Glamping Investments: Build from Scratch vs. Buy Turnkey (Costs, Timelines, ROI, and Pitfalls)

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Mike Scarlett, a seasoned contractor and glamping entrepreneur. Mike shares his journey into the glamping business, detailing how a vacation inspired him to create his own glamp site. He discusses the process of setting up the site, the importance of unique structures, and the consulting services he offers to help others in the industry. Mike also provides insights into the profitability of glamping and the future of the market, emphasizing the need for unique experiences to attract customers.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Mike Scarlett’s Website
    • Mike Scarlett’s Email: [email protected]
    • Mike Scarlett’s Phone no.: (972) 439-8545

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Mike Scarlett (00:00)
  I have a five acre property that I got set up and it’s cost a total of, think, I’m around $225,000 that I.

  purchased land, I built the structures, I got the plumbing, electric, mechanical, I got the labor. So I learned through going through this process and talking to an investor, my strength is I know how to build this stuff and I know how to build it at an affordable price and the affordable options and so on.

  Michelle Kesil (02:05)
  Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Mike Scarlett, who has been making serious moves, building custom homes and remodeling, and in the glamping business. So excited to have you on the show today, Mike.

  Mike Scarlett (02:11)
  Thank

  Thank you very much. Excited to be here.

  Michelle Kesil (02:35)
  Awesome. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re creating a profitable Glam site business. let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your world, can you give the short version of what your main focus is?

  Mike Scarlett (03:01)
  Okay, well, my main focus is building and running my own Glam site and also offering consulting service to anybody that is interesting in starting one up for themselves and needs a little help on the construction and infrastructure you need for a Glam site. That’s my focus these days. It’s not necessarily my whole background, but.

  It’s definitely what I’ve been focusing on for the last two years.

  Michelle Kesil (03:34)
  Awesome. How did you get into glamping?

  Mike Scarlett (03:39)
  Well, it started with an Airbnb trip. went to my wife and I, we live in North Texas and we went to Oklahoma, stayed in an Airbnb there that was in the forest. And I was just sitting there on the couch, looking out the windows at the trees. And I was like, man, I really would love to have something like this. And my wife and I started discussing what we should do and maybe finding a piece of land. ⁓

  And we came to the conclusion where we stayed was a little far. We wanted to find some land that was within one and a half hours of, you know, one and a half hours of our location of where we live in Frisco. So I started looking for properties. spent about a month gathering properties, looking at them online. And then I picked, I think it was the top three or four.

  And I went out and started looking at land to find a glamp site. So that’s kind of how it started was a vacation and I want to get something set up like this. Let’s start looking for land. And I started doing my homework that way. And then I found a property and found five acres of land with hardwood trees and some cedars and ⁓ some nice topography and ⁓

  a beautiful five acre piece of land that has utilities to it for 79,000 bucks for five acres. And I’m within a mile and a half of two different lakes, so it’s a nice location. So that’s kind of how it got started.

  Michelle Kesil (06:13)
  Awesome. And how has the process been for getting it going, setting up the glam sites? How is that going?

  Mike Scarlett (06:23)
  ⁓ It’s going well. ⁓ I’ve been a general contractor since the 80s and I have tons of experience with building things, whether it’s high-end custom homes, lower-priced custom homes, remodeling, commercial residential. So my whole life has been getting things built and running a construction business. So.

  The process now is.

  I have the knowledge to build everything out. I do have a consultant that I have hired that I listened to for setting things up like, what are the hours of operation and what should be in the units when somebody gets there? What are the best platforms to market your glamp site and all that. So I have all the experience with construction and can get it built. ⁓ I do have a consultant that helps me with some of the.

  other things that you need to do to set up a Glamp site. Because we do have an Airbnb house across the street from where we live. So we’re familiar with renting out a property and the things that they need and getting them the information and some of the negative things that can happen and so on. we do have, we’ve had some experience for the last several years, you know, doing an Airbnb house that we own across the street. So that’s kind of what I’ve been doing lately.

  ⁓ And again, your question was, are you, what would you say, what are you focusing on?

  Michelle Kesil (08:04)
  I just asked how the process of glamping is going, like what do need to do to get that set up? What, ⁓ yeah, just describing that process.

  Mike Scarlett (08:12)
  Yeah, it’s a long list.

  It’s a long list. So I just kind of gave you the short, ⁓ the short version is, you know, I can talk to anybody that wants to know anything about building. You know, we’ve got out at our property, we have a, a 1978 vintage Airstream that we gutted and put a deck around and it’s got a spa, a fire pit, a covered area, ceiling fans.

  an eating area and a totally remodeled airstream. And then we got a 1957 vintage trailer that’s totally remodeled. And we got a big 16 by 14 Safari tent raised up on a deck that has the boho interior design features with a king-sized bed and a little kitchenette. It has its own bathroom and so on. And then.

