Busy Mom Flips RVs for Fun and Profit

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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When you think about becoming a reseller, just buying stuff for resale, you might think about clothing, or electronics, or textbooks, or collectibles, maybe some other items as well. But all of those things, or at least most of them have something in common, they are relatively small in size. If you're gonna buy a bunch of stock to ship, it helps to be able to put it all in a closet, or in a small storage unit, or some other small space. Today, you're gonna hear about something different. What about flipping RVs?

That's correct, RV, recreational vehicle. Definitely does not fit into a closet. Now, if it sounds intimidating, keep in mind that each RV bought, refurbished, and resold yields an average of $6,000 in profit. For the stay-at-home mom you'll hear about, and she's often able to flip one in less than a month. The story is called "Busy Mom Flips RVs for Fun and Profit." And that story is coming right up.

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Stay-at-home mom, Sarah Limp, has many irons in the fire. With her time split between caring for five children and running her DIY blog, she often tries to take care of both responsibilities at once. Many of her activities involve making handmade items with her kids, and then sharing the process with her readers. Over the years, she had built a loyal following. But one day, Sarah took things to another level.

Her family had purchased their first RV and found that it was in horrible condition. Their first thought was that the $1,700 they'd spent on this 1956 vintage trailer was a bad decision. But determined to make the most of it, they renovated that RV and started going on road trips, the very purpose for which they had bought it. A few years later, this RV having served its purpose, Sarah listed it for sale on Facebook Marketplace. To her surprise, it sold that very same day and for a significant profit.

This discovery opened up a whole new world. If she could sell her handmade products, Sarah wondered why she couldn't sell refurbished RVs. Having lived on a tight budget, she had plenty of experience and a lot of fun fixing things up and making them look nicer. But there was also another reason. Sarah knew that there were women out there who were intimidated by the idea of picking up a hammer and also some male podcast hosts.

Let's not talk about that. Feeling that she owed her readers a duty to inspire them, Sarah set out to start a hustle flipping RVs. The first step was scouting out deals. She used Facebook Marketplace, the same platform where she'd sold that first RV. Research was key and Sarah read up.

Before long, she knew the differences between a trailer vehicle and a motorhome, the difference between a class C and class A and many other details. She also learned on the job how to actually renovate the vehicle itself. Working on that first RV had given her confidence. And when it came to specific tasks, such as wiring a 12-voltage light fixture or installing a new breaker box, YouTube was her best friend. See, listen, I don't even know what that means.

By the way, 12-voltage light fixture, this is why I don't renovate RVs, okay? But again, this story is about Sarah, not me. The first intentional Renault project took three months. And since then, she's only gotten more efficient. Today, Sarah is able to flip at least one RV a month.

And on average, each one sold brings her $6,000 in profit. How about that? With increasing expertise and experience, Sarah is also able to share the best tips with her readers, everything from pricing an RV to knowing what to look out for when inspecting a vehicle before purchase. She knows that she would have saved a lot of time and money if she had this knowledge when she first started. So she's found a whole new wave of readers with the series.

The best part of the experience has been the chance to make real money without sacrificing quality time with her children. Sometimes she's able to involve them with the work, other times she tackles her tasks while they're doing something else. If you visit her blog, you'll see photos of the whole family, along with plenty of images of RVs getting ready for sale. [Music]

All right, let's look at this story a bit more. First of all, congratulations to Sarah.

I love this project. And my first thought here is that an RV's size presents a barrier to entry. So a barrier to entry can be a benefit actually to someone who's able to overcome it because it limits your competition. Not everybody out there is gonna go out and start buying RVs for renovation and selling because it's hard. It takes a lot of space, it takes capital, it takes knowledge and so on.

And if you're able to do it, you don't want that barrier to be removed because it actually protects your status in the market. It's kind of like using your frequent flyer miles to book partner awards, which I won't go into too much detail here because it's kind of a tangent. But typically some awards are bookable online, but others you have to call for. And a lot of people don't even know that. They don't know that you have to call for certain awards, so they never try.

Whenever an airline changes the process to make more awards bookable online, it helps some people because all of a sudden, all the people who didn't know about calling now see those options, but it hurts other people, the ones who knew they had to call, and were willing to go through a process that sometimes requires patience. So that's why a barrier to entry, like a really large RV, can benefit somebody who's able to figure it out. All right, before I go, I want to give a shout out to my friend, Colin O'Brady. His book, "The Impossible First", has been on the shelves for a while. It is now a major, major bestseller.

You may have heard about it already, but if not, check it out. It's called "The Impossible First". It tells the story of him crossing Antarctica alone, the first solo independent unsupported journey, which he did about two years ago and survived and succeeded. So the book is a memoir of that journey, and it really is just a truly triumphant heroic story. So check it out.

Colin O'Brady, "The