In this video, we feature Clay Speer, the owner of Camp Rio RV Park in New Mexico. Discover how he transitioned from being a teacher, football coach, and single-family home investor to becoming a self-managed RV park owner. Clay shares his inspiring journey from Norman, Oklahoma to Cloudcroft, New Mexico, and explains how his family’s quality of life improved dramatically after he took on RV park ownership.
This recording comes from one of our RV Park Workshop Events, hosted by Frank Rolfe, a key figure in one of the largest RV and manufactured housing ownership groups in the U.S. Known for his fast-paced style and willingness to tackle any question, Frank leads an engaging discussion packed with valuable insights.
It’s loaded with knowledge for anyone interested in the RV park industry. Watch now to learn from Clay’s experience and Frank’s expertise!
Hear the Real-Life Experiences of an RV Park Owner - Transcript
Frank Rolfe: This is Frank Rolfe with RV Park University. I've got with me Clay Speer. He's got a property in RV Park called Camp Rio over in New Mexico. And we invited him on here to learn more about his experience in being a RV Park buyer and owner. So, Clay, are you here with us?
00:17
Clay Speer: I am. Thank you so much for having me. It's a treat.
00:20
Frank Rolfe: You bet. Well, Clay, let me ask you, how did you first think about RV Park investing? What was the spark that made you even think about the concept of an RV Park?
00:32
Clay Speer: Honestly, it was, you know, a bit of a road for me. You know, I started off in life as a teacher and a football coach, and I was on the proper side of the football, the offense. And you know, the word is, you take what the defense gives you. And that was very similar to how I ended up in New Mexico. And we'll get into that later. But, I left teaching and coaching to run an art gallery that I inherited and I saw that Amazon was killing that, so I got into real estate and I had a bunch of buy and hold single family homes. Well, I quickly learned that it's a lot easier and a lot less messy and more profitable to do short term rentals than it is a traditional single family home. And so when an investor came in and bought me out, I had some cash and I thought, well, how do I do this short term rental gig to support the fact that my wife and I love the RV and we want to travel the country in RV and how do we do that? And then I thought, well, dummy, you could buy an RV Park.
01:33
Clay Speer: And so that's when it started. And I'm actually a big fan of RV Park University because when I was doing research thinking, oh, well, you know, I could buy an RV Park, which, you know, you... I've listened to some of your other interviews and you do ask yourself, what am I thinking? What's wrong with me? What, what am I doing? I'm buying an RV parking campground. And so you leave Team Traditional and you go and you basically buy this park and you live a life that other people call vacation. And I wouldn't go back and I love it and I just to live any other way, it seems crazy to me now. And so my wife and I are very excited. And like all smart husbands, I went to the mountains before the beach because that was her preference. So here we are.
02:25
Frank Rolfe: And tell us more about Camp Rio, the RV Park you own. How big is it where it's located at, what are some of the debt... What's the data set on that?
02:32
Clay Speer: Sure. So it's not a dinky little park, but it's not huge. We have about 11 acres and we're split on a mountain. So instead of it being flat, it's kind of a split level park. The owner's cabin and a few glamping units are up top. But we have 38 RV spaces, 15 tent, four glamping and four cabins. So it's just enough to keep you busy, but not so much that, you know, you have to have this gigantic staff. And you know, it's been very much a learning process. But I, you know, I came out here and you asked location. So there's a ski village called Cloudcroft in southeast New Mexico. Before we bought the park, never heard of it, didn't know it existed. So there's a little park just outside the village in a town called Mayhill. It's kind of a town. There's five whole buildings in town. It's definitely remote. And so we came out here 2020 over Thanksgiving, Black Friday weekend and fell in love and made an offer and they accepted and here we are.
03:41
Frank Rolfe: And Clay, on the staffing side, obviously, you self manage this, correct? You're the manager.
03:47
Clay Speer: We do. You know, when I first bought the park, we still had our youngest daughter and you know, she was in high school and of course, she wanted to kill us because we moved her out here her sophomore year of high school and she was not excited to leave Oklahoma and go to New Mexico, 600 miles away. But it turned out really well for her. You know, now she's got a full golf scholarship at Western New Mexico University. So it was in her best interest. And it was one of those father's knows best type deals. But as far as staff, we decided that there's really no need since we're, you know, an owner occupied, if you want to call it that. Having a manager is just... And I could... That's a whole another interview about the philosophy of staff. But what we have now is hosts. Anybody who's been in this business for any number of years knows that it's a fairly nomadic work staff. And with that being just..., It is what it is. You know, you have good people that come and go by the very nature of this lifestyle and that is that they're going to be here for a few months to about a year, year and a half, and then they want to move on.
