RV Park Underwriting

Did a number of RV park acquisitions a few years ago, although it's been a minute. I love the asset class and if I had more freedom I'd think about hanging out my own shingle and giving the asset class a serious run. Thoughts below. 

Super niche, so not sure if anyone here will have experience in this asset class, but has anyone ever invested or underwritten RV Parks/Campgrounds?

1. What does underwriting look like? Depends on what your strategy is. There are two primary buckets (although many iterations of each): running it like multi and running it like hotel. How you plan to approach it will impact how you underwrite the asset class. We ran them like hotels, so the underwriting was somewhat similar. Need to be on top of seasonality, different types of rentals (back-in vs. pull-in, tiny home, STR, etc.), and staffing. NOI margins will range depending on your strategy. Lot of the appeal of RV parks are the opportunities for ancillary income (propane sales, golf cart rentals, store revenue, etc.). 

2. What types of stabilized yields can be expected? See above. The REITs that play in the RV space are primarily operating them more like apartments, so yields for those are going to be lower. If you run it like a hotel, your revenue/NOI will be higher, but so will your cap rate. We made an absolutely killing on every deal we did in the space - massive yields and huge returns on the backend. Obviously, that will change over time. I'd expect a double-digit cash on cash out of the gate. 

3. How did you source deals? There are 4-5 brokers in the space, so primarily them. 

4. Is building a platform on this asset class possible? Is it scalable or too fragmented to build a portfolio? It is probably scalable, but there are a few issues you run into: (1) unsophisticated sellers...RV parks might be the most fragmented asset class going and you are going to be dealing with financials that are written on a piece of paper. There-in lies the opportunity, but it's a bitch; (2) debt is pretty hit or miss still, especially on a one-off. You aren't going to come across too many people that are knowledgeable of the space; (3) deals are typically very small, so you're only putting out a couple million at a time; (4) very little institutional management companies, to the point where you'll probably want to build your own once you get 5-6 parks in the fold; (5) the asset class will not scale until the IRS gives RV parks the same treatment as hotels and senior housing and allow taxable REIT subsidiaries to be used. Otherwise, you are very limited in how you can operate them and still utilize a REIT. 

Would appreciate any insight, even if you don't have direct experience. Just general discussion would be helpful. I've done a fair bit of research already, so can provide what I've pulled together if it would help. The biggest gap so far is underwriting - not sure how to model an RV park investment. 

Thanks!