RV Park Investing Explained: How Amenities, Location, and Expansion Drive Bigger Profits

Jennifer Hageman (00:00)
It’s the same for RV parks, okay? They make their money on the amenities, okay? A healthy RV park is going to have about 80 % long-term stays and about 20 % overnights. And then they’re gonna make the money on the amenities. you’re, like every time I talk to a seller, I’m like, okay, are you charging Wi-Fi fees? Do you charge pet fees? Do you charge late fees? Are you offering ice? Do you have… ⁓

Do you have grills?

Cody Crabb (01:57)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Cody Crabb with Investor Fuel

Today we’ve got Jennifer Hageman, known as the RV Park Queen of Hageman Realty Group, specializes in RV park investments across Texas with over a dozen parks currently on the market and a rapidly growing national buyer base. Jennifer, I don’t think we’ve ever talked about RV parks on this podcast and there are probably a thousand plus episodes. thank you for being, I’m honored to have the queen on our podcast. Yeah, so we were talking to,

Jennifer Hageman (02:25)
I am the queen. I’m the queen of RV park. Where I am guys, it’s me.

Cody Crabb (02:31)
Yeah, of course, of course. So we were talking a little bit before we started on the podcast, you were kind of sharing your story a little bit and ⁓ you kind of ended up doing this on accident a little bit. It just kind of happened to be the first property that you were diving into. So tell us a brief version of that so we can kind of get some context around someone called the RV Park Queen, which is an awesome name.

Jennifer Hageman (02:51)
Yeah, quick.

The quick story is that I got my real estate license about less than three years ago and I had heard that there was somebody that was thinking about selling their RV park and I’m a go-getter, right? So I’m messaging them on Facebook and they were like, well, we’ve already interviewed some other realtors. And I was like, just let me come out, right? Didn’t say anything about being new on the market as a new realtor or anything, just showed up, said a big prayer.

walked in like I owned it and I convinced them to trust me to sell this park, right? It was on Interstate 30, like it was a major deal, a four and a half million dollar deal. And they said, you know what, you’re the girl, we were going with you. I got in the car, I was like, yes, I got it, I got it, you know? And then the reality hit was, oh my gosh, I have to sell this park now. Like, what do I do? What do I do? You know?

Cody Crabb (03:45)
You know, I have to ask, I have to ask. Why did they pick you? Like, no offense, you seem lovely, but like, what do you think they saw in you that they didn’t see in the others?

Jennifer Hageman (03:51)
I,

you know, I gave them my word that I would treat this like a full-time job. You know, they were retiring and I think they wanted to partner with somebody they felt like they could trust that wasn’t just going to put it on MLS and kind of wait. And I told them, I said, if you will trust me with this, I promise to take it on like a full-time job. I will commit to getting this sold. And

literally got home with my computer and I’m like Googling like top RV investors in the country like I was looking at people on the stock exchange like I’m you know, I bet I emailed 250 investors trying to just find somebody that had interest and we ended up selling it cash deal. I mean it was great. Everything worked beautifully. But after that point, you know people started

calling me and saying, I saw you, sold this. Like, can you help me value my park or can you help me find a park? And it just dominoed, honestly. I learned, I learned so much trial by fire because, you know, like I didn’t know anything about parks at the time. ⁓ there’s a lot to know about.

Cody Crabb (04:58)
Yeah. Well, I have to

ask you, are you like an RV person? Like, do you know about RVs and stuff?

Jennifer Hageman (05:04)
No, no, no,

not an RV person. I’ve never stayed overnight in an RV. I’ve never, no, but I know everything. I know everything about them. I know everything about them. Yeah.

Cody Crabb (05:09)
You’ve, to this day you still haven’t? See, I find that wild. Yeah, yeah. I find

that so funny. It’s like if someone, it’s like if it could have been a zoo and then you would be the zoo queen. you know, it’s just, I think it’s fascinating.

Jennifer Hageman (05:23)
I I could just, I know.

Like I wish I was the lake, like the lake realtor with the bougie, you know, waterfront. I’m the RV park queen, you know? I mean, you know, this is what…

Cody Crabb (05:32)
The nail salon queen or something like that. But yeah,

RV park. Although no, I will say there is an awesomeness to this that you don’t get in some other areas. I would, I will ask you a few, ⁓ I have to know a few things about this because it’s so specific. Do you kind of go, I mean, is this like you’re doing this because.

Jennifer Hageman (05:45)
It picked me. It picked me.

Yeah.

Cody Crabb (05:58)
people find you or is this like you are specifically seeking these out now?

Jennifer Hageman (06:49)
It’s been a little bit crazy. ⁓ So when I’m really, have a marketing background. So like I knew immediately when I got that first listing that I needed to hire somebody to do like a really high level video. And I knew how to do all the marketing in the background. And so, you know, I hate to give up all my trade secrets, but you know, I put it everywhere. Everything’s on TikTok, YouTube, blah, blah. I’ve gotten people that have found me on RV parks from

TikTok, people that are older that I wouldn’t even think would be on TikTok. I’ve been like, I got another four and a half million dollar park ⁓ from them finding me on TikTok. so it’s, know, and my YouTube has taken off. A lot of people watch, you know, I’ve got a lot of followers on that. ⁓ So yeah, no, they come to me. People, I think I’ve got probably seven more parks coming of people in the past two weeks that have called.

