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When most people analyze an RV park deal, they focus on the income. Occupancy rates, nightly rates, NOI, cap rate. Those numbers matter enormously. But there is a category of risk that does not show up cleanly on a profit and loss statement, and it has ended more than a few good-looking deals after close.

Utility infrastructure.

What is under the ground at an RV park can cost you more than anything above it. And unlike a leaky roof or a worn-out amenity building, utility problems are not always visible during a standard walkthrough. You have to know what to look for, what questions to ask, and what the answers actually mean for your future capital obligations.

Water

The first question is simple: where does the water come from? Municipal water is the most straightforward situation. You pay a bill, the city maintains the system to the meter, and your exposure is limited to what happens on your side of that connection.

A private well is a different story. You are responsible for the pump, the pressure tank, the treatment system, and the testing. You need to know when the well was last tested, what the flow rate is, whether it has ever run dry in a drought year, and what the repair and replacement history looks like. A well that serves 80 sites is not a residential well. It is a small utility operation, and it needs to be treated like one.

A private water company sitting between you and the municipal supply is the most complicated scenario. You are dependent on a third party for a critical resource, you may have limited ability to negotiate rates, and announced infrastructure improvements on their end often mean rate increases passed directly to you. Always get the full service agreement and rate history before you close.

Sewer

Municipal sewer is clean and simple. Connection to a private septic system on a property with significant density is neither of those things.

Septic systems have finite capacity and finite lifespans. A system sized for 30 sites that is now serving 60 is not just stressed, it is a liability. Before you close on any park with an on-site septic system, you want to know the system’s permitted capacity, its age, when it was last inspected, and whether there are any county or state restrictions on expansion tied to the existing system’s limits. Septic replacement or expansion at commercial scale can run well into six figures. That number needs to live in your underwriting model, not surprise you in year two.

Electrical

Older parks were often built with 30-amp service throughout. Modern RVs, especially larger Class A motorhomes and fifth wheels, run on 50-amp. If your park cannot accommodate 50-amp rigs, you are limiting your market and likely leaving rate premium on the table.

Beyond amperage, you want to understand the age of the electrical infrastructure, whether there is a master meter or individual site meters, and who is responsible for maintenance on the pedestals. Electrical upgrades across a full park are expensive and disruptive. Know what you are buying.

Why This Matters Financially

Utility infrastructure issues do not usually kill a deal outright. What they do is change the deal. A park with a septic system at capacity, aging electrical, and a private water company with a rate increase pending is not worth the same number as a park on municipal utilities with modern infrastructure. The income might look identical. The risk profile is completely different.

The right move is to get an infrastructure assessment as part of your due diligence, price any known capital needs into your offer, and build a realistic replacement reserve into your operating budget from day one. Parks that skip this step almost always find the bill eventually. The question is just whether they planned for it.

If you are not sure how to model utility capital risk into your underwriting, that is exactly the kind of thing a Fractional CFO conversation is built for. The numbers tell the story if you know how to read them.

And if you have not grabbed a copy of my book yet, 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗥𝗩 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿’𝘀 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 ($49), it covers the full financial and operational management framework for running your park with the discipline it deserves. You can get it direct here: wendipvifinancial.gumroad.com/l/kqmyb, or Amazon has it too, just search author Wendi Rook.

Read this next: “How to Analyze a Seller Carry Deal”

I want to tell you about a conversation I had that I have not been able to stop thinking about since.

I was talking with a woman who had recently bought her first RV park. She was smart, determined, and had done what most people never do, she actually pulled the trigger. She partnered up, found a park, made an offer, got financing, plunked down a big fat 1031 down payment, and closed. That takes courage and I respect it.

But as we talked, the story started to unravel. Not dramatically, not all at once, but in the way that a sweater unravels when you find the wrong thread and keep pulling. One issue led to another. An expense she had not anticipated, or agreed to. A revenue stream that was not performing the way the seller’s numbers suggested it would. An operational problem she was not aware existed during due diligence. A financial system that was not set up to give her visibility into what was actually happening month to month.

