Is buying an RV lot right for you?

Lisa RichartHernandez
Hi, welcome to RView podcast. We’ve got a great show planned for you this week will tell you all about where we’ve been traveling around Florida trying to find some sunshine. And the question is, is buying an RV lot right for you? We have those answers and more coming up. So stay tuned.

intro
Welcome to RView with your hosts George and Lisa Hernandez each week listen in as George and Lisa talk about their RV and travel adventures all around the world. GEORGE And Lisa travel in their 40 foot Class A tip in motorcoach and tow their Jeep Wrangler, always looking for fun and adventure.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Hi, welcome back to our view podcast. I’m Lisa RichartHernandez.

George
I’m George Hernandez,

Lisa RichartHernandez
and we have so much great stuff to talk to you about today. Last time we were in the Tampa RV Super Show. So we were already down in Florida. And we want to talk to you a little bit about our travels after that and some time we spent in Florida. And some just things that we’ve had going on the last couple of weeks here.

George
We’ve been chasing the sun trying to get warm because it is freezing in Charleston, South Carolina. So we headed south.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yes. And I want to say that, you know, even at the Tampa Super Show, it was not really that much warmer. It was still very cold for Florida, in the 60s. And so we still had our jackets on of course. And you know, we dropped my mom off at her condo there in Clearwater when we went down. And so I kind of wanted to stay in the state of Florida for a little bit just to make sure that things were good with her. And we also while we were down in Florida wanted to check on George’s parents. So after we left the Tampa RV Super Show we headed over to Pembroke Pines, Florida and stayed out CB Smith Park, which is actually a really nice campground. What is it about 45 minutes from Miami?

George
Yeah, I mean with Miami traffic is 4030 to 45 minutes to South Beach. Yeah. isn’t bad at all.

Lisa RichartHernandez
No. And CB Smith Park is sort of like right in the middle of Pembroke Pines. There’s like, tons of shopping and restaurants and malls and stuff. But yet it’s still a, I guess a state or

George
county park. That’s a county park and it’s very well run and it’s a great facility. If you’re looking for a place to be near Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Florida or Miami. It’s centrally located to all three they’re all probably 30 to 40 minutes away. If you’re looking to go to the casino, that’s 30 minutes maybe. So it’s very conveniently located to all of those places.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, and it takes all kinds I mean, you can tent camp there. You can have a big rig. there’s a there’s a little lake there. I mean, some people call it upon but it’s a small lake. And they offer waterskiing and wakeboarding and inner tubing.

George
Also have a waterpark in the park.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yep, the waterpark was of course closed because of COVID. And I’m, you know, I’m assuming because of the cold weather as well. But there’s a batting cage.

George
definitely have a lot to offer.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, they have like a golf Center, a tennis complex. It’s it’s really, really nice fishing fitness facility. horseshoes, racquetball live shelters, pickleball. Tennis, so lots of things to do there at CB Smith Park. And we really kind of recommend that place if you’re going to be down that way. And you’re looking for something. We they also were our COVID testing site. So that kind of came in handy actually. Even though George and I had already had hit COVID back. Several months ago, we tested positive for the antibodies. But you know, we were going to see his parents who are elderly, and we had just been to the Tampa Super Show. And I started just like a tiny cough and I started to freak out. And so we just drove there. We got another COVID test just to be on the safe side. Of course it was a negative, thankfully. But

George
They did a great job. The line was really long, so we were a little hesitant about getting in line. But from the minute we got into when we were done testing was just under an hour. And we thought it was going to be two to three hours based on the size of the line. But they had for station for testing stations. And it was a drive thru for drive thru stations and it was very well organized. He did everything on your phone prior to getting to the tents. Once you got in the tent, they

Lisa RichartHernandez
They scan your phone,

George
They scan the barcode on your phone and asked you Are you Mr. Hernandez, what’s your date of birth and boom, you did your test. And literally within 30 minutes they had an email The results. Yeah. And that was great. There was no charge for that. So I think Florida is doing a great job of providing free testing. And also, we’re working really hard to get everyone vaccinated. So I know George’s parents had already gotten their first shot, and they’re in a whole kind of retirement community. How many? There’s a lot of people in that Pembroke Pines

George
Oh my god thousand

Lisa RichartHernandez
What’s the name of it?

George
It’ll come to me in a second please keep talking.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I think there’s like, you say like, 20,000 people live in their complex

George
century village

Lisa RichartHernandez
century village. Yeah. So great job to the, you know, governor of Florida, I guess that’s been working on getting people tested and vaccinated. Hopefully, that’s allowing them to kind of get some more tours down there and stuff. I know the people. They originally said they anyone. Anyone who wanted to get vaccinated could come in and then I think they kind of like that. Oh, wait, maybe we need to just keep that to residents. Oh, especially being a lot of senior citizens in that area.