Cody Crabb (07:19)
How did you even see this video?

Wow.

Hmm.

Jennifer Hageman (07:42)
and I’m doing the analysis on them as quick as I can, you know? Yeah, so it comes to us at this point. It’s not.

Cody Crabb (07:48)
So would you say you’re like exclusive in a way that, in the way that like you wouldn’t do anything else or that you just haven’t because that’s just what comes to you.

Jennifer Hageman (07:56)
yeah, so I have a team of realtors, right? And, and I do, if somebody specifically says, I want Jennifer Hageman to sell my house, you know, I will take it. ⁓ but majority of my time is focused on RV parks because there’s just such a, like, you have to know how to price them. You have to understand the financials. have to.

Cody Crabb (08:11)
Gotcha.

Jennifer Hageman (08:18)
I tell my sellers, I put it all in a big pretty bow for investors. Cause I used to flip houses in Dallas, right? That was my background. So I know how to, I know what an investor is going to want to see, right? It’s all about the cap rate or it’s all about the potential. And you’ve got to be able to take a park that maybe looks gritty and ugly and take out the things that an investor is not going to be dealing with and frame it in a way where they say, okay, I see now how I can make money on this. I understand.

Cody Crabb (08:48)
So, because this podcast is from an investor’s point of view, I would love to hear, what are some things, if someone is looking at an RV park, I can’t believe how specific this question is, but if someone is looking at buying an RV park, what are some things they may not realize or they may not know before they do that that you really think they oughta know?

Jennifer Hageman (08:48)
So.

Yeah. So a lot of people, I tell my investors, when you go to the gas station, you think that, oh my gosh, they’re making so much money on that gas. And that’s not where your gas station owners make their money. They made the money because you went in and bought the Crispedo, the Red Bull, the Snickers. They make their money on the extras. See, they made their money on that. It cost them 10 cents, and you pay like $1.50.

Cody Crabb (09:28)
Big giant fountain drink. Yeah, I feel you. Yeah.

Yeah.

Jennifer Hageman (09:34)
⁓

It’s the same for RV parks, okay? They make their money on the amenities, okay? A healthy RV park is going to have about 80 % long-term stays and about 20 % overnights. And then they’re gonna make the money on the amenities. you’re, like every time I talk to a seller, I’m like, okay, are you charging Wi-Fi fees? Do you charge pet fees? Do you charge late fees? Are you offering ice?

Do you have grills?

At each patty of a grill where you’re selling firewood, do you have propane? Do you have storage units? Do you have washers and dryers? On a park of 60 to 80 pads, it’s 80 % capacity, you should be bringing in about 15 to 20 thousand dollars a year in quarters.

Cody Crabb (10:07)
Yeah.

⁓ my gosh, yeah, yeah

Jennifer Hageman (10:15)
Yeah. So the amenities,

if you’re doing it properly, will bring you in, depending on your park size, you you could bring in easily $40,000 to $50,000 in extra cash. And so a lot of people think it’s all about the stays and it’s not, it’s the amenities, it’s where you make your extra money, like overnights, you know, or about $55 a night. And so to answer your question,

Cody Crabb (10:25)
Hmm.

Jennifer Hageman (10:37)
You know, people don’t know that. They think they’re all looking at, okay, well how many pads and they’re trying to do their math. And I’m like, no, no, no, no, no. Let me show you how this is all gonna come about to make you money.

Cody Crabb (10:42)
Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah, that’s true because you’re kind of missing the other the other there’s so much other revenue like you said ⁓ I would be curious ⁓ What do you see what’s something that if you were kind of okay? So let’s say you know you’re helping me buy an RV park we walk into an RV park together and You grab my arm, and we run for the we run for the car What did you just see that made you go? No not a chance? We’re not even getting close to this

Jennifer Hageman (11:01)
Okay.

Cody Crabb (11:48)
I feel like every asset class, every everything, everyone that is an expert in something has that one thing that they’re like, if I see that, there’s not a chance I’m going to deal with that.

Jennifer Hageman (11:59)
If I go out to a park and it’s out in the middle of nowhere, right? Like we’ve driven down a county road and it’s just got, you know, 16 pads and I’m not looking, you know, that even if it’s got a decent cap rate.

that’s not where you’re gonna make your home run. So I would say get in the car, let’s keep going. I think location to an RV park is really important, especially for, you I deal with multi, multi, multi-million dollar investors that are big dogs all over the country. You know, I just had a guy call me yesterday, he wants to buy 18 parks in Texas in the next 24 months. Yeah. So.

Cody Crabb (12:35)
my gosh.

Yeah.

