• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

RV site rental as mostly passive income?

 
pioneer
Posts: 84
Location: Upstate South Carolina, USA
32
7
kids hunting foraging building bee rocket stoves
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
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.
 
pollinator
Posts: 1518
Location: Southern Oregon
463
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
This is one of the income streams that we are working on. We are currently listed as a camp site with Hipcamp, no amenities at this point other than access to potable water and a picnic table. The plan is to add amenities and simple cabins with the money that we get from current camp income. I doubt that we will do full RV site rental as there is a lot of that in town, and we are off grid.

We have opted to not allow pets, so that's an option. We have had too many negative experiences with other peoples pets.

Another land steward sells farm products to her visitors, so we are going to try that as well.
 
John Valdes
pioneer
Posts: 84
Location: Upstate South Carolina, USA
32
7
kids hunting foraging building bee rocket stoves
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome are some others that we’ve used to find rural properties to camp on.  Harvest Hosts encourages people to purchase items (e.g. eggs, produce, wine, etc.) as a way to say thank you for the nights stay. So that’s another option too. I think it’s not a bad way to bring customers to you if you’re out of the way.
 
God is a comedian playing for an audience that is afraid to laugh - Voltair. tiny ad:
2024 Permaculture Adventure Bundle
https://permies.com/w/bundle
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic