Holiday Weekend Repairs

A holiday weekend is supposed to be quiet, right up until an RV tenant calls saying the power is out, it’s getting dangerously hot, and they’re sitting in the car with their dogs. I’m Travis Wells, and I’m sharing what a real “day in the office” looks like when you own and operate an RV park and you’re self-managing while building a growing park portfolio. The details matter here, because the difference between a $50 check and a blown-up maintenance budget often comes down to how you respond in the first five minutes.

We talk through a common trap in RV park property management: assuming every electrical complaint is a pedestal or park wiring problem. I break down my thought process for staying calm, sending the right person to verify the issue, and setting expectations when the problem is actually inside the tenant’s unit. From there, the day escalates with a major water leak and a fast plumber dispatch, plus the practical rule that protects you in emergency repairs: get the price before digging starts.

The bigger takeaway is vendor management. I explain why you need multiple reliable people, when to use a handyman versus a licensed plumber or electrician, and how to stop getting gouged by building a preferred vendor list. I also share how we track vendors by park and city inside an operations tracker so the system works even when the team is off.

If you’re serious about RV park investing, mobile home park operations, and running lean without cutting corners, this one will sharpen your playbook. Subscribe, share it with someone who owns property, and leave an honest review so more operators can find it.

Transcript

Fourth Of July Porch Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Happy 4th of July, everybody. Sitting on here on the steps with my pups. See my blind one behind me. So yesterday was a day that a park owner has, you know, quite often, but it was like one of those days, right? So, of course, it's a holiday weekend and my team's off. So I'm like, no problem. I'll handle the phones, I'll handle the calls. Y'all, you know, that's what happens when you're a business owner, right? Y'all take the day

No Power Call From RV Tenant

SPEAKER_00 0:33

off. So, like in the morning, I get a call that uh there's an electrical. Oh, it's actually like early afternoon because it started getting hot. There's an electrical issue. An RV, uh, one of our RV tenants at one of our spots was like, hey, it's getting super hot. Uh, we don't have any electrical, like, none of the nothing's working, right? And they're freaking out. They're like, we don't know what we're gonna do. We're in the car with our dogs. Like, you gotta get somebody out here. I'm like, okay. And my park manager had quit, which I I, you know, mentioned in a previous episode. And but she's like good with electrician stuff. And I was like, hey, can I pay you 50 bucks to uh to go check this out before I call an electrician because it's probably like something stupid. And she checks it out and it ends up being something wrong with their RV. So I pay her the 50 bucks and I put the 50 bucks on on their account. You know, I just text them, hey, you know, it ended up being on y'all's y'all's unit, which interesting enough happens quite often. Right? Like people are like, oh, it's your pedestals or whatever, you know, we hooked up, it's not working, and it's like something with their unit, you know. Um, but I bill it back to them if that happens. And I talked about having like reliable people, and I'm gonna talk about it a little bit more, like several of them, so you're not like just screwed when you when something like that happens. Like a whole vendor's list, which on this particular park, it's a new park that we've only owned a few months, so I'm still building that vendors list, so it's a little tough. Um, we have people at our other parks on speed dial, but then like later in the afternoon, I get a picture or a

Water Line Leak And Fast Dispatch

SPEAKER_00 2:20

video, and there's water going everywhere. There's like a major leak in one of our lines, and I'm like, what the hell is going on today? Um, luckily, my assistant saw the message because I was in a one-on-one call with a client and he handled it. He dispatched, you know, a plumber out there that he uses, and uh they charge us 450 bucks, which is not bad at all. I thought it was gonna be worse because it's you know it's holiday weekend, but luckily it was Friday, so they didn't charge us the extra call. It wasn't after hours. Usually if stuff's after hours, if like it's on weekends, you get charged like double, triple, it's crazy. It's like 450 bucks, no big deal. I posted on my socials, just like another day in the office, right? But um, I'm like, how the hell did this happen? They're like, tree roots, probably. I'm like, today, you know, but that's just part of it. You know, people don't I mean, some people do, but a lot of people don't talk about actually operating these things. And you know, some of them might have outside managers, and we self-manage because we have our own property management company. While I'm building a park portfolio, I'm also building my management company, right? That way. So we are the managers whenever we buy the stuff, you know, and and back to like having reliable people, like you want electricians, plumbers, handymen, and if if it doesn't need a permit and handymen can handle it, then look at this dog. She's like, What are you doing, dude? If they can handle it, you know, let them handle it because it's gonna be like way cheaper. All right, and I can't like preface that enough. I can't emphasize that enough is like finding good, reliable, like handyman, handy women, whatever, that can do stuff that doesn't require a permit. And then, you know, use use like your plumbers, your electricians, your licensed people for the stuff that you absolutely