George
Yeah. The snowbirds.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And the snowbirds and Canadians even,

George
yes, and Canadians a whole nother conversation with the craziness that’s going on up there.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I know it’s hard for them to get in and out of this country, and vice versa. So I know a lot of people that normally went down south, my mom said they couldn’t come down this year, and stay at their condos. So

George
but what CB Smith Park, highly recommended,

Lisa RichartHernandez
very reasonable price

George
very reasonably priced,

Lisa RichartHernandez
like $40 a night or something.

George
I think so I think it might have been even less than that. The lot sizes are very accommodating. We have a 40 foot as you all know, and we fit in there perfectly. The girl at the reception desk worked with me, and found me the biggest spot most convenient that she thought. And it was it was technically not a pull through, but it ended up being a pull through. And I really appreciated that because it makes my life a lot easier.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. So while we were down there, we thought, Oh, man, we should stay down here a little bit longer, because it’s such nice weather. And well, trying to find a place to stay in southern Florida in January is almost like a silly thing to even attempt

George
while we were trying the keys, which is even more hysterical, because pretty much everywhere that I call they laughed at me and they said, if you’re looking for next year, we can probably get you. You’re not gonna find anything. And they were absolutely right. Everything was booked.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yes. And I forgot to mention that we did stay on our way to Pembroke Pines. We stayed a night at Pelican lakes resort in Naples, and went down there to visit our friends Jim and Diane and actually really, really love that resort. It’s beautiful.

George
Yeah, it’s absolutely beautiful and lots of very big. There’s a ton of lots that are on the lake, which are really, really beautiful. And of course, those are premium lots. But I thought all the lots were really, really big and very well taken care of the whole resort just, yeah, kudos to them.

Lisa RichartHernandez
One thing I love about Pelican lakes resort and some of those other luxury resorts where they allow you to have a casita or a little coach house. People were building new ones there, you could have, I think up to 300 square feet,

George
you can upgrade up to 300 square feet, I guess. In the early days, it was only 100 square foot casita, because that seems to be what everybody has another upgrade into 300 square feet, which believe it or not, doesn’t sound like much, but that gives you a whole new world of possibility bathroom,

Lisa RichartHernandez
a kitchen, put an extra bed in there. Yeah, it was really, really surprisingly, nice size places. So when we when we were there, it kind of opened up our eyes a little bit to the idea. Now don’t forget, we already own a lot in Hilton Head Island motorcoach resort, which we love. And we’re super excited to say that we just closed last week on our new lot. We actually bought a bigger lot than we had already had. And prices are just skyrocketing, skyrocketing everywhere for RV resorts. And so when we stayed at Pelican length, and we couldn’t find a place to get into the keys, really kind of made us start thinking, you know, we really need to start thinking about maybe jumping in and buying some lots around the country because prices are going up so much. There’s such a demand for them. And with COVID it was like kind of eye opening that you can’t get in everywhere either. So have owning our place in Hilton Head was great. Because we knew we always had a place to stay because we own there.

George
Right? Absolutely. It’s nice to have a home base. going with that if you’re planning a trip, plan ahead because nothing’s guaranteed. As we found out, winter, everybody comes down to Florida and it was completely sold out.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I mean, and I think the bigger your rig is, the more difficult it is to get in.

George
Right? You’re, you’re limiting yourself.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. Yep. So that kind of brings us to our main like one of our topics that we really wanted to touch base on today, because we really started contemplating buying and selling lots and what are the benefits of ownership? What are the pros and cons to it? And I kind of made a little list, I was just like, Alright, what are you, I’m a real estate agent. And I’m always looking for investments and things that would be I want to add appreciating assets. And generally speaking, a coach or an RV are depreciating assets. And so I hate like spending all my money on a beautiful coach and knowing that every year it goes down in value. Whereas if I was invested in a home that I could probably buy like a actual stick built home for the same price as our coach, it would be an appreciating asset. So I think that one of the benefits of being an owner is actually owning an appreciating asset, as opposed to a depreciating asset. Right, and really speaking,

George
and generally speaking, also, you can possibly make some money on them. So our thought is to have a couple lots throughout the country. Like Lisa said, we have one in Hilton Head, we’re contemplating buying one in Florida, and maybe something closer to the west coast. So we can travel around and go to our different places and use those as home bases. But when you’re not, at your location, you can be on a rental program and make money renting it out. And you know, you’re not going to become a millionaire. But if you can cover your expenses for your lot, then why not? Right?

Lisa RichartHernandez
It’s basically like, saying, you know, having it for free once I mean, aside from the money that you put down to pay for the water originally. But I feel like hopefully things keep going in the right direction that won’t those values will go up as opposed to going down? Well,

George
from what we’ve seen just in the last three years. Oh my gosh, from what we could have bought. So for example, we could have bought lots at Hilton Head resort four years ago for the cheapest one was even cheaper than that there was one for $50,000. Had I known that this is one of those Had I known moments, I would have bought Titan lots and made a decent return because now they’re worth double, you know, double double and some of them triples. So it’s one of those things that I think there’s still a lot of opportunity to get in at a decent price because these prices are just going to keep going up. Eventually it will plateau. But right now they’re just climbing. And it’s a the end thing to do right now. Because so many people are doing staycation. So they’re they’re traveling in the country, they’re not you know, you can’t leave the country.