04:57
Clay Speer: And you can't get upset about it. It's just part of it So I guess the RV parking industry invented the whole nil thing for college football now. But, you know, you just... You smile and realize you're in a beautiful place. I get to work with my wife every day. You know, make positive things at dinner, but ask how your day was, because we both know how the day was, but it's a dream. We absolutely love what we're doing. Doesn't mean that if you put cameras around here, we might have the best reality TV show in the country, because something crazy happens about daily to weekly. And anybody who's walked mile in these shoes knows exactly what I'm talking about. But, my biggest advice is find out what works for you. Find out where you want to be, because, you know, it's real easy to get on various websites and go, oh, this one looks fun, or that one looks fun. You better want to be there, because due to the nomadic nature of your staff, never know when you're gonna get a text or a phone call, and it's, hey, guess what? We're moving on.
06:00
Clay Speer: You're like, hey, I'm back on three or four days a week. And so, you just. You just kind of roll with it, you know, but I get bored easy, so everything changing all the time. I love it.
06:11
Frank Rolfe: And obviously, you were a football coach, so you're good at managing people. What are some of your tips on managing managers? Even though they may be not permanent, but how do you... When they're. When they are there, how do you best motivate them? How do you get people to do better performance?
06:29
Clay Speer: Well, regardless of title, you know, everyone has their strengths. And so, when I first bought the park, I mean, I would say, before we get into the staff, when you acquire a park, I would definitely have a good relationship with who you're buying the park from. They have knowledge you just do not have. And listening to them and finding out, kind of the more of the history your park you know, the better. I could give hours of tips and tricks of what I've learned over the last four years, but thankfully, my predecessor helped me out a lot, and one of his big messages was, listen to your staff. You don't have to... None. He never said, do everything they say. He said, listen to your staff. And I think that's of huge importance. You know, being a former coach, you are in a leadership position where leaders don't just say, oh, I'm entitled, because I have a title. And you need to respect that. Your job as a leader is to find out what their strengths are and how you bring their strengths to the table. You know, there's no cookie cutter host or manager, and there's no point going out and trying to find them.
07:39
Clay Speer: So what you do is, like, right now we've got a gentleman on staff who, you know, he's retired, and he was big into landscaping and sprinkler repair. And by Murphy's law, we've had about four major pipe burst this winter due to cold. And thank God we had him around. I mean, you talk about a gift from God. The guy's amazing and he's really helped us out. But where my point of that is, is that's his strength. But instead of cry-babying around and saying, oh, we hit a pipe break, okay, what's the problem with that pipe? How do we mitigate that so we don't have to shut the whole park off when we have a leak? How do we say, okay, well, this guy's really good at what he does. Let's put valves in to shut off various rows in your park. And so that in the 20s row, if there's a leak at site 23, I don't have to shut the whole park down. Let's get this done to the point where we can just shut off the 20s row, go down to the frost free, unscrew it, put a new one in, wrap it in heat, tape, insulation, whatever the case may be with your certain climate, and, you know, use those strengths, whether you get a tree person and someone with an electrical background, someone who's just good with people, put them in the office, they need to be talking to people.
08:50
Clay Speer: And that's a lot like, what you asked about, about football and coaching is that, you know, Patrick Mahomes is easily going to set all kinds of records and be considered one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. But his line got whipped in the super bowl up front, and the Eagles are now super bowl champions. And so it's just one of those. You find the strengths in your staff and you let them do what they do well, now we all have to learn. Any good park owner is a constant student at YouTube University. Right now I'm teaching myself how to weld because we need that done, and I don't have anyone around. So guess what? I'm the gopher.
09:29
Frank Rolfe: And when you bought the first RV Park, you probably had some preconceived notions of what an RV Park was all about from an owner's perspective, how has the reality been different than what you thought? Like, what are some of the key takeaways that were gotcha moments and where you realized that what you thought was not in reality how things actually operate?