Stay Calm And Get Quotes

SPEAKER_00 4:24

have to. But here's like my thought process when the person called with the electrical. I'm like, okay, is it the wiring? Is it the pedestal? Like, is it the plug? Like, in my head. But that's why if somebody go out there and check it out. But instead of panicking, because these people on the other end of the line are panicking because it's hot outside, right? They have dogs, they're sitting in the car and they're like, something's wrong. It's like, stay calm and like think through it. Call a few people, get quotes, don't go with the first. If you do have to call like a company, don't go with the first people just because it needs to get done right away. Like, don't get ripped off because you will. And I have been ripped off plenty, that's why I'm telling you that. And like people on my team know, like with that plumbing issue, it was deep in the ground. Like, they had to dig, it looked like three or four feet deep. You know, people charge for that. He had he had a helper with them, you know. But they were done in like two hours, so their the price was reasonable. But like my assistant knows, and I reminded him, I'm like, make sure you get a price before they start digging. Which which he did. He already handled it, he knows our thresholds, he knows what we'll spend, you know. Um just just super be careful with that. People get eaten up alive. I see like PLs all the time because I'm always looking for parks. I see people's PL PLs and I see their maintenance and I see that like crap like this happens. Like water leaks are normal, electrical stuff's normal, things happen, but they get gouged over and over. And you'll probably get gouged once or twice. But but you know, just set the precedent with people that hey, I'm gonna give you repeat work, all right, but I need you to be super fair with me. And when I mean fair, it's like you're gonna be working, doing a lot of work for me.

Handyman Vs Licensed Trade Pros

SPEAKER_00 6:12

You know, we I mentioned in a previous episode that I found um a handyman or my assistant did that lived in our park, and he's actually building the steps on two of our tiny homes right now, and he's doing a great job. So we're giving him these kind of jobs to see how we like them. And I actually asked him first. I sent him a text, I was like, hey, because I didn't want to call my old park manager. I'm like, hey, do you do electrical? And he's like, No, I don't feel comfortable with it. I'm like, cool. Do you do plumbing? Yes, but the uh leak, it's like four feet down, and I don't do digging. I'm like, okay, so in that case, we gotta call an actual plumber. So we don't have any person that could, you know, do that. So I hope that that you got something out of that. These things do happen. You do have random stuff, right, that's gonna pop up. Don't freak out, think through it, get costs, right?

Vendor List And Operations Tracker

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Then build your inventory. We have a I call an operations tracker that I built, and it has our whole vendors list in there per park per city. So that way, even if my team's off, I can go in there and I can look, which they're not off all the time, but then they can look. Who's our preferred vendors? They don't put anybody that gouges us in there. We have preferred vendors in there that we build up, and it's really easy at some point, right? Just like a text. Hey, go check this out, and we know they're not gonna charge us like out the ass.

Where To Follow And Support

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Thank you for hopping on today. My name's Travis Wells. This is the Property Profits Podcast. You got to enjoy it with my pups if you're watching this. Uh, on the video version on my front porch. Happy Fourth of July once again. Follow me on uh Facebook. You can DM me on there, Instagram, Travis Clay Wells, YouTube, give that thing some love. We're trying to build it up. And um, you know, share this podcast with a friend, a family member, anybody you think can benefit from it. Leave me an honest review. I'd love a review. I know it's a pain in the ass because you gotta figure out where to hit the review thing, wherever you're at on this. But reviews help the algorithm push this out. And if you think it's helpful, it'd be helpful for other people too. Honest review. Leave me questions, comments, concerns, ideas for other episodes you might need help with. Till next time, see ya.