Lisa RichartHernandez
yeah I mean, they just made it difficult once again, for us to leave the country. I’m so happy that we got out to the Dominican Republic for New Years, we went to an all inclusive resort down there. But otherwise, now you have to have a negative COVID test to get back into the United States. So you know, all these resorts are scrambling to figure out a way they’re going to be able to get you know, people tested,

George
right, and there’s no end in sight to this craziness. And everything changes every couple months. Yeah, yeah, just whatever’s going on. Now maybe totally different by the time you hear this podcast,

Lisa RichartHernandez
exactly could have changed tomorrow. so crazy. So other things I have on benefit. You save on storage fees, like we just cancelled, we were paying over $200 a month just to have like a place to park RV when we weren’t using it. So we’re saving on our storage fees by owning a place. That’s one thing to think about. You already touched on the rental income. So each different resort has different percentages. For example, Hilton Head, they manage all the rentals for you and you get 50% of the rental income. So it’s on an average $100 a night to rent a spot at Hilton Head Island motorcoach resort. So we average about $50 the night when we’re in the rental pool, and we put our lot on rental. So if we kept it in the rental pool, on an average, just like average year, they say to estimate about 100 nights of the year, it’ll be rented out. So you know, that basically covers our taxes or insurance and our quarterly HOA fees, which also vary resort to resort, but Hilton had their $750 every, every three months, once a quarter. So about $250 a month. So it only takes, you know, five nights of a month to rent it out five nights a month to rent it out to to cover your expenses on that. And if that’s something that you’re interested in, you know, there’s of course, certain lots rent better than others. We found that lots of closer to the amenities lots on the lake, things like that have a way higher rental rate than 100 nights,

George
but they’re still getting the same rate. And you’re gonna pay a lot more for

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, I mean, it’s all relative, right? You know, you kind of get what you pay for. It’s like anything location, location. location in real estate, you know, there’s some other things that you don’t even really think about when you buy a place, I think that are sort of benefits. I guess it could be a pro or con. But I love that we have our same neighbors and we get to know the people that are other owners in the resort. We’ve made some great friends, some lifelong friends. Already at Hilton Head Island motorcoach resort, we’ve only been there as owners for a little over a year. We’re already on our second lot. Like I said, we upgraded to a bigger lot, which we intend to renovate and upgrade, add things like an outdoor kitchen and things like that. And that’s I guess another one of the benefits that I have on my list is adding upgrades that you want to your lot and kind of make it your own. And

George
each resort is different in the sense of what you can do to your lock,

Lisa RichartHernandez
but improvements you can make

George
what improvements you can make, for example, Hilton Head you cannot have a casita, where other resorts will allow you to build Pelican Lake, up to a 300 square foot casita to some people that’s that’s the game breaker. And for others, it’s not so it all depends on what you’re looking for.

Lisa RichartHernandez
You can’t even have any structure with a permanent roof over at or gazebo at Hilton Head Island motorcoach resort. And I’ve seen most of the more high end luxury resorts are allowing coach houses are allowing, you know, covered kitchen areas and things like that. So all things to take into consideration when you’re shopping for a lot.

George
Yes. So it all depends on what you want to do that there’s every every variable that you’re looking for, there’s there’s a, there’s an option for the option for your location for you.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, and in our travels over the last year, we’ve found a lot of places that sell lots. And we’re going to go over some of those and just kind of talk about the varying price ranges from our just recent research. And of course, you know, those things like change, day to day, it could be different in two weeks from now. So I guess, you know,

George
as of February 2021, yeah, exactly subject to change by tomorrow.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. Well, well, before we go into all the different resources. So let’s, let’s talk a little bit about some of the negatives of owning the reasons we held out. Like, the reason we didn’t buy a lot in the first place is because we thought, oh, gosh, if we buy a lot at Hilton and Island motorcoach resort, we’re just going to come here all the time, and we’re not going to travel. And what we really want to do is travel around the country and see different places. So we don’t want to be tied down to one place. So that could potentially be a negative of owning a place as the sort of the feeling of I need to go there. There’s also the monthly regime fees to consider, you know, it’s an expense, if you’re not, they’re not using it and it doesn’t rent out. Can you afford those resume fees? Do you want to pay those?

George
Or if you’re retired, and you’re on a fixed budget, you know, that’s something that’s a new expense that you got to consider.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I mean, our, from the time we bought the, the rates went up, I think like $50, from quarter to, you know, from from 700 to 750. A quarter, which isn’t a huge increase. But if you’re on a fixed income, it’s you know, it’s it’s things to consider that you don’t really have a lot of control over. When you rent your place out, of course, there’s potential for people to damage your damage or lot have an oil leak, they’re going to mess, you know, if you if you provide a grill, they’re going to leave it dirty, they’re going to mess it up. They could potentially, you know, it’s like any rental property. People don’t treat it as their own when they’re renting. And sometimes you have great renters and sometimes you just have people that aren’t so great.

