I am currently living in a RV, working remotely, searching for a piece of
land to put down
roots, both literally (
Permaculture food forest, homestead with natural building, etc) and figuratively (so tired of being nomadic).
On this journey, we’ve tried to find places to park for a night up to a couple of months. RV parks usually work but are often not ideal ($$$, waste of resources, crammed with people, etc.) For example, we note sit in a gravel parking lot next to a highway and pay $38 per night for the privilege with no amenities besides the basic hookups. So we try to find private land to park on. If you have land, this seems like a great way to have a mostly passive income. I know I am planning for it when we land.
Some Pros:
1. After initial costs for setup, very little is required
2. There are sites you can use to advertise your place and many eager campers looking for them
3. Requires very little interaction with people if you set things up nicely
4. You can take in anywhere from $10 - $50 per night (for simple dry camping / a place to park a rug). We’ve seen places go for $20 - $80 per night for full hookups.
5. Meet cool people
6. Help out people who are on the road (selfish plus here)
7. Spread word of mouth goodness about your
Permaculture endeavors
Cons:
1. People
2. Animals they may bring with them
3. Up front cost
4. Privacy issues
5. “Needy” guests and or noisy, nosy guests
6. You’re managing a vacation rental of sorts
7. Insurance and lawyers possibly
Some things that I feel are pretty much necessary:
1. A decent road in to the site, with plenty of space to turn a large rig around. We have a 33ft travel trailer for instance.
2.
Water, power (30/50/120 amp), sewer/septic (if no septic, then portable toilet) though I’ve seen sites with no sewer. They expect the campers to track their waste and take with them in the RV or periodically dump at a dump station). I’ve seen all kinds of places listed on sites like Hipcamp, Campendium, etc that have different configurations.
Nice to have:
1. Privacy of some kind built in to the site
2. Fire pit
3. Gravel or
concrete pad
4. Picnic table
5. Green stuff (grass, plants, etc)
6. Farm eggs and other farm products to purchase (another built-in income stream)
I’m curious to see what others think based on their
experience.