Andy Zipser

Turning Dirt (eBook, ePUB)

A step-by-step guide for turning dreams of campground ownership into reality

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

In the space of just two years, as the pandemic drove people outdoors and office workers by the millions learned they could do their jobs almost anywhere, campgrounds and RV parks have become a hot investment sector. And yet, despite this explosion of interest, there is remarkably little published guidance on how to find, evaluate and buy a campground, much less on how to manage one. The few how-to guides on the subject are either outdated or superficial, rattling on about general small business practices (make sure you get liability insurance/know your target audience/keep accurate financial records, etc.) without ever delving into the peculiarities of a quirky, demanding industry that requires its operators to combine the skills of a farmer, hotelier and cruise-ship director all in one. Moreover, all of that comes against a backdrop of extraordinary challenges that go largely unmentioned, from extreme weather to pervasive labor shortages, even as fuel prices hitting historic highs threaten the industry's underlying business model.

So why is institutional money piling into this corner of the commercial real estate market? And is there any room left for the smaller players, the mom-and-pop operators who have traditionally built and run family campgrounds?

Headlines about multi-million dollar deals notwithstanding, there are in fact hundreds of campgrounds changing hands every year, and not all of them end up in an investment portfolio. With more than 12,000 private campgrounds in the United States, the consolidation trend now underway is still in its infancy, with abundant opportunities for small business entrepreneurs who want to jump into a lifestyle that combines work and home--provided they're willing to work their butts off. It's critically important, however, that anyone contemplating such a move go in with eyes wide open: there's an awful lot of Pollyannish drivel out there that makes running a campground sound like a spiritual mountaintop retreat. It's not. It's really hard work, and understanding that up front will save a lot of heartbreak down the road.

"Turning Dirt" was written for those who, despite such warnings, are determined to plunge ahead anyway. It draws on the author's near-decade of experience in looking for, buying and then operating a medium-sized campground in Virginia, but unlike his earlier book ("Renting Dirt"), it presents the lessons he learned from that history in a step-by-step, "how-to" format that is both comprehensive and timely. "Turning Dirt" will walk the reader through the initial process of determining what kind of campground to buy and where; explains the several ways a search for the right campground can be conducted, and how to screen the prospects that emerge; and details the questions that need to be answered during the 60-90 day period in which a purchase gets negotiated. But "Turning Dirt" then goes further, examining various aspects of a campground's operations that are unlike any other business and providing guideposts for navigating this strange new landscape.

Agnostic in outlook, "Turning Dirt:" does not prescribe any answers or set of solutions as the "right" approach to a complex industry marked by multiple ways of dealing with situations, but it raises issues and questions that prospective campground buyers need to consider beforehand. It also provides references for additional help, and ends with three appendices of sample documents to help campground buyers move ahead.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Andrew Zipser dba Mint Spring Publishing
• Seitenzahl: 158
• Erscheinungstermin: 21. Juni 2022
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781737775034
• Artikelnr.: 64150907

Autorenporträt

There are a lot of people who will tell you I've been a pain in the butt for as long as they've known me. They could be on to something. Take the the picture that runs with my brief bio. It's cropped down from a group shot taken at a KOA convention not long before we quit the KOA franchise system and a few years before we sold the campground itself. Ever since, I've been pretty critical of KOA in particular and of the campground industry overall, but I kind of like the picture because it makes me look all cheery instead of the grumpy old sourpuss I've become. Something about attracting more flies with honey . . . .In truth, however, I've come by my jaundice honestly, having spent nearly 30 years in the newspaper industry and another 10 in organized labor---two fields of human endeavor, you may have noticed, that are floundering on the edge of extinction. Some of the newspapers for which I reported don't even exist any more (The Port Jefferson Record, the Phoenix Gazette and, for all reasonable journalistic purposes, Phoenix New Times) and two (The Wall Street Journal and Barron's) are owned by Rupert Murdoch, which almost qualifies as a living death. As for organized labor? Ironically, the most successful unions today are those that look out for people already making a lot of money, like baseball players. And film stars. Newspaper reporters just got it all wrong. Still, the temptation to poke at vested interests with a verbal harpoon is not easily vanquished. Nor is the urge to natter on about those few things I actually know something about, which is how I came to write and self-publish a first book about campground ownership, Renting Dirt. I also maintain a blog (www.renting-dirt.com) that explores all aspects of the campground industry, and more recently I published Turning Dirt, which provides a step-by-step guide for anyone thinking about buying a campground---anyone, that is, undeterred by Renting Dirt who still thinks owning a campground is a swell idea. Meanwhile, my wife, Carin, and I live in Staunton, Virginia, just a few miles from the campground that we once owned and within spitting distance of our two grandsons, Anthony and Matthew. Thus far, no spitting has been involved. On summer weekends I volunteer as an engineer and conductor on the Gypsy Express, a G-16 1/5 scale train pulled by a 1947 model V-4 27 horsepower engine---another part of my campaign to convince readers I'm not entirely an old grump. Rides cost just one buck, so come on down!