Okay this is getting rather extreme and things that would have altered the trajectory of my course with decisions if I had known.
Yet another RV park has just opened - about 50 miles away. Now, for people wanting to live in the park, that probably doesn't matter. If you want to live near my town for whatever reason - work/friends presumably - you aren't going to want to live 50 miles away.
But, if you are just traveling through? Hmmm. You might be looking for the cheapest place just to spend the night - or - you might be looking for something very nice even if only spending the night.
This place they built is quite nice, I'll freely admit that and they have put down some dough on it. Half a million at least with the buildings and the concrete picnic areas and everything they've done. I can't compete with it, at all. I can compete with that other new one, they have almost nothing just like mine. A space, all the hookups and a few amenities.
On top of this, sooner or later a 38 space park will be opening up about 15 miles south. I don't see how they can compete with much of anyone being out in the middle of nowhere without developing it into some sort of resort style park - which I also cannot compete with. I don't have half a million dollars laying around for this stuff and if I did, I would be hesitant to dump it all into what appears to be an ever-increasing risky proposition.
I'm very glad I am very close to town, that's what I will say for now. My proximity will attracts locals looking for cheaper living arrangements. As for the transients? I have no idea. I can guess that I'll have to leave my rates low in order to be able to compete. They're charging $40 plus per night, I've got my rates stuck at $25. It was a quick change in my mind from being stuck on at least $35 to the $25 simply because of the sudden, increased competition that started popping up all over the place.
And seeing what some of them are offering. I suspect they would jack their prices up even higher, but there's simply too much competition in this area. Although I'm not caving yet, I suspect I'll have to change the format of my park to tiny homes or even modular/mobile homes. TBH, it doesn't bother me that much because in reality, my dream was of opening a mobile home park for decades, not an RV park. I can have a mix of both if it comes down to it.
The only other places offering rates as low as mine are the dumps. And they are absolute dumps. Mine is not a dump. It's not perfect but it's far from trailer trash. The weeds are irritating me and I'm just trying to get the wood piles burned up so I can get that dozer in there, level all that stuff, clear it and put down some winter grass seed. Not too much - it would cost a lot of money to put down a dense covering of seed to try and get that area turned green - but enough to get something going beyond weeds. When the weed growing season comes, I hope I have the finances to put down summer grass seed.
I'm not necessarily alarmed about all of these parks popping up - but I can say that my thoughts are definitely turning towards other methods of income for the park. I don't really want "old" mobiles in there, I would like newer stuff that doesn't look trashy. At least out of the metal roof era, I've lived in those and they are a constant battle it seems to keep them from leaking. With the rain in this area, it's not a good fit.
But for now, I've got what I've got and I am just trying to get people in there. I've spent the time advertising it and I've spend the money on signs - 2 of which I still need to go get and install. The signs are more for automation purposes tho - if I'm on the road driving I can't be running over there greeting people in person and telling them where to park. The signs are just direction to get people to the right place.
Still, I was in awe of the facility I just saw that is brand new and just opened. If only I had that kind of money to spend that would be of the "loan" nature, not my own personal cash. This is going to be a much longer process than I originally expected it to be. I can't stop people from dumping tons of money into land and building out RV parks. I don't know if it's going to work out for them, tho, because of all the competition. I've got the room for a pool, a clubhouse, all the things that some of these places are paying exorbitant amounts of money to have installed into their parks.
I have ideas tho. It all costs money, but I have ideas for a unique experience. I have the room for it as well. That front area is a little over 7 acres and I've consumed maybe 2 at most of them for the present set up. I won't go into those ideas now, it's just musings that would turn the place into more of a destination than just a place to stay or live.
Anyway, it's the 7 turning 8 today's birthday. He wants to go out front and clean up leaves, lol. This wasn't my idea but it definitely needs to get done. The front porch is ridiculous and I started cleaning that up yesterday. I'd like to finish and get it more presentable before people show up this afternoon for the birthday party. We just tend to use things and then dump them on the front porch. It starts looking pretty - junky - after a while. We then clean everything off and start all over again, lmao.
I've got far too much on my mind, I need a break from all of this thinking stuff. It just turns on and I can't stop it. Monday, I'll be out there finishing up the doggy park and then I'll get to installing those signs. One of them is a large sign for the highway a mile away. It needs 4X4's cemented into the ground, so that's going to be a process in itself. That'll probably take up the whole day.