George
And one of the downsides. And I’m speaking for Hilton Head resort, because that’s where we own if anything is damaged, that’s on the owner, the resort has zero liability on it. They’re not going to pay for any anything that’s broken from a renter. And it can get expensive. Yeah, depending on what you know, if you have a really nice grill and they mess it up. You got to fix it. There’s no damage deposit, I guess.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. You also have to, you know, follow the HOA rules. So one of the things we have a Hilton Head is you have a 90 day turnaround. They make you drive your coach out of the resort every 90 days. It’s a good thing, I guess, because

George
I have no problem with that rule.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I know and I think it’s a good thing because basically that that assures that you don’t have crappy trailers are crappy coaches just sitting around that don’t drive anywhere stuck on a lot and that brings down everyone’s values.

Lisa RichartHernandez
We’ve been to a couple RV resorts quote unquote, where you drive around and you go, you can tell this RV has not moved in 10 years because they go around the base of it planters all the way around that they got the fencing around the RV, it’s like you know and then likes trash. Then you go from being a resort to

Lisa RichartHernandez
trailer park, basically. Yeah. So I totally I have no problem with that rule. Yeah, I totally agree. And that’s part of the reason also, I think that they allow only like, Class A and supersede coaches, drivable units because they don’t want it to be calm a quote unquote, they can

George
cannot be over 10 years old.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And so that’s also something to consider that could be a con if you have an older coach. And generally, they’ll make an exception as long as your coach is in good condition and that kind of thing. But um, you know, it may be something that forces you to have to buy a new coach, and that may not be something you want to do. So if you’re looking at purchasing, make sure you read all those covenants and restrictions, and Hoa rules and make sure that you’re good with whatever those are, before you buy in,

George
specially anything, and they all have HOA fees, and we all know how HOA fees can be. It’s, it’s great at times, and it’s a pain in the ass

Lisa RichartHernandez
at times. It’s kind of like a retirement community. There’s like 400 people and they all have different ideas. And some have been there for a long time. Some of them have been there for you know, are brand new. So we love our neighbors. We love our friends that we’ve made in the resort. It’s a whole nother community and group of friends. So I think that’s a definitely more of a benefit than it is a negative for sure.

George
Absolutely. We we have so much fun. Every time we go to Hilton Head, we actually have fun. We’ve had fun at every resort that we’ve been to people there to have fun in everybody’s mind. Yeah, sometimes a little too much fun. Our check liver light has been on the blank for quite a while.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, we have a really nice time we besides going out to dinner and different things and clicking out and stuff we you know, play cards and we meet up at the clubhouse or play left, right center and get different games going. And hopefully when COVID lets up, we’ll have a lot more little group activities and stuff like that. And

George
you just brought up another good point. Again, going back to Hilton Head, it is centrally located to everything, it’s such a fantastic place, we can ride our bikes to the beach, we can ride our bikes to restaurants, shopping, whatever. There’s some resorts, there’s one in particular that we’re going to talk touch base on in a little bit. And they are in the mountains, it’s beautiful, but they are near nothing. There’s nothing around there to do. So that’s another thing to consider. When you’re looking at a resort and making your decisions

Lisa RichartHernandez
and look at the amenities that they have and what’s important to you like for us it’s important to have a great pool and a central meeting area. But for us, you know the dog park is an important and it’s nice to have tennis, but it’s not super important for us. But we just picked up taking playing pickleball which is really fun. But just you know, those kind of things are things to consider when you’re thinking about buying a lot. Do they have the amenities and things that we want? Because a lot of times we find ourselves barely even going out outside of the resort because it’s so nice there we go to the pool and hang out with our friends and, you know, cook out or get food brought in or whatever. So we kind of talked a lot about Hilton Head Island motorcoach resort, which is it is one of the top 10 rated resorts in the country. You’ll see it on lots of different lists for people. So the price is right now at the Hilton Head Island motorcoach resort and again, you know, this can just change anytime run from around 120,000 for a lot up to there’s one listed for 215,000 which is under contract right now. So prices have definitely gone up. And you know, it’s a great spot if it’s something that you’re considering. We also we should talk about Pelican lights because we just stayed at Pelican lakes. With those lots we researched start around 135 and go up to

George
300

Lisa RichartHernandez
300? Ithought there were some that sold for like 800,000 with the casinos and stuff on them on the lake.

George
Well, what’s available right now is up to three eyes on nothing higher than 300.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay, so I do know there were some higher sale. I’m

George
sorry, I take that back. I’m 300 my notes. Yeah. 300 square foot casino. 160 to 800,000. You’re correct,

Lisa RichartHernandez
Right. Yeah, I study hard. Yeah. So $800,000 for a lot there with a nice coachhouse on it. That’s renovated on the lake. And that’s a Naples. So I mean, if you put it in perspective, you really like, you know, housing prices in Naples are very expensive. And there’s a lot of communities that sell for a million dollars their houses. So if you can pick up a lot for 300,000 and stay in your coach, you know, it’s kind of like having a place in Naples that you wouldn’t be able to buy.

