Friday mid-morning

I got my trailer ready to go and headed over to a church where we were all going to meet.  There was a bunch of people, that 16 foot trailer was full.  And it was a blessing because otherwise? There would have been a lot of walking.  It's just what it is in this area where you will find several houses together giving out candy and then have to drive a pretty good distance to find another one . 

But we found plenty and the kids were having a blast.  It was much better than last year where we went to a different neighborhood and for whatever reason, most of the houses weren't giving out anything.  Previous years most of the houses on certain streets were all participating.  I think a lot of people weren't doing it this year because the cost of candy is ridiculous and people aren't exactly prospering right now.  

Some friends spent $150 on candy and by the time we got to their house? It was all gone.  I did my part by offering the services of giving everyone a ride.  Slow ride of course, 5 mph or less excepting at the end where it was obvious that everyone was out of candy or weren't doing it at all and the houses were all dark. Then it was 10 mph to get back to the church.  

We also went to another person's house that was with us - her dad - who gave the kids candy and handed out free pizza to everyone.  He had a 10 foot tall - monster I guess? lol - on his front yard.  Looked like some version of a Frankenstein mixed with an Undertaker.  I have Christian friends who are vehemently against the idea of Halloween, which is fine, I don't celebrate demons, witches and the like.  Churches give it a different name and have fun activities while still promoting Christ above all things.  In this regard, I believe my heart is right. Just like people opposed to Christmas because Christmas trees are evil and a bunch of other stuff. Or Easter Egg hunting.  

That was last night.  Now? I have been cleaning my room.  Between dog odors and just a general sense of clutter, it was time to clean.  In fact, I think I may get out the carpet cleaning machine and clean the main travel areas.  It doesn't look particularly good, needs a good cleaning.

But it was time for a break.  Papers papers papers.  Ridiculous amounts of papers, throwing lots of it in the trash can.  

The bid finally came in. Bids actually.  When I saw 140k, I wasn't particularly surprised.  It's 25 lots and it's a lot of materials.  But, scrutinizing it, it became evident that none of the electrical was included in that price. So, I searched for another email from them, couldn't find anything.  

The contractor texted it to me, not shocking either, tho a lot more than I'd like to pay for this entire setup. 

The highest cost item? I knew what it would be before seeing it: gravel.  80 truckloads of gravel.  346k

1,200 tons of gravel or 1,200,000 pounds of gravel. Why? Because there are 25 lots worth of new gravel, an entire new driveway and covering the entire 1,400 feet of existing driveway.  Yup, I knew that would be high and I knew electrical would come in second place at $42,500. Oh, the gravel was $67,000.

So, we add up the first and second bid, then add the cost of covered parking (separate contractor) and the balance left on the land itself and we come up with $319,850. At 10% rate (that is what I found for SBA business loans, not sure if that's correct) on a 20 year note, the monthly payments would be $3,086.62.  I pay $441 now for the property so deduct that and the added amount to my monthly expenses would be $2,645.62.

Let's continue down this road of math.  Take the lot rent I charge and multiply it by 40 and you come up with 16,000 gross revenues for a completely full park.  You really don't calculate for that, that is optimal, I have had it this year for quite a while but currently I'm 3 lots empty.  Take out the $3,086.62 and come up with 12,913.38.  I'm going to be tripling my electric bill so take a realistic average and still have $8,413.38 left. Add around $300 per month water - people don't really use that much water I have found out, plus another trash dumpster, that would be an additional $170, plus another $300 for wifi and we come up with a total of all those items at $770.  That leaves 7,643.38 left.  

Now, let's say I can keep it 85% filled.  Take off an additional amount and my net revenue to put in my pocket before taxes is 5,242.38.  Unfortunately, you have to figure that you are going to need some help.  I ain't doing all that work myself, but if I could find workampers  I don't pay them anything and fill up one of those unused spots that I took out at 85% occupancy rate and not adding any electric or anything else since I calculated all of that at a full park using it and I still have...$5,242.38.  

That is around what I was taking home with my previous job - working 14 hours a day, 5 to 7 days a week, hardly ever home, etc.  

But, let's be realistic and take out the taxes and health care coverage.  