09:53
Clay Speer: You know, to be honest, I didn't really know what to think. I just... The only thing I really knew is that I knew I didn't know anything when we first bought the park. This is a true story. It's kind of funny. I drove 9 hours to come out here and meet with the owner. We were going to close, and I walk in and he goes, well, one of our booking agencies just called and said, congratulations on selling the park. And I hadn't told the staff yet, so there's kind of a little bit of a revolt going on when I walked into close, and I was thinking, oh, my God, what have I done? You know, and I was just shaking my head, but all I knew is I packed a couple extra pairs of underwear and socks and I was just gonna make the best of it, you know, regardless what happened. So I went from having to basically re-recruit my own staff to come in here. And we all have our, you know, preconceived notions of, oh, how hard can this be? You know, there's the places you make some bookings, family comes in and stays, and they leave.
10:50
Clay Speer: Well, that's the perspective of a guest. And I would say the transition from guests to owner is just knowing that, you know, you gotta kind of be a jack of all trades or hopefully, you know, think, thank my 11th grade English teacher that taught me difference between a jack of all trades and a Renaissance man. You know, that's the biggest transition, I would say, as a park owner, is you might be able to do a little bit of this and that, but the Renaissance man is actually good at what he does. So as you're learning these different things that need to be done around the park, you've got to challenge yourself that it, you know, it's constant learning. It's constant. You know, I may not know anything about plumbing, but now I do, or I don't know anything about electrical, but now I do. And you don't have to be an expert in it, but when you're an hour away from everything, you better be able to make some minor repairs and you don't have to know it going into buy a park. I didn't. And I've done all kinds of things to bring various amenities into the park, certain comforts.
11:56
Clay Speer: You know, I would say when you're buying a park, get a vision of what you want that park to be and get a vision of, you know, hey, these are the things that have to be done for this to be a successful business. But at the end of the day, we're in the hospitality industry, and you're here to create a wonderful environment or maintain it, if it's an established park, so that these families can build positive memories, friends can build positive memories together, and we can get as big and vast as we want. But at the end of the day, when people travel, they have choices, and they're going to look at reviews and why are they choosing your park? And that's the question you need to ask yourself when you're making improvements and you're growing a business.
12:40
Frank Rolfe: And what are some of your big drivers of profitability? Like, what are some of the things that you're doing that maybe the, the former owner didn't do to either drive your revenue or cut your costs? What are some tips you have on things that either through revenue maximization or, or cost reduction that push you forward? What are some of the tips you have on that?
13:02
Frank Rolfe: That's an excellent thing to talk to new buyers about, honestly. There's different philosophies, as we've already discussed and we're going to discuss. The guy before me was very much, I'm into organic. Well, one man's organic is another man's overgrown. And one of our artists used to talk about parking out a property, making it look like a park. And I think, first of all, you got to figure out, are you going to be more of an overgrown or organic? Is that going to be your philosophy, or do you want it more clean? One thing I am, is I'm about clean. Keep it tidy, keep it clean, keep it tailored. What I learned, and I'll get into some of the more specifics you asked, is it was about year two or three that I had these young fathers coming up to me and their new shiny RV and they talked about how they'd come to this park as a kid. And so while you're evaluating everything, you have to realize that you're the captain of the ship, while you're here, what started off as a rock quarry and, you know, the Lewis is on this park for 28 years.
14:14
Clay Speer: They did a bunch of things with infrastructure and things like that to make it a nice park, Royce furthered those infrastructure things before me. And so now that I'm the captain, it's my job to analyze and evaluate, okay, what might have been great 20 years ago, analog cable at every site, was now it's digital. So now it's just copper wire in the ground and it's worthless. You know, yeah, you could dig it up and trash or gravel, but the profitability is not there to take that down and melt down the copper. So, you leave it. The biggest number one thing that I think kick started everything for us was Wi-Fi. You know, it's very, very common in this industry to say Wi-Fi in a park needs to be something where someone can receive a text or check an email. Well, that's a nice thought. But the reality is, you know, and I believe I learned it here with you guys when I... Because, I mean, I studied for a year. I didn't watch TV. I studied RV parks for a year. I listened to any piece of information I could get.