None of it was catastrophic on its own. Together it added up to an ownership experience that was significantly harder, more expensive, and more stressful than it needed to be.

And the whole time we were talking I kept thinking the same thing. If we had this conversation six months ago I could have helped her avoid most of this.

Not all of it. Ownership always has surprises. But the specific issues she was dealing with were not random bad luck. They were the predictable, avoidable results of going into a complex acquisition without the right financial guidance in her corner before she signed anything.

That conversation is a big part of why PVI Financial exists.

What I Kept Seeing

I have been in real estate for over 30 years. I have built and sold a seven figure real estate portfolio. I bootstrapped a seven figure business from $500. I have spent eight years as a private money lender, putting over $4 million into first trust deeds secured by real estate, which means I have spent eight years sitting on the other side of the table evaluating deals that other people brought to me and deciding whether the numbers held up.

That combination of experience gives you a very specific view of the market. You start to see patterns. And the pattern I kept seeing in the RV park and outdoor hospitality space was this: buyers were doing their homework on the real estate side and almost none of their homework on the business side.

They were evaluating the property. They were not evaluating the business model. They were looking at the broker package. They were not rebuilding the NOI from the source documents. They were getting excited about the opportunity. They were not asking who is going to help me set up the financial infrastructure to actually run this thing once I own it.

And then after they closed, many of them were figuring it out as they went. Which is an expensive way to learn.

The Calls Started Coming In

After I started sharing my background and perspective in RV park investor communities, something interesting happened. People started reaching out. Not one or two, multiple times a week. Buyers who were under contract and wanted someone to pressure test the numbers before they committed. New owners who had just closed and did not know where to start with the financial side. Experienced investors who were adding an outdoor hospitality asset to their portfolio and wanted a CFO perspective on the deal structure.

Every conversation confirmed the same thing. There was a real gap between the real estate transaction side of RV park investing, which has brokers, attorneys, and inspectors serving it well, and the financial and operational side, which most buyers were navigating alone.

That gap is expensive. I had watched it be expensive for the woman I mentioned at the beginning of this post. I had watched it be expensive for other buyers in my network. And I knew I had the specific combination of skills to close it.

What PVI Financial Actually Does

PVI Financial is not a bookkeeping company that dabbles in real estate advice. It is a fractional CFO practice built specifically for small business owners and outdoor hospitality investors who need the financial expertise of a CFO without the cost of a full-time hire.

I work with buyers before they close to rebuild the NOI from verified data, stress test the assumptions, and tell them what the deal is actually worth before they commit. I work with new owners after they close to set up the financial systems, the bank account structure, the chart of accounts, and the monthly reporting process that gives them real visibility into how the asset is performing. I work with operating park owners on an ongoing basis as a fractional CFO, someone who knows their numbers, advises them on key decisions, and helps them make better financial decisions month after month.

The woman I talked to needed all three of those things before she closed. She had none of them. And her ownership experience reflected that gap in ways that were painful and largely preventable.

Why I Am Telling You This

I am not sharing this story to make anyone feel bad about the mistakes they have made or the deals they have done without proper financial guidance. I am sharing it because if you are evaluating a park right now, or if you have recently closed and are trying to get your financial systems in order, I want you to know that this kind of support exists and it does not require a full-time CFO salary to access it.

The conversation that sparked PVI Financial was with someone who needed help she did not know to ask for. If you are reading this, you now know to ask for it.

Reach out at pvifinancial.com. That is exactly what I am here for.

And if you have not grabbed a copy of my book yet, 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗥𝗩 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿’𝘀 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 ($49), it covers the full financial framework for buying and running an RV park the right way from day one.

You can get it direct here: https://wendipvifinancial.gumroad.com/l/kqmyb or Amazon has it too, just search author Wendi Rook.

Click here to read: “I Have Never Owned an RV Park. Here Is Why I Am the Person You Want Looking at Your Deal”.