How to Keep an RV Park Valuation Grounded in Reality By Frank Rolfe

An RV park can look extremely profitable when the seller presents the right month, removes the wrong expense, and assumes every future season will be perfect. Your job as a buyer is to replace that sales presentation with a valuation built on evidence.

Study Several Years, Not One Good Season

RV parks can be highly seasonal. A strong holiday weekend or unusually busy summer tells you very little about the property’s dependable annual income.

Review at least several years of tax returns, profit-and-loss statements, bank deposits, reservation records, occupancy reports, and utility bills. Compare the same months across different years. You are buying the park’s long-term performance—not its best recent photograph.

Rebuild the Income and Expenses

Seller financials rarely reflect exactly how the park will operate under new ownership. You need to normalize them.

Remove revenue that is unlikely to repeat. Separate genuine operating expenses from one-time purchases. Then add costs that may be missing, including:

Professional management or adequate owner compensation
Property taxes after the sale
Insurance based on a current quote
Repairs, maintenance, and capital reserves
Software, online booking fees, marketing, and payroll
Utility increases and deferred infrastructure work

A valuation based on artificially high net operating income is not conservative. It is simply wrong.

Verify Everything Independently

Treat the seller’s information as a starting point, not the final answer. Match reported revenue to bank deposits, reservation systems, tax returns, and merchant-processing records. Confirm utility history directly with providers when possible. Obtain your own insurance quotes, repair estimates, and property-tax projections.

Pay special attention to cash income, complimentary stays, long-term occupants, and uncollected balances. These items are often handled inconsistently in owner-operated parks.

Stress-Test the Deal

A park should not require perfect conditions to make its mortgage payment. Run the valuation more than once and test weaker scenarios.

What happens if occupancy declines, nightly rates have to be discounted, insurance jumps, payroll increases, or a major utility system fails? Seasonal parks should also be tested for poor weather, wildfire smoke, flooding, road closures, or the loss of a nearby demand generator.

Know the occupancy and revenue level at which the park stops covering debt service. That number matters more than an optimistic projection.

Put a Price on Every Risk

Every serious concern should lead to one of four responses: reduce the purchase price, require the seller to correct it, hold money in reserve, or walk away.

Conclusion

A sound RV park valuation is not built on excitement. It is built by verifying income, correcting expenses, testing bad scenarios, and refusing to pay for performance that has not been proven. You cannot eliminate risk, but you can avoid paying as though risk does not exist.

By Frank Rolfe

Frank Rolfe has been an active investor in RV parks for nearly two decades. As a result of his large collection of RV and mobile home parks, he has amassed a virtual reference book of knowledge on what makes for a successful RV park investment, as well as the potential pitfalls that destroy many investors.