15:17
Clay Speer: And before I went in, I was like, I may not have any experience, but wisdom versus experience, I can at least take a little wisdom in, even if it's from other people, before I can get my experience. And so the number one thing I did was work on Wi-Fi. And there's all these numbers like, well, what do we do? You know, there's an old philosophy that the wealthy only spend money when it's on sale. And so when I got a hell of a deal to redo the fiber optic across our property, which I'm embarrassed to say what I spent on that, to call it a deal, but, you know, I think there was only 50 or 100 megs of Wi-Fi in this park when I bought it. And they thought that was a big deal. Well, one deal came along and I bumped it to 200. Another deal came along and now we're at a full gig. So everyone's device went from 7 megs per device to 28 megs. And that's just one thing that, you know, where we, we price shopped, we made sure things were the most affordable. You know, can this service be provided? You know, you have to analyze everything.
16:20
Clay Speer: And that's coaching. That's just, you know, being successful in life is, nothing's just, oh, well, we've always done it that way. I guess that's how we're going to do it. You know, if it's not broke, don't fix it. But that's your job. When we were talking a few minutes ago about, listen to your employees, listen to your guests. And when I saw these guests coming in and they were frustrated because, you know, a lot of the people who travel are in their '60s and '70s, but we're seeing more and more young professionals. I mean, you don't think of it as a camping thing, but they've got a Honda Civic with a pop up dome tent in the trunk and they're cruising the country, you know. We're on Route 66 and people stop by here all the time doing that. And I giggle because next morning they've got their coffee and they're on their laptop on your picnic table and you're going, good for you. You know, I wish I was as smart as you when I was your age, but I would say Wi-Fi definitely make sure that you have that balance of people, have that nature fix of camping, have that outdoor experience, but yet they're not going to get away from their Wi-Fi, not in today's times.
17:29
Clay Speer: And so that's one thing that I would say is huge. The other thing are conveniences. You know, you don't need to have everything in your store. You don't need to have every little thing. But people forget toothbrushes, people, they come in, they remember everything but salt. So having some basics in your store, it's like anything, like a website or anything. The longer they're at your site, the longer they're at your location, they're going to spend money there. You know, one thing we walked right in and did was branding. And so this park originally had a name that was that long. And just because it was near Cloudcroft and that was a more known area, he called it the Camp at Cloudcroft. Well, when I came in here, I was the bad guy because I bought the Camp at Cloudcroft and it was in Mayhill and everybody was furious. And so I just went team happy and I just put a thing in the local paper and did a vote, say, name the park. Well, Camp Rio won. So here we are. And so now we're branding Camp Rio. And so that's what those are just some things of just figure out where your finish line is, is what I would tell a new buyer.
18:42
Clay Speer: You know, it doesn't matter what your name is or anything, but listen to resources like RV Park University. It's just too valuable. You know, all that wisdom you can take in, all that whole waking up at 03:00 in the morning, oh God, what did I Do I just put all this money down on this part for a deposit and I close in 35 days or 40 days or whatever. What am I going to do? Well, instead of worrying, learn. And that's my biggest message is learn, learn. And then realize, don't know anything and learn some more. And so, that's huge, because whether you like it or not, when you go in and buy an RV Park, you're the leader. You're the one everyone's going to turn to. Whether you do or you do not have the answer. You might want to at least know where the resources are. And so I was really big the first year on don't make any major changes. Sit back, shut your mouth, listen, and just get to know your clients, get to know your guests. One big thing we do is we do a weekly newsletter.
19:42
Clay Speer: Today's Wednesday, so guess what I get to do? We get off. I'm writing the newsletter. I almost just added you all to the newsletter, but I thought I'd be polite and ask permission first before I blow up your inbox.
19:52
Frank Rolfe: Oh, sure.
19:54
Clay Speer: But, you know, we... When you talk about profitability, I would sit back and really look at your weather and look at different events for people to have fun. One of the things we do on the major summer holidays, which are always so busy, same thing. Instead of people leaving your park, you know, we try to keep them in to have some fun. And so we've got a river flowing through our park. So of course, like any grown man, I got some rubber duckies and we float them down the river for fun. And we have our triple clown instead of triple crown. I hope the real organization doesn't come after me for having fun at their expense. But we do that. And, we've added a nice machine and we our current things for this winter, because in the winter, when we're slower, we do projects. We're going to expand our laundry room and make it bigger and move our office to make it nicer. And then we're going to be building something so that we don't have to winterize the ice machine I bought, another convenience. You know, people need ice. And even when it's the off season and people go hunting, hunters actually use more ice than regular campers.
