Start with the property, not the price
Owners often open with a number. We would rather open with the park. A 42-space park in Camp Verde with a private well, gravel roads and eleven long-term residents is a completely different transaction from a 240-space resort in Mesa with a pool, a clubhouse and three hundred reservations already booked for January. Price is the last thing that becomes clear, not the first.
So the first conversation is about what you own, how it runs, and what you want to happen next. Everything else follows from that.
What is genuinely helpful to have (and what isn't required)
Helpful when you have it:
- A rent roll or site list — even handwritten — showing which sites are occupied and on what terms
- Twelve months of deposits, a P&L, or the last business tax return
- Recent property tax and insurance figures
- Water, sewer and electric bills for both a winter month and a summer month
- A rough site map, a plat, or an aerial you have marked up
- Anything you know about the well, septic, lift station or electrical service
Not required to start:
- Audited or CPA-reviewed financial statements
- A survey, appraisal, Phase I or engineering report
- Completed repairs, resurfaced roads or a rebuilt bathhouse
- An asking price
- A decision to sell
Arizona owners tend to have one of three profiles
The seasonal operator
The park is largely a winter business. Revenue concentrates from roughly late fall into early spring, staffing swells and shrinks, and summer is spent on maintenance and reduced occupancy. Value work here is about the annual pattern, not the peak.
The long-term community
Monthly and annual residents, park models on site, some tenants who have been there for years. Revenue is steadier, but rate history, tenant documentation and how utilities are billed matter a great deal.
The highway or destination park
Nightly and weekly stays near an interstate, a lake, a national forest gateway or a recreation area. Revenue swings with travel patterns, and reservation data becomes central to the analysis.
Plenty of Arizona parks are two or three of these at once. Mixed parks with both RV sites and mobile home spaces are common and are not a problem — they simply get analyzed in two buckets.
How a direct conversation usually unfolds
- First contact. You send what you have. We ask questions and do outside research. No signs, no calls to your tenants, no announcement.
- Framing. We tell you how we are reading the income, what concerns us, and which transaction structures could realistically apply — cash, financed, seller-financed, partnership, or an introduction to another qualified buyer where that fits.
- A written proposal, if it makes sense. Numbers, timing and conditions in writing so you can show an attorney or CPA.
- Due diligence. Verification of income, expenses, utilities, permits and condition. This is where honest disclosure early on saves everyone time.
- Close. Through a title company or escrow agent, on a timeline that accounts for your season, your residents and your staff.
Timing around the Arizona season
Season affects logistics as much as value. Selling mid-winter means a buyer sees the park at its busiest and inherits reservations and prepaid seasonal rents, which have to be accounted for at closing. Selling in summer means a quieter transition and easier construction scheduling, but a buyer will lean harder on historical records because the property in front of them looks empty. Neither is wrong. Say which you prefer and why, and it can usually be accommodated.
What we will not do
- Tell you the park is under contract when it is not
- Claim we have cash, financing, partners or authority that we do not have
- Represent that we will personally close on every property we look at
- Pressure you into a decision or a deadline you didn't agree to
If we are not the right buyer, we will say so directly and tell you what we would do in your position. That costs us nothing and it is how we would want to be treated.
Educational information only. This page is general commentary about buying and selling RV parks in Arizona and is not legal, tax, engineering, environmental, appraisal or accounting advice, and not an offer to purchase. Requirements vary by property, county, municipality and water provider, and they change over time. Confirm anything that affects your property with the applicable Arizona agency and with your own attorney, CPA and licensed professionals.