How much is my RV park worth? The real math buyers use
Forget price per acre. Forget what your neighbor says he got. Buyers, lenders and appraisers value an RV park one way:
Everything else is noise. Here's how to get each piece right.
Step 1: Get your real NOI
Take every dollar the park brought in over the last 12 months: nightly, weekly and monthly sites, cabins, store, laundry, propane, fees. Subtract every operating cost: utilities, payroll, repairs, insurance, property tax, software, marketing. Do not subtract your mortgage or depreciation. What's left is NOI.
Here's where owners get burned. If you mow, clean bathhouses and run the office yourself and don't pay yourself, a buyer will add a manager's salary back as an expense. Your NOI just dropped. Count it now so the number holds up.
Step 2: Pick the right cap rate
Newmark's 2026 Valuation & Advisory survey puts Class A and B RV parks around an 8% cap rate and Class C parks around 9%. Smaller parks with deferred maintenance, septic or big seasonal swings trade higher, often 10-12%. A higher cap rate means a lower price. See current cap rates and real listings →
Step 3: Do the division
$150,000 of NOI at a 9% cap is $1.67 million. The same park at a 10.5% cap is $1.43 million. That 1.5-point swing is $240,000, and it comes down to condition, clean books and reviews.
What moves your value fastest
- Sub-meter your monthly sites. If electric is included for long-term guests, you're carrying a cost a buyer will capitalize against you.
- Price your premium sites. Waterfront, pull-through and shaded sites should carry a $5-15 nightly premium.
- Fix the guest mix. 30-50% monthly guests covers fixed costs and steadies cash flow without killing peak-season rates.
- Clean up the books. Two years of P&Ls that match the tax returns are worth more than any amenity.
Every $10,000 of NOI you add is worth roughly $110,000 of value at a 9% cap. That's why the 18 months before a sale matter more than the 18 years before it.
What the calculator can't tell you
Septic capacity, flood zone, zoning and permitted site count, local comparable sales, and whether your revenue is repeatable. Those are where a park's real value gets made or lost, and they're exactly what we look at in a confidential review.
Cap rate figures: Newmark 2026 North American Market Survey, as reported by Business Valuation Resources, March 11, 2026.