21:02
Clay Speer: And so that's one of those things of, make it convenient for your guests and they're going to stay longer. You need to realize you're in the hospitality industry and the more comfortable they are and the happier they are, the longer they're going to stay, which is more profitable for you. So that may be more information than you wanted, but...
21:22
Frank Rolfe: No, that was great information. What are some of the key amenities people want? You know, a lot of RV Park owners are always struggling trying to walk the fine line between being amenity rich and not having enough. What are some of the key things people like to do when they're at Camp Rio? What are some of the top activities and things?
21:39
Clay Speer: You know, the previous owner wasn't as big into campfires as I am. I just... It's just a personal thought and position. I think you're being ripped off if you don't get to have a campfire when you camp. And that's just... That's how I like to travel. So I would definitely say, don't just get junk wood. We're in New Mexico, and New Mexico is a very cool state. I'm an Okie, so it's not like I'm a Homa, and I'm from here. I just really like New Mexico. And so certain things like green chilies and pinon and things like that. So what... One of the things we did was, instead of nickel and dying people over. Here's one log. Here's four logs. I just said, let's just have two packages. A starter kit and a weekender package. And we just made these bigger fire packages. And so as we trim trees around the park, you know, there's parkwood. And then I make sure I have a good... Because a lot of people come here, they cook out, they relax. They want to get away from everything. So don't cheapen that experience. You know, try to make those small experiences the best they can be.
22:51
Clay Speer: And that's why these certain amenities, it's like, okay, well, how do we make this better? You know, when I got here, the river was overgrown. We cleared it out. Now it's a recreation area. People can, you know, I'll try to go out there and mow some morning. And there's six people in zero gravity chairs reading a book in the shade by the river. I'm like, well, that's how you get a one star review. I'm not mowing till this afternoon, [laughter] and you let that go. But with the campfire, you know, give them the parkwood and be generous. Give them extra starter stuff. That's, here, thank you for being here. You know, give that to them. And then when they get their wood package, have the pecan and say, cook on this so your food's better. And then when you come back out to relax at the end of the night, throw the pinion on, it's gonna smell great. And you know when, if we're talking profitability, when Joe Blow down there has a nice pinion smoke going, you're getting jealous. And you're like knocking on the manager's door going, hey, I need one of those wood packages.
23:44
Clay Speer: Well, sweet. You just sold more wood. You know, the river is a huge attraction for people. Laundry is big. That's why we're changing our laundry, our whole laundry deal, to make it 24/7 access. You know, a lot of times, even when people arrive, they can't control when they get off work. You know, they get here when they can get here. And if your laundry room shuts at 06:00 and they need, you know, they, they need to do some laundry, I want that to be open 24/7, so that if they're an early riser and they get up at 04:00 or 05:00 in the morning, get your laundry going, you know, whatever. Simple things too, you know. And for a new owner, I didn't even know this till I'd had the park two years and I was trying to help someone else buy a park. There's services you can partner with, and I think that'd be great for the audience to know. There's services with laundry where you rev share. And rev share is a great concept if you're trying to get into glamping and things like that. It's a zero money way for you to work with someone who may have a unit to pop in.
24:47
Clay Speer: So rev sharing. The laundry, we're adding, you know, tires are big, especially if there's altitude changes. Having a 24/7 air machine, that is a rev share situation as well. You don't have to pay to put it in. They maintain it, they work it. They can work the air because, you know, when people go up, down the mountains, their air pressure changes. And that makes some people, when they're driving, very, very nervous. You, you know, and it's a safety thing too. So I would just, you know, the Wi-Fi, the air, the laundry, the firewood, ice. I mean, ice doesn't seem fancy, but ice and clean drinking water are huge. Even for the people who have the desk, the countertop ice machines, and their RVs having clean water for them to get to put in there is another way to keep bringing money in. So we've even added a food truck to our park too, as well. And that makes it very convenient for people when they travel in because they pull in. We've all traveled by RV. We know it doesn't always go according to plan. And tempers can be a certain way when you arrive to the park.