George
Right and they’re they’re fairly close to everything. The beach is a little bit of a drive, but there’s restaurants there’s shopping, there’s plenty to do near Polycom mics.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I think like their Fifth Avenue is about 15 minutes drive from there,

George
Something like that. And Marco Island is relatively close.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah.

George
So It’s a great place to be centrally located.

Lisa RichartHernandez
And again, they have a lot of stuff just within the resort beautiful Tiki hut, pool, clubhouse, that kind of thing where people just, you know, kind of hang out at the resort. We even went to this one guy’s lot. I swear he had it set up like you think you’re at like an outdoor bar restaurant, he had like three TVs and three kegs and a bunch of TVs and umbrellas and

George
all the high tops. And I mean, I, I stopped when we walked in. I was waiting for the hostess. That’s how very, I mean, it was beautiful. And I think we have some pictures. I don’t know. I took some pictures, but I don’t know if he you know, we didn’t get his permission to post them. So

Lisa RichartHernandez
yeah, yeah, so that was at Pelican lakes resort in Naples, Florida. And that’s also many times listed on one of the top 10 Luxury RV resorts in the country. One of our other favorite places that we stayed was in Moab, Utah, which was portal RV, and we loved Moab, Georgia, especially loved Moab so much I’m

George
ready to go back right now.

Lisa RichartHernandez
He was like, yeah, if I said let’s get in the RV right now and start driving. He’d be packed up in 10 minutes and ready to roll. But um, we did look at lots there and there’s very few lots for sale, but they started at about 200,000 they had lots that you could build a casita on or one story casita or two storey casita, and then they had other ones that literally have like a coach house, those sold for around a million dollars and there’s none available when we were there. And they’re like about a 20 502,000 to 3000 square foot almost home. Yeah, I

George
was gonna say when when you say coach house it. This is a full blown house as a three story house with a garage and 3000 square feet. It was very well designed very well. And you can actually park your RV. I think we’ve discussed this earlier in one of our other podcasts, but you can park your RV right next to your house and it has full hookups. So you’re got a 3000 square foot house plus the additional square footage of your RV so you can go and stay there with a large family.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. And definitely have company come and visit and stuff like that. So those are those are. Those are great ones. I haven’t really seen Moab. portal RV, probably just because it’s smaller on any of the top rated resorts or anything but it is a really, really nice place. Like Moab.

George
Right in downtown Moab.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, awesime locations

George
it’s great great location.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, it’s like literally five minutes to the entrance of Arches National Park. The other place that we went on our cross country trip that sells really lots and is also rated one of the top 10 and a lot of ratings is the Las Vegas motorcoach resort. That’s a beautiful resort. They do allow small procedures on there. They do allow covered dining areas and things that the lot we stayed on had an outdoor fireplace kitchen, like a whole covered area that was just beautiful.

George
Yeah. And obviously they allow the covered area because in the summer, the sun will just bake you if you’re sitting out there exposed.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I mean, it is. It’s definitely hot in the desert.

George
Yeah. But their their amenities were phenomenal. Their swimming pool was like Las Vegas style swimming pool. They had a beautiful clubhouse, which unfortunately we didn’t we weren’t able to go in. Yeah, it’s a

Lisa RichartHernandez
10,000 square foot. clubhouse. They have over 400 lots just very similar. It was originally built by I believe the same developer that did Hilton Head Island. Yeah, they were they were related at some point somehow. Yeah. It’s got the resort style swimming pool to whirlpools, tanning pool, free internet,

George
forever nine hole potting green, and it goes completely around the pool. And we found out that on the second floor, they have a full bar. Yeah, we didn’t get to go up there. But which is for the owners. Yeah, that was really cool.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, yeah, that diner was so

George
diner, and the food was very, very good.

Lisa RichartHernandez
That says they have saunas and massage rooms. And we never went to any of those, of course because it was like, you know,

George
but we’ll COVID to fulfill you and when we go back after everything opens up, because I want to go back there again. Yeah, I do too.

Lisa RichartHernandez
We also thought about buying a place there looked at all the prices and

George
well and the reason we keep thinking about all these as because the prices are right right now and we saw from what happened at Hilton Head that don’t wait. If we wait, we’re going to get priced out. And you know, and there’s a fine line between a good deal and just just not worth it. Because at some point you get to the point where rent or for a little bit more I could just buy a house. Why am I going to buy an RV lot when I can just buy a house right you know, so that’s That’s things to consider when when the pricing when you’re looking at the pricing also compared to the prices of houses in the area, right? And you may say, Wow, for $479,000 I can buy a house right around the corner.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, definitely. But then you got to consider. You got everything that comes with the house and the maintenance. Right. Again, you may not be able to bring your coach there. So it just depends on what you want to do. We also stayed talk about let’s talk about West Coast Pacific shores in Oregon. That was beautiful resort again, owner owners there.

