So you're looking at buying a turnaround RV park. It's not perfect, needs work, needs physical work as far as making the property nicer. Also, it may need additional work as far as revenue, people coming in, cost control, all these various issues. And as you're looking over this playing field of what you're gonna do with the RV park, one of the first questions that comes to mind is, should I keep the existing manager? Is this the person I want to depend on as my quarterback in this transition from mom and pop's ownership to my own? This is Frank Rolfe with the RV Park Mastery Podcast. We're gonna talk about how you can make the decision whether or not to keep the existing manager. So here are some of the metrics we would look at if we're trying to decide whether that manager who's already doing that job, if they should stay in that position or if we need to have them replaced.

The first one would be looking at the current performance of the RV park based on capital constraints. Because sometimes when you're looking to turn around the RV park, one of the big issues are things like potholes and water and sewer line issues and the office and its condition and all these many things. But when you really look at that and let's say you say, oh, yeah, they look terrible. Well, did they look terrible because of something the manager did, or is that because the owners refused to inject the money in to get those things fixed? And often when you really reflect on that, it is, in fact, the owner, the person you're buying from, just refused to write the checks to get the potholes fixed, to get the broken window replaced. Some of your moms and pops, they just don't like putting money back into their properties, but that's not really the manager's fault. It wasn't that they couldn't contribute the money.

The problem was that mom and pop told them, I'm sorry, you have no money. And therefore, with no money to spend, there wasn't a whole lot they could get accomplished. Another thing is, can you fix the weak spots with better direction than what the manager has been accomplishing? In other words, is the manager the person who could have solved the flaws in the mobile home park if only they had done a better job of doing it? For example, if you talk to the manager and say, okay, now, on the dead trees there, why have we not removed those? And if they say, "Oh, well, it's because I just couldn't get the bids," or, "Well, I've been trying to get the bids for nine months now, but you know how people are these days, they just don't answer the phone." This lack of performance, if it's the fact that they didn't really push it, that's a terrible thing. Because if you're trying to bring the property back to life, take it to the next level, you need someone who can get the job done, someone who can break through the logjams and make things happen.

And if you sense that the manager is not really hard-driving, then it's probably not gonna be a good fit. Because they may have gotten away with murder with mom and pop, but is it gonna really work with you? Because you're trying to make this thing profitable and make it into a much nicer place to be. And if they don't have any power, then it's not gonna work. It's the old Warren Buffett saying that without enthusiasm there's no energy and without energy you have nothing. If the manager doesn't have any enthusiasm for their job, if they don't feel the need to give 110%, then you probably need to replace the manager. Another issue is people skills. People skills are so very important.

I know in the age of AI we all think the computers can do it all and that we'll just text everyone, never have any face-to-face contact again, but that's a bad strategy with RV parks. It's very, very much about people, keeping the customers happy, having good people skills. Does the existing manager have good people skills? That's something you probably already known in the first few moments of meeting them, whether or not they can, in a professional manner, meet with your customers. And if you say, oh, no, they were so awkward, so shy, then it's probably not gonna work out and you probably do have to, in fact, get a different manager. Also, what is their knowledge of the property? A good manager should be able to show you everything in one simple walking tour, show you where you can turn off every utility, turn on every utility, just explain everything about how everything works.

Yet in some cases, the manager has an alarming lack of knowledge. They don't really know about how to do anything, and then you come to find out they don't have this knowledge because mom and pop basically do everything, and they're too good-natured to fire the manager who probably isn't any good to begin with, but they've been going around their back and doing these things themselves because they couldn't rely on the manager to get it done. So when you go around the property asking the manager this or that or trying to get a tour from them, if they can't, in fact, explain to you how the property functions, then you definitely need to get somebody else. Because even though mom and pop may live on-site, you may not live on-site. And even though mom and pop live on-site and know how to do these things, they don't come with the sale. After the sale, they're probably moving somewhere else.

So you've gotta have a manager you can depend on who knows how to get things done. And if they have no knowledge of any of the property currently, then it's just not gonna work. Another big issue on whether to retain the existing RV park manager or not is simply the financial cost versus your budget, because many moms and pops are notorious for overpaying managers. Why do they do that? Why in the world would someone pay a manager, in some cases, six digits to operate an RV park when you can get somebody else in that job for the lower five digits? Well, sometimes it's occurred because simply over time they gave them bonuses, then another bonus, and another raise, another thing here, another thing there. It just kept adding up. They might have hired the manager at a reasonable amount 30 years ago, and then with continual inflation adjustments and other items, today the amount they're paying is absolutely absurd based on market standards, or sometimes they just simply get too friendly with the manager. The manager almost becomes their best friend, some cases their love interest.

We've had that happen a number of times when we've done our diligence. Whatever the case may be, you probably are not wanting to pay that much in excess of the market amount for a manager. And there's no way you can take an RV park manager that's making 100,000 a year and renegotiate them back down to 35,000. Even if they took the bait, they would probably try to embezzle the difference. So sometimes just the economic constraints of what the fair market is for labor sends the message to you you've gotta replace the manager. And then finally, rely on your gut instinct. People all have this inner feeling, we call it fight and flight as cavemen, that keeps us out of trouble, that tells us what's going on, that smells the element of danger but also smells the element of opportunity. What does that gut instinct tell you about this existing RV park manager? Is it telling you, oh, yeah, this person's really, really good and under new leadership they will rise to the occasion?

Or is it telling you, watch out, there's something weird about this person? We all have gut instincts on everything, but one of the best, the most accurate we have is, in fact, people and just reading people as whether or not they're good or bad. It may take some people more time to learn how they can look at numbers and have a gut instinct on numbers, whether these numbers are attractive or not. But most of us at an early age adopted this instinct for good people and bad people, for people we can rely on and those we can't trust. And you gotta summon that inner gut instinct a lot of times when making employment decisions. And just because mom and pop liked that manager, if you don't, if you don't feel good about it, so then you're gonna have to change it up because you're very reliant on the actions of that RV park manager, and you cannot afford to make a mistake. This is Frank Rolfe with the RV Park Mastery Podcast. Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.