25:54
Clay Speer: So while one person's setting up the trailer, the other person comes over and 15 minutes later, they've cracked their first beer and they're having dinner. You've got to make it as easy and comfortable as possible for your guests. And, and just watch, you know, be a person of the people. Get down there, talk to people. Trust me, they'll give you their feedback. Some of it you want to hear, some of it you don't, but you've got to listen.
26:22
Frank Rolfe: And what do you use for software?
26:25
Clay Speer: So our booking software is Campspot. And when we got the park, and I would tell everybody, don't be nervous, you know, don't, don't think you have to do all this stuff. But we're Campspot fans. As a matter of fact, that's where my wife is right now. She's on a training session to do promo codes. Right now, the only promo codes are in the newsletter where I make fun of myself. Like last week I said, you know, promo code. Clay has friends, even though we don't do promo codes and Clay has no friends. Just mentioned that we're running a Valentine's Day deal. We'll take care of you. So, you know, that's another deal too, is we've tried to be the fun place to be, but Camp Spot's very good. It can integrate merchant services, and their deal is actually a lot less and more affordable than a lot of other places. And so we like that. But as far as booking services, I mean, it's, there's a mountain of them out there, that you can register your park with and that'll help drive everything in. So we haven't really used others.
27:39
Clay Speer: We've been approached by some, but it seems that our staff is easy to, you know, easily trained on it. They've got good training videos for staff, which takes a lot of pressure off you as an owner. You're still going to have to do some in person training with them, but they have a whole certificate. You can get, you know, where you can go on there and learn. And heck, we've had hosts that are smarter about Campspot than we are as the owners, and we just give them a high five and tell them, good job.
28:08
Frank Rolfe: And of the different types of customers you have, you've got people there to camp and you've got people in RVs and you may have glamping going on. What are some areas that you see are high growth right now? And then what are some areas that are maybe losing their appeal? Is there a hot niche of the niches or what do you see?
28:29
Clay Speer: What I've seen, and it's been pretty consistent over four years, is, yes, couples travel, but before you spend a dime on any kind of glamping thing or cabin, you know, there's a lot in this area in particular, you need cabins or you need glamping because not everyone has an RV. Not everyone wants to sleep on the ground in a tent. There's people who maybe want to dip their toe in the water. And so a cabin or a glamping is a really nice thing to have in your park and you don't have to sell out to it. But Valentine's Day is coming up and our cabins and glamping units are completely sold out. But the RV Park is only half full. If that kind of lets you know that, you don't know, again, how people are going to shop, how they're going to want to travel. And so having a little bit of everything to have that money coming in, you know, is super important. But as far as, do I see anything dipping or gaining in popularity, what's been most consistent is heads and beds. Generally, a family is going to travel or one couple calls another one, hey, let's all go camping together.
29:41
Clay Speer: And we haven't seen each other in 10 years. Let's get together and go camping or whatever the case may be. Heads and beds is too important. But perfect example, here at our park, we had a gypsy village right next to a teardrop unit. Both of them slept too. Never rented. I mean, we're talking 10 camping nights a year. And I'm thinking there's got to be a higher and better use for these two things. This all goes back to what we talked about earlier, about listening and watching and evaluating every aspect of your park and your business. And what we did is we took that teardrop, we drug it up to the gypsy village, and now it's a two bedroom. Heads and beds. It sleeps four where you have your own... In a glamping unit, you have two bedrooms. And then we advertise it that there's some extra dirt there, that it can be a three bedroom and it has space to add a tent. And the growth in that site alone has been huge, not even comparable. And so here's another deal. And talk about less is more. You know, we have three tent camping areas.
30:52
Clay Speer: We have stargazing mountain view and we have our river, but you're by someone and there's people who don't like that. And so honestly, we couldn't afford to put anything in the old teardrop spot yet, so we just called it preferred tent glamping. And all of a sudden now that thing rented more than when it had a teardrop there because people bring their own tent in and they're like, hey, we're away from everyone. And they love it. And so, again, just listen to the guests, watch what they want, and you don't need to sacrifice your vision or a safe family environment, but give the people what they want. You know, if they want to tent camp over here, that's farther away because they're away from people. Give them what they want. Let them tent camp there. And it's, honestly, it's the cheapest thing we ever did. We just move something and it's dirt and people are renting that dirt like crazy. And so just getting what they want.
31:47
Frank Rolfe: Now the former owner had it for what, about 30 years, is that correct?
