow and ice, but for the most part, it's pretty darn good weather.  It will be something I will be heavily advertising once we get back to the cooler season.  Perhaps Hipcamp could come into play in decent weather.  Dunno, that's pretty much off the table for now.  I rode the trails today, too hot to walk that stuff. Lots of downed trees, growing weeds, it's bad.  It will need the mulcher man back and I won't even bother with that until weed growing season is done and over with.  It's not cheap and no one is using the trails now anyway. 

I'm learning.  I've been an employee all my life, this kind of thinking is all new to me and it's taking quite a bit of time for me to understand how this works and what makes it work.  What comes naturally to someone in the business for 20 years .... they don't think in terms of not knowing the things that they have learned to the point it is second nature to them, so they don't really think to give you the parts about certain situations that you don't know about.  And then you strain your brain, why don't I understand this? Or why isn't this working?

Well whatever. It's bedtime.