  The park has some camping tents in the back and another tent that doesn’t have a bathroom and we built a community bathroom in the park. So we’ve got some units that have their own bathrooms and kitchens and some units that don’t have their own bathrooms. And we’re opening up the park to see what is popular in that area. So we’re going to test the different structures.

  learn, make adjustments, and plan for phase two. Which phase two, I’m not sure which structures we’re gonna go with, but I would like to build a really cool A-frame with a pool. I’d like to build a showstopper treehouse, kinda like you see Pete Nelson’s treehouse TV shows. ⁓ And I would like to add a geodesic dome in the future,

  We’re opening up our park with the five structures to learn what is hot and what is not. Maybe we add more tents that don’t have bathrooms because we do have a bathroom out there that more tent people can use. And maybe we find out, geez, popping up the little tents is the most profitable thing to do with this property. Or maybe we’re like, geez, the Airstream and, know, geez, because we’ve heard that you build a tree house and it’s like printing money.

  You you get it booked all the time. So that’s kind of the basics of our park. And you know, we’re gonna learn a lot and then I’m gonna be consulting anybody that needs the construction part done or getting one physically built. ⁓

  But I do have a consultant that I would recommend for somebody that wants to know all the ins and outs of setting up Airbnbs and doing a glamp site as far as the rental part of it. But I’m gonna consider myself the expert at looking for land, the ins and outs of what property is a good one for you, and the construction laying out a park.

  Jeez, where should I put my septic tank? you have sewer, where are we gonna connect to the sewer? ⁓ Getting your water going, ⁓ electricity, you know, do you even have electricity? Is there power nearby or do we have to talk about solar? Which I have, you know, the experience with that also. So I’m the construction guy that’s good at finding the property, getting it built, coming up with cool structures.

  You know, and my website is ⁓ whisperingwoodstx.com. And at whisperingwoodstx.com, you’ll be able to see a website of our GLAMP site. And you can see some of the rules and some of the things we set up. And you can also see a lot of pictures of the individual units that we set up and pictures of the park in general and some of the community areas. So.

  You’ll get a really good feel for what we’re about. If you go to our website and just look at our glamping site and if something that I did that I would ⁓ encourage other people to do, if you look at our website and you see some cool stuff and, you really want to check it out, you know, a good thing to do is book a couple of days, come out, study it, check it. And I’d be around to answer some questions for you. ⁓

  I think that would be very beneficial. ⁓ I hate to say, the show just was last week, but ⁓ in October of every year, they have a glamping show in Denver, which I would highly recommend anybody that’s interested in glamping sites ⁓ attend that show. I have attended that show. They got a lot of nice structures you can look at. ⁓ And they have people that can…

  give seminars and tell you how to run one. So, and to be honest, I went to that and that’s when I realized there’s a hole in this industry is there’s a lot of investors and people that wanna have a glamp site and so on, but not many people talk about what you need to do to construct one, to build one. So, there’s a lot of guys out there that can talk to you about building a custom home, but a glamping site is a different animal.

  I highly, highly recommend that people are interested in glamp sites, really look for the experts. ⁓ And in this case, I’m the expert in getting land and getting it built. ⁓ But I’m going to say, I’m not, and I have a lot of general information of running Airbnb’s and some basics of our park.

  but I highly recommend if you’re looking to build one. And I wanna point out that the investors that called me and wanted to start talking about it, I was wanting to talk to her about building one from scratch because quite frankly,

  I have a five acre property that I got set up and it’s cost a total of, think, I’m around $225,000 that I.

  purchased land, I built the structures, I got the plumbing, electric, mechanical, I got the labor. So I learned through going through this process and talking to an investor, my strength is I know how to build this stuff and I know how to build it at an affordable price and the affordable options and so on.

  So I really started seeing my strength on building a Glamp site when I started going through the process and talking to my consultant.

  because my consultant didn’t know a lot of the stuff that I know as a contractor. So I highly recommend people that are getting into glamp sites. If you want to build one from scratch, it’s a lot more economical.

  and I can get it done and help you get it done for a lot less money, it will take more money, or I mean, I’m not saying money, it will take more time to build a glamp site. And of course it would be a lot faster if you went and found one and geez, this guy wants to sell his park for two and a half million dollars, I’m just gonna buy this one and rent it. ⁓ And I understand that strategy from investors. ⁓

  But for me, I’m looking for the deal. So I look for deals when it comes to finding the land, do a lot of hunting, get the right property. And then it’s a whole conversation on the ins and outs of getting it built. So I can help people with that. But I think if they want to buy one, turn key.

  You go through a broker, there are glamp site brokers out there that specialize just in glamp sites and RV parks and so on. This is an odd animal that a lot of people want to get into. So your typical real estate agent is not gonna be the call. You want to find one of those brokers that sell glamp sites if you want to buy one already running.

  But if you want to build one from scratch and maybe save some money and go through the process yourself, then you call someone like me that can help line things up. And I’m willing to travel, to go to sites. If I was honest, I would say I think the thing that I would be worth way more than my hourly fee, you know, 175 bucks an hour to do consulting, and I will come out to your place and

  I would argue that in one day of consulting, for me walking your property, I would be able to…

  point out that tree should stay, that tree is dying, that should go, you should put your septic tank over here because it’s the lowest part of the area. ⁓ well, you have to run pipes this many feet to get to the septic tank. And the electric, and I know the trenching and what we got to do to get the power there and so on. So I really think in one day I could give people ideas on a layout.