George
Yes, that was beautiful. That was right on the beach, on the ocean on the cliff

Lisa RichartHernandez
overlooking with the lighthouse was gorgeous. There was some problems there that they talked about erosion that they were having difficulties with a lot of erosion. Yeah. And so that was something to look out for. And let me just tell you this. Every single one of these resorts have real estate agents use the real estate agents. They’re the professionals. They know what’s happening. And I know I’m a real estate agent. And I’m telling you that and I sell a lot that Hilton that island motorcoach resort, and I have a brokerage there but at the same time, like people make mistakes because they do for sale by owners and they don’t do their research and, and they think they’re gonna save a little bit of money and in the long run, you know, may not be the best, the best idea. So I definitely say check with the realtors at all these different places, there’s always somebody there that represents the the the resort and has all the inside scoop on things. So Pacific shores Oregon have right the prices that we found right now are from 80,000 up to 305,000. And they do not have casinos on them or any built structures. Very similar to Hilton Head but less of vegetation. Or Hilton Head is very lush, a lot of greenery, a lot of trees and palm trees and, and and

George
purple had kind of reminds me of camping. Because even though it’s very it’s very, very green. It’s very developed, but you’re still surrounded by trees every lot is they require you to keep a minimum amount of green space. Yeah, I mean, it’s actually incredibly difficult to cut down a tree in Hilton Head and motorcoach resort. Yes. And, again, I agree with that too. Because before you know it, people just chop down all the trees because they want more space. And so with with Pacific shores, Oregon, like Lisa said, do your homework, get a realtor because we saw a couple lots and we were like, Oh my god, this is unbelievable. This is $80,000. That’s right, you can see the beach. And then we kind of walked down to the beach. And as we were walking to the beach, we realized that three quarters and well not three quarters, a quarter of that lot was gone, because a little clip had eroded.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And another this here’s a good tip. If you’re thinking about buying a lot in any one of these resorts, rent a place first and get to know the owners talk to people in the resort that own that’s what we did. That’s we did it every place we were when we were in Las Vegas, these nice couple saws walking around with our phones looking or Zillow app trying to find lots. They’re like, are you shopping for a lot? They were so kind. They picked us up in their in their golf cart. And they drove us around and they told us who owned what and what was the good deal. First of all, the inside scoop on everything. And those, you know, and that’s what happened to us and Hilton and we ended up buying one word of mouth. Because we you know, heard about it. And we heard from our friends and they said don’t buy this one because of this and buy this one because of that, and they can live there. So they know they’ve got the inside scoop. So

Lisa RichartHernandez
be outgoing, meet the people that are there, talk to them, and find out, you know, pros and cons to

George
trust me people will tell you the good stuff. And they will also be happy to tell you the bad stuff.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yes,

George
we’ve been to a couple campsites where people have told us things and we’re like, then why are you living here? And then they they say, Well, you know, the good outweighs the bad 90% of the time, but there’s always bad and everything and you just that’s what you want to know. You don’t want that surprise after you after you buy.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Right. There’s also a bunch more places being built in Florida that we haven’t really put on our list right now. But we were just kind of talking about some of the top 10 places your mountain falls. That’s North Carolina. Yes. is another one of the beautiful motorcoach resorts is in the mountains. We have not had the pleasure of staying here but all of our friends have that’s a it’s kind of a sketchy road to get up there on your in your big coach. But once you’re there, it’s beautiful. Although there’s nothing really around to do your corner there. They do allow casinos only have a big, I believe 18 hole golf course there at Mountain falls.

George
And again when Lisa says casinos, some of these are actual houses. I mean they’re massive. The ones on top of the hill 800 square feet, maybe think there’s some that are bigger than that.

Lisa RichartHernandez
It looked like about eight 800

George
is it Though the big house for what you’re getting, the views are incredible. Our friends that have gotten there said the drive up is a little sketchy, but obviously doable. And there that’s the one that I was saying earlier that there’s really not a lot to do around there except play golf and enjoy the scenery. I think there’s no restaurants nearby. There’s no shopping nearby. There’s it’s just a place to get away and relax.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I was just looking at the mountain falls website and it says mountain falls open year round. Did you know the drive to mountain falls got easier. road construction on highway 64 is complete and many of the tight turns leading up to the resort have been removed. That’s a cause for celebration. Okay, well, that’s

George
great. Obviously they they recognize the issue and take care of it.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. So it says enjoy winter sports at a local family. Ski Resort ski Sapphire is up there.

George
Driving my RV, spa and

Lisa RichartHernandez
wellness area. And you know some other things the so the prices at Mountain falls go from 225,000 to over $1 million. So $1 million would need iliyan dollars

George
for a lot

Lisa RichartHernandez
buy a lot to park your coach is those are the ones overlooking the edge. I think you know, it’s a gorgeous view. But it’s very new.