31:51
Clay Speer: So I'm the third owner, the first owner had it for 28 and he converted it from a rock quarry where they're mining rocks here, which, it's so pretty here. I'm in my office, you know, but it's so pretty, you can't imagine this being a rock quarry. And then the next owner had it for six and you know, he was going to get into Elderberry, so that's why he sold the property. And then he's told me about 50 times since he wish he would have never sold it to him. And he regrets it. And I told him, I said, I'm glad you did because I love it here and I plan on being here forever. So, it all worked out. But that's, that's what I was saying earlier about the captain of the ship. You know, we've done all these things to, to clean up the park. One of them is very simple too. And you know, look up, don't just look flat, look up. And we had some low lying tree branches and every time it rained or got windy, I mean, my stomach was in a knot like, oh God, don't hurt anyone's air conditioner.
32:55
Clay Speer: And it was not fun. It was a lot of work. But we went to Home Depot and rented a 35 foot boom lift. And we got up in that sucker and we raised the canopy of all of our trees. You know, not to kill the shade or kill the environment and everything that makes it nice to have trees in a park, but we lifted it so that it wouldn't beat up their coaches. You know, no one thinks it's funny when their air conditioner is getting nailed, and no one thinks it's funny when they're having to go up and repair their roof because you didn't trim some trees. And so we thought we had about eight, nine widowmakers. When we started trimming the trees, it was well over 100 of them. So, the safety isn't just making sure the ground's safe for everyone. I mean, really look at your park. You know, look up or, oh, hey, is that a big old tree branch about to fall down and hurt someone? I mean, you gotta take care of those things. You know, the safer people are, the better. You know, regardless of amenities or attractions or events, number one, make sure people are safe, period.
34:00
Frank Rolfe: Do you think it's possible your daughter will come back someday and take over the RV Park or what do you... What are your thoughts?
34:07
Clay Speer: So we have two kids, our son and our daughter, and they love it out here. They think it's kind of funny to work the land, but the real joke is I save all the really hard things for when they come in because they're younger than me, but they love it here. You know, it's nice because we try to talk to our kids every day on the phone, even though, you know, one's in Oklahoma in flight school and the other one's golfing in college. On the other side of the state, we try to, you know, we're a close family. We try to talk to them every day because we love our kids. We think they're awesome, and I encourage them to follow their heart and be everything they want to be. And, you know, with one kid being, working at the boxing commission, trying to be a pilot, and the other is chasing her dream because, she wants to work with a pro sports franchise, and she's a kinesiology major and a golfer, and, you know, they see mom and dad and they're like, well, y'all went out and bought an RV Park and you're living your dream.
35:02
Clay Speer: Why can't I live my dream? And so, you know, it makes us feel good as parents to kind of put our money where our mouth is, so to speak. They may or may not come back and run the park. I have no idea. I told them, I just said, look, by the time we croak, we should have this thing paid off and it will be a cash cow. You all listen to us fight the battles we fought over the years and you'll come in a lot smarter than we are. So you know, when they're home and they come back to see us, they like to, they like to help out around the park because this isn't your typical, you know, non western civ in college. You know, it's hey, what needs to be done? Well, you want to take the propane tank up there and burn off some weeds? Oh yeah, let's go. And you know, they're playing with fire, they're having a great time. And I'm not carrying around a 20 pound tank with a torch and smelling like funky weed, burn. You know, they are and they're having a blast doing it.
36:00
Clay Speer: So you know, there's just all kinds of stuff that you know, need to be done all the time. Whether it's welding or, you know, building cages around your trash can so the raccoons don't give you a good morning. You know, when you wake up every day, you know, we're doing stuff like that and building, you know, fire pit grill combos. I mean, there's always projects, there's always fun stuff to do. And I like it when they come back to work it and whether they sell it when we're gone or whether they come back to work it, you know, I've had a blast so far. I'll keep having fun and you know, I just, I want them happy. If being here running the park makes them happy, great. If not, they can sell it and invest in what makes them happy.
36:44
Frank Rolfe: And what's your personal five or ten year plan? Are you going to try and expand that property? Are you going to buy another property? Are you just going to keep it as it is and keep fine tuning it?