  I could talk to them about different structures. I can tell them what I think it’s gonna take to get all the units up and running. Solar is something that people have to talk about sometimes because they can’t get electric. Water is something to talk, I won’t get into these things, but there’s a lot of important things that you gotta learn and get into. So in one day I could walk through and.

  point out what I would do to see that spot right there. That would be a perfect spot for a geodesic dome. Point it this way, looking out to the view, so they have privacy. I would put a tree house on this beautiful tree. would get maybe, if you like trailers, get an Airstream and I’d pull it into the park, set it here, and I’d put a deck around it, and I’d put the spa on this side.

  So it’s out of the sun in the late afternoon. So there’s a zillion things to talk about that your typical person doesn’t see when they walk through a forest. And I’ve seen pictures of people with these glamp sites that they buy 10 yurts and line them all up in a row and you got 10 yurts that are 10 feet away from each other, no privacy. And it’s at a pretty place, but they’re not thinking it through where people wanna have some privacy.

  Maybe they don’t want to come out of their deck, out of their beautiful unit and look over and 20 feet away from you as another person out on their deck and so on. So there’s a lot to it, ⁓ but it is a very profitable industry, very profitable. ⁓ And that’s one of the reasons it’s hot. It really got going during COVID. ⁓

  I don’t know if I’m rambling too much and if you want to interrupt me and ask me another question, but I can tell you it is a very profitable business and I’m gonna tell you, back to your question of how did you get into this and so on, I will say I had somebody that influenced me in a big way. I have a buddy that I went to college with that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

  that started from nothing and did it all with apartments. And he was doing apartments for years and years with investors, making millions. And at one point he had 34,000 apartment units under his control. And they weren’t all his, he had investors. So needless to say, the guy was kicking butt, has a…

  ranch in Montana, a house in Kauai, Private Jet, one of those guys. And several years ago, he shifted and he started buying RV parks. And I was like, what? And the last time I talked to one of my friends, yeah, his name’s Greg. Yeah, think Greg has 22 RV parks now. And I know this guy, he’s sharp, he knows how to make money.

  And when I saw him get into the RV park thing, I was like, my gosh, I can’t believe he’s getting into that now. It must be good. And ⁓ so he influenced me and I started looking into this and it’s profitable. But I got to tell you, from Airbnb experience, I was in the Airbnb business when it was getting hot, you know, six, seven, eight years ago, and it has slowed down because there’s more players in the market.

  in Airbnb and it’s not as hot as it used to be. And I’m gonna predict some of the same things gonna happen with RV parks and glamp sites is that there’s gonna be a lot of people jumping into them. And I can tell you from experience that there’s gonna be some people that are gonna go, huh, how come I’m not renting out as many units as I thought? There’s so many factors that could

  be happening and I think I can help you make sure you’re not buying the wrong piece of land, not building the wrong kind of park.

  Michelle Kesil (23:50)
  Yep.

  Mike Scarlett (23:54)
  There’s a lot to know. ⁓ so my friend that set up all these things, he goes in and rehabs them. And I’m building my mind from scratch, but I’m just telling you that there’s a lot of money in this industry. And I want to tell people, you got to make your place look cool. You got to make it one of a kind, unique, because the days of renting out a room in your house and making all this money are gone.

  Michelle Kesil (23:56)
  Yum.

  Mike Scarlett (24:22)
  Airbnb has changed and I think the same thing’s gonna happen in this industry is you’re gonna get some people that throw stuff up and they’re not gonna get all the bookings because there’s gonna be some other parks that have some really cool, unique experiences in it. So that’s my advice.

  Michelle Kesil (24:38)
  Yeah, definitely.

  Awesome. Thank you, Mike. That was a lot of value and good advice and so many nuggets in there. So thank you for sharing all of that. And yeah, before we wrap up here, if someone wants to connect with you, learn more from you, where can people find you?

  Mike Scarlett (25:00)
  Well, is all right to go ahead and give out my email address. Right now, my email address is Mike at real estate, spelt out real estate by B-Y, not B-U-Y.

  Michelle Kesil (25:05)
  Sure, however you’re comfortable.

  Mike Scarlett (25:22)
  B-Y Scarlett, my last name, S-C-A-R-L-E-T-T, there’s two T’s in the name, .com. So it’s [email protected] is my email address. I’m gonna go ahead and give my phone number, because I’m an old guy that is fine talking on the phone. My phone number is 972-439-8545. And if you wanna check out our Glam site,

  ⁓ It is whispering, just spelt out, whispering woods.

  TX for Texas dot com. So www.whisperingwoodstx.com is our website. And ⁓ I have a passion for this stuff, so you won’t be bugging me if you call me. I like talking about it.

  Michelle Kesil (26:18)
  Perfect, awesome. Well, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. Thank you for being here.

  Mike Scarlett (26:26)
  Sure, thank you and ⁓ it was a pleasure talking to you.

  Michelle Kesil (26:32)
  And for those tuning into the show, if you got value from this, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators like Mike who are building real businesses. We’ll see you on our next episode.