George
So everything is brand new. As a matter of fact, I think there’s an area that they’re a new phase that they’re starting to develop. That’s how new it is. They’re still building.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so they have private clubhouse pickleball bocce ball fitness facility, hot spa, on site, concierge laundry facilities, dog park, catering kitchen, organized outdoor pursuits, hospitality services, panoramic mountain views, nine hole golf course, two pools and bath houses, active social community and an on site rental program. So it’s not really excessive amount of amenities that they have there. But you’re looking for something in the mountains. But that’s,

George
that’s a good amount of things to do our friends that have been there love it. But when they go there, it’s to shut down and relax, where when they come to Hilton Head, it’s to go to the beach, and to go to restaurants and different things. So

Lisa RichartHernandez
each one provides something different. If you love the mountains, I highly recommend mountain falls in North Carolina. Another one that has been on our bucket list. And we’ve actually not even been able to get in for a rental is blue otter key RV Resort down in the keys and Florida. Yeah, and these are gorgeous, lots right on the water.

George
These are lots that when you back, you can either back in or pull in. And if you pull in your view out your front window is the water. Most of the lots are on the water. Some of them are on the back side, which is called the lagoon side. And you still see water, but it’s just a lagoon. But the ones that are on the water are absolutely beautiful. And each of these are privately owned. And there’s so much variety in what people have done with their lots. They’re beautiful suggest that you go on their website and just look at what’s available because it’s too much to describe. But it’s Yeah, like if you can even get in there like we started, we’ve never been able to get a reservation to stay. And the other thing is it rains but it

Lisa RichartHernandez
range from 495 to about 900,000 for an RV lots.

George
But those things if you’re looking at maybe an investment, like Lisa said, they are constantly booked. I mean, you got to book so far in advance. It’s not even funny. So if you own one, your chances are you’re going to be renting that thing out like crazy. And when you want to use it, you got a beautiful place and the keys. It’s I think, was it an hour from Key West.

Lisa RichartHernandez
It’s not a whole hour, it’s less than that it was to drive the drive to down to like Duvall street or whatever but right. It’s Yeah.

George
So it’s got its pros and its cons it’s you don’t have all the crazy traffic because you’re not in Key West. But you’re not really you’re not in Key West, right?

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, like we love Boyd’s campground. We always go there and that’s on stock Island, which is the closest kind of RV place to devall and it’s on the water and we really like it there but it’s you know, it’s $100 in nighters right. And the

George
only reason boys that make the list is because they don’t sell lots, they just rent

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yes, they’re just rentals. I was looking at Bluewater key and there was says annual assessments are 5000 per lot payable in two installments. So you know, we pay 750 a quarter so it’s a little bit more their real estate property taxes average 2500 to 5000 a year. trashed cable Wi Fi are included. Oh, this is another good point. Pros and Cons what’s included? We just got brand new Wi Fi at Hilton Head Island motorcoach resort. And if you’re a full timer and you own a lot, having great Wi Fi is super important thing,

George
especially for us. Lisa still working and she works from the RV. And if we don’t have Wi Fi, Lisa goes into panic mode.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, no panic mode is kind of lame or seem it’ll be like, get me out of here. We need I gotta IRA contracts. I gotta, I gotta review offers, I get it. Somebody’s got to fund this expedition. That’s right. That’s right. So that’s a definite thing to ask about. Most the time, like we pay our electric. But our water is included at hiltunen. And I’m looking at Blue Water key and it says, owners pay all electric and water. And they’re all individually metered. So pros and cons there too. Also, one thing that people may not look on talking about, but is you have to have usually an owner’s liability insurance coverage on your lot. We require in home that if you’re going to be a rental program that costs us about, I think it was about $600 a year, not too much. That’s not bad. It is another added expense. And if you’re looking at your expenses, and on a tight budget, or whatever you want to make sure you take in mind everything that all the expenses, all your expenses and what you’re going to be putting out there.

George
At every resort, we’ll be more than happy to give you a list of what’s included, what’s not included. Again, talk to the people who live there, they’ll be happy to tell you what the what their water bill is what their electric bill is, you know if the rental program is worth it. Yeah, people love to talk and they’ll be more than happy to tell you about their their little community. Yeah. One other place that we’ve never been to that I would really like to go to is desert shores Luxury RV Resort in California.

Lisa RichartHernandez
If anybody’s been there, please. And you’re listening. Drop us a message on RViewpodcast.com. And let us know how it is.