Jennifer Hageman (12:37)
⁓ Those investors, they know how to make money. So to you, like, because you’re not in the RV space. And that’s the question I always ask people because it’s okay. Like you don’t need to be scared if you’re not the big dog investor. You don’t need to be scared. Like there’s RV parks for every level of investor. But what I would tell you is you may not know right now as much as he knows or she knows. Like they know that like the big money, the big money.

a lot of times comes in with parks that have over 50 pads that are near a location or near water, like a lake, okay, that have extra land where you can add on, where you can add on the storage units, expand. So like if the park is capped out, like maybe it’s like four acres and it’s absolutely at capacity, you know, even if it has a good cap rate, like how are you gonna make more money than what it’s already making? You really need to have parks for you. I like to find parks where there’s room to expand.

because in an ideal picture you would add more park, you might want to add tiny homes, you might want to add storage. I mean, there’s all kinds of options, but I really like to find parks that have additional areas to expand. So I would say.

Cody Crabb (13:30)
Mmm.

Sure, yeah.

Hmm. Yeah, I think that’s a good thing to call out for sure. I think,

I mean, and maybe that’s part of the equation. Maybe you look at the amount of pads as you say, that just kind I’m assuming that’s just like units, right? Like that’s, yeah. So if you look at it has a certain number of pads and you go, although I could add 12 more back there, then maybe it does make sense. So it sounds like taking a long view is really important in stuff like this because it’s.

Jennifer Hageman (13:58)
The RV pads, the other units,

Mm-hmm.

Cody Crabb (14:12)
So specific to, mean, that’s not like you’re going to make a, it’s not like you’re to put something else there. I mean, it really, I mean, I suppose you could, but like, it’s not the, it’s not like a typical property. It sounds like, so, um, I would be curious to know, like, where do you see the RV park industry going with, with more people being able to work remotely? Do you think it’s, it’s going to still keep growing? mean, you, before we started the podcast, you mentioned the baby boomers.

Tell me a little about what you said there and what you think where you think it’s going

Jennifer Hageman (14:41)
Yeah. So

my dad, was a wise man, right? He did well on his investments, but he always said, you follow the baby boomers. They were the largest generation. So when the baby boomers were babies and they were buying diapers, you would want to invest in like Pampers, you know, on the stock exchange. And when the baby boomers were riding bikes, you would want to invest in, you know, companies that were selling bicycles. ⁓ And so the baby boomers now are retiring.

and they are downsizing and a lot of them are going into RVs, they’re going cross country, they’re, you know, and so we’re having that as one of the trends. The other trend that we’re seeing is that housing is no longer affordable. That’s a problem nationwide, right? It’s just not. Like I bought my first house in Dallas for like $119,000, three bedroom, bath. Like those days are over, okay? And so…

⁓ We’re seeing that people are buying RVs. They’re living in them. They’re making communities out of like RVs, almost, you know, like neighborhoods. ⁓ Tiny homes are a thing that are happening. So you see some RV parks that have a blend because maybe somebody doesn’t have a truck and they can’t get an RV, but they can afford to live in a tiny home if you have one on there. So ⁓ we are just seeing a blend of the baby boomers retiring and then

Cody Crabb (15:44)
Huh. Yeah.

Jennifer Hageman (16:04)
people that don’t have affordable housing that are looking to stay at parks. Texas is in the top three for states that have transient travel, like people going cross country for travel. So the top three states in the country right now for RV stays are, what would you guess?

Cody Crabb (17:06)
I know. I bet Utah’s in there somewhere, because we’ve got a really RVable state. ⁓ Okay, I would say California just because of all the national parks. ⁓ And I’m going to guess… ⁓ this is… Whoa. I’m going to guess Idaho. Is that anywhere in it? No, not even close. So what’s the other one? Really? I would never have guessed Florida.

Jennifer Hageman (17:09)
But people do travel a lot, but no.

Yes.

No.

Florida, Texas, Florida, Yep, top three, four.

the great thing about Texas is it’s central in the country. So like you’re getting all that traffic, you know, and Texas is, RV parks are a lot cheaper than they are in California. They’re a lot more affordable here in Texas. So there’s a lot of upside to why investors are looking at the Texas market for RV parks. It’s a hot market right now. So, yeah.

Cody Crabb (17:37)
Yeah.

Yeah.

It certainly sounds

like it, yeah. So ⁓ if somebody is ⁓ thinking that this sounds kind of good and they want to contact you and they want to maybe buy something or learn how to buy something, who should contact you and how can they do it?

Jennifer Hageman (18:09)
Yeah, I’m an open book. give out my cell honestly because I mean that’s just me. But I will give you an email. can go to parks at so P-A-R-K-S at hageman, H-A-G-E-M-A-N hyphen realty.com ([email protected]) or you can call or text me at 469-682-8761. I’m your go-to one stop shop RV park queen for the Texas market.

Cody Crabb (18:14)
That’s awesome.

That is

the I maintain that is the coolest nickname I’ve heard on this podcast so far. So congratulations. Yes. Congratulations. ⁓ Well, thank you so much. This has been really interesting. ⁓ And if ⁓ if you like what you heard today, audience, and I know you did because who couldn’t go ahead and give us a like a subscribe, a comment, a review, do all the things and make sure you follow us so that you don’t miss more awesome episodes like this one. Jennifer, it’s been a real pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Jennifer Hageman (18:40)
Really? Thank you.