36:55
Clay Speer: Probably this property in particular, unless one of my neighbors budgets, we're landlocked. There's like a arc around us. If I could buy out either one of my neighbors, I would love to because we could really expand this park and make it a lot bigger. But my wife and I always thought that we'd at least have a bookend situation if not a series of them. Now I've gotten involved in the park. I realize a series of parks would just, you'd have to have a general, I mean, that's a whole different conversation and structure of how you do a business. But we'd at least like to have another investment property or park by a big body of water, be it a large lake or an ocean or something like that. I'm the water guy, she's the mountain girl. But I love the mountains. You know, I'm happy as I can be here. If this was it, then I'm perfectly fine. You know, longevity of health doesn't really run in our family. People don't get to be old age. So I've always told people, I'll be turning 50 this summer, and when I'm 55, whatever I have as far as an investment, that's it.
38:09
Clay Speer: I'll live on it. And I'm just trying to get as much stress out of my life as possible. You know, eat right, be active and healthy. And if Camp Rio is it at 55, then that's it. If I find something else where I'm asking myself, oh, my God, what am I doing? What did I do? You know? So, I guess my five year plan is if I acquire something by the water, great. If not, I'll just go vacation there and come back to my little haven here and be happy as I can be.
38:40
Frank Rolfe: So, Clay, do we really appreciate you sharing your story here, because there are a lot of people out there who, like, you were back when you had an idea about RV Parks, but they're not confident enough yet to take action on that. And so it's great hearing your story because there are people who will watch this and say, wait a minute here. Yeah, I can totally identify with what Clay is saying, and maybe this may be the spark that helps them push up, push them over the top into actually doing something. So we appreciate that you probably have learned from your experience so far that, you know, most RV Park owners are very friendly, affable people who are very, very willing to talk to people, particularly people who are getting into something and give them a lot of good advice. So we appreciate you giving back as well.
39:31
Clay Speer: My pleasure. And I'm an open book. Anybody who watches us and wants to track me down and ask me a question about it may be something very specific. They may have 80% of their research done on a property. And, you know, they're like, okay, what would you do? Whatever, you know, being a former teacher and actually what I was teaching is I was a special ed teacher. So I had kids who, they were labeled as learning disabled, but they were highly intelligent, and sometimes they just had to learn differently. And there's no right or wrong way to, you know, buy an RV Park or run an RV Park. You know, that's what my mentors, Walton Dan, told me about the art galleries. One day, you're gonna put your thumbprint on it. But it's like any recipe. You know, 80% of every recipe is the same. 20% is you putting your thumbprint on it. And so anything I can do to help anyone else out, I know I would have loved it if someone did that for me. And so if I can do that to give back or help anybody out in any way, you know, I'm here, and I'm an open book.
40:37
Clay Speer: I'll be very honest. It may not be what people want to hear, but I'll be very honest and helpful, and anybody needs help, I'd be happy to help.
40:47
Frank Rolfe: And, Clay, what if someone does want to reach out to you and ask you questions? What's the best way to reach you?
40:53
Clay Speer: So here's another learning thing. I'll give my email here, and I just say, shoot me an email, and we can start the ball rolling and talk that way, you know, you try to be real smart and think things through, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. So my email is [email protected]. And you'd think the word A-T would be simple enough, but everyone wants to put two @ signs in there, so it actually is not that smart of an email. So it's camp, like campground camp, and then the word, [email protected], and because we thought. You can obviously tell, we thought we're going to have a string of these RV Parks. And when it was camp at Cloudcroft, I was like, oh, hey, camp at CEO. That's smart. So when I add the new ones, I'll just say camp at the new location. Well, four years later, I'm having to spell out A-T instead of have everybody put two @ signs in there. So, another thing you learn, you just... You deal with it. You move on.
41:56
Frank Rolfe: Well, Clay, again, we really appreciate you being here. You don't have to. And it's really nice of you spending your time here to educate people for about an hour here on your real life experience buying an RV Park, which is never obviously the same as the theoretical concept, but it's people sharing that information, like you, that helps further the narrative for people of how it all really works. And so we really appreciate you being here. And again, thanks everyone. We know everyone has time to do many other activities, but we appreciate everyone being here and devoting this time to this discussion. And we hope everyone learned a lot. So thanks for being here, everyone. Thanks, Clay. And we will talk to everyone again soon.
42:36
Clay Speer: It was a pleasure. Thank you.