Yup, I'm not sure this is a workable deal after you do the nuts and bolts of the math and come down to where the rubber meets the road.  

My current electric bill is around $1,100. This is where I could make something back. Because I had meters priced on all of that installation.  Have a couple of tiers of rates. One full price with electric and one lower priced without electric, separate bill the guest has to pay all by themselves.  Electricity is by far and away my biggest monthly expense, nothing else even comes close.  

Oh, I could keep working, the thought just entered my mind.  Work until my credit card debt is paid off and get rid of that burden and then living on rv park only income becomes more feasible.  I'm not paying health care out of my pocket if I do that and work until I'm 65 (Lord willing that I live that long of course) and then it makes more sense to take a deal like this and get it done. 

There are things that could bring more money to my pocket. First is the interest rate.  Obviously, the lower the rate the better the monthly payment. Second is the loan length. 30 years would bring the monthly payment down by over $500.  Third is simply keeping the park full.  That adds over 2 grand per month - but that is hardly guaranteed, just a thought with those covered parking spaces and different pay options, I might be able to get it to capacity and keep it "relatively" full.  If I could get people to pay their own electric, even reducing the monthly rate still results in increased revenues.  The other thing is to just have the ability to know how much electricity people are using. If I know that, I can approach people that are using excessive amounts of "free" electric and ask them to ante up - or they can find greener pastures elsewhere. 

Mitigating the electricity department would really be key to success or failure, IMO.  And the ability to "steal" long term guests from other parks.  This would include amenities that aren't calculated into any of that.  Those are risky beyond the covered parking which I truly believe would bring people in for they want their units covered.  They no longer have to worry about roofing issues, it's worth extra money and yes, now that I just remembered it, I would be charging extra for covered parking. If it's going to cost me 76k, you can be rest assured that some of that is going to get spread to the guests and I believe guests are willing to pay extra for that kind of amenity. 

Pools and hot tubs? who knows.  

Oops, forgot that my insurance will go up with added spaces. Don't know how much.  And if I add amenities, that jacks up the insurance rate as well.  Property taxes would probably also go up, but at that point I would likely hire a lawyer to go in and attempt to litigate any excessive raise.  That or figure out how to get exemptions.  I don't have enough room for cattle, I own too much property for ...

Wait!!  If I cut the property in half, that would definitely have a net overall reduction in rate.  Why? Because 7 plus acres would be the RV park and the rest of the 25 would be undeveloped land.  Less acreage on the rv park will result in less property tax even if they increase the value for the fact of the RV park alone. 

I have a lot to think about, obviously and I haven't made any decisions and I don't even know if I will qualify for a loan.  It may be that they want me to get rid of a lot of credit card debt before they will entertain a loan. On the other hand, I have a lot of collateral to put up. If they factor in what it will be worth after the upgrade, it is going to be in the 800k to 1 million range.  You give a lendee 350k and have that much to back it up?  I dunno how bankers think, tho, not my expertise.  I'm definitely not factoring in a down payment and will not do it. Not with the property itself as collateral.  

I'd actually like to get more than the amount I listed above for the loan to cover things that I didn't think of when I built out the park. There are a lot of expenses you don't understand you will come up against when building a brand new park. I'm not talking about pools, if I do that you add at least 25k if  doing an above ground setup - that is sunk partially into the ground and decking, fencing, gate, etc.  If adding an above ground hot tub - that's whatever the tub costs and they are all over the place plus a concrete slab and some sort of gazebo to cover it plus fencing and gate.  Or, if you have a pool and a tub, you put them all in the same area and then you are only doing one fence. 

Again, I have a lot to ponder here and I still haven't filled out all of the paperwork to start the SBA loan process. It's going to be hellish if they feel like they can get it through, I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the onslaught of explanations and details they will endlessly ask.  Why are you in so much credit card debt? Because I didn't have enough cash to finish out the project, can that be added to the loan?  Lol, I will ask that even if I have the feeling they will tell me no.  They'll ask about my house, my trucking job, my debt, what I have done with the property, want to look at all the financials - which is basically log into my quickbooks account and look for yourself.  If you want receipts, I have piles of them, look away! lmao.

I'm done here. I'm going to get out the carpet cleaning machine and do the main travel areas of my bedroom carpet. 

G'day.