George
Let us know what you thought of it. All we’ve ever seen is their website pictures. We don’t even know anybody who has actually stayed there. But it is absolutely beautiful. And it is very close. So if you’re a music fan, and you go to Coachella, it’s within driving distance of Coachella. So I can only imagine what they get for those lots during that time. Yeah, so those lots go from 295 to well over a million dollars. But these things go on their website. I mean, it’s just unbelievable what they’ve done with a very small space. And they’re absolutely beautiful. Some of them have actually, most of them have swimming pools in their lap. So cool. I want to go there, though. Yeah, I mean, it’s, you know, it’s a soaking pool, but it’s still the pool. The the casinos are absolutely beautiful. And the location is right near everything. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So one thing we you know, we’ve this whole podcast we’ve talked about pretty much, you know, some of the top 10 Luxury RV resorts. And I realized that not everybody has a Class A B, or C coach, that maybe allowed into some of these parks, we have a lot of friends that have fifth wheels and other kind of campers. So if you are one of those people, and you know about some great resorts or places that you can purchase lots in, that allow these different types of things, I’d love to hear about them. We haven’t really experienced any of those. So I would love just to have that information to be able to share with our listeners next time. And if you have great information, we’d even love to have you on our podcast just to talk about it. And give

George
us tell us about where you live. Tell us about your RV Resort. We would love to come visit. We’d love places. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
let us come visit.

George
This is what our podcast is about visiting and traveling the country and telling everybody about RV resorts and the RV lifestyle. And if if you’re super happy with where you live and your RV Resort, please drop us a line calm our view, podcast calm, we’ll talk about it. And if we have the chance, we’ll come and visit you and talk to you at your resort about your why you love living there.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, it’s funny because we’ve mostly focused because it’s also freezing cold, pretty much everywhere, even including Florida, but we’ve mostly focused on things that are really in the south. And I also did do a little bit of research and saw some nice resorts that look like they’re up in Michigan and those areas. So I’m sure there’s a lot of things that are really nice, up north as well. And one thing I’ve been wondering about so if we have any listeners that can give us any information on this is saying in places that have winter, you know, like we’ve never brought our coach anywhere that it snows. I don’t really know what that would entail. But it’s just really interesting to me like if you live in Michigan like I’m originally from Michigan, I thought oh my god, it’d be cool. got there in the summer. But what are those people that own those resorts on those lots do in the winter time? Do they all come to Florida or

George
So one thing I learned just recently is that RVs are rated for weather. There’s some that are winter rated that will do fine in the winter and snow and cold conditions and others will not you will freeze your butt off. They have very little insulation. So whatever you own, look it up. And there’s a website somewhere that tells you what your RVs winter or weather rating is.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, that’s great. Yes,

George
that was very interesting, because it was on the tiffin motorhome owners website, okay, because there was a bunch of people that posted that they were up camping in the winter and there was snow and somebody asked, you know, that question, are you freezing? And they’re like, no, our coaches, whatever, a four rating for winter, and we’re perfectly fine. It’s you know, everything’s warm. Everything works great. You

Lisa RichartHernandez
know what that reminds me because when we went to back in the old days, two years ago, before, there’s when there was music concert, when we went to the Country Music Festival in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Remember, we saw all those really cool. It was like a flat square box. And we were like, what in the heck, what kind of RV is you know, what kind of trailer camper is that? And that was actually made to go out on ice for ice fishing. Yeah, really, really cool. It literally had like holes in the middle of the floor of the living room, we could just sit in your living room and ice fish. That’s so cool.

George
Those were really cool. And we got a chance to go inside one of them and the owner gave us the full breakdown. And they’re made specifically for ice fishing. But these people use them for everything concerts, camping,

Lisa RichartHernandez
we need to reach out to our friend

George
what was cool was when you pull that thing out on the ice, and when you get over your spot, the wheels hydraulically lift up into the body. So the whole trailer is sitting flat on the ice. That’s why you have holes inside the trailer that you open up and you drill your your fishing hole and you sit inside and the comfort of your trailer

Lisa RichartHernandez
trip like a fireplace. So cool. Yeah, I think we still have contacts from there. We need to reach out to them and see

George
Yeah, we got a lot of contacts that we got to reach out. And that’s one of the beauties of this RV lifestyle is we’ve met so many cool people that now you know, we tell our local friends, man, we got friends in California, we met friends from Oregon, we met friends from everywhere you name it, and you know, and we’re still in touch with them. And it’s it’s really, really nice community.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, we love it. We love it. Well, so if you have any questions about buying or selling an RV lot, especially to Hilton Head, that I can answer all those questions for you because I sell them there, but anywhere else in the country. We’re happy to tell you anything that we know or based on our experiences. And if you have information to share with us again, please reach out to us at RViewpodcast.com you can scroll down to the bottom there’s a place you can send us a message in comments. And we would love that. And while you’re at it, if you’re listening on your favorite, whether it’s Spotify or iTunes or whatever it is you’re listening on, just please like us. Subscribe to our podcast. The more followers we have, the better it is and hey, maybe someday I can retire and just travel all around doing our podcast telling you all about our great adventures and travel.

George
Sounds good to me.

Lisa RichartHernandez
George’s already got the keys in his hand. He’s ready,

George
ready to go.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Alright, thanks friends was great. And we’ll talk to you next week.

George
Bye. Thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you soon.

intro
Thanks for listening to another episode of Rview. Don’t forget to drop us a line at Rviewpodcast.com that’s the letter R view podcast.com and like, subscribe and follow us so you don’t miss out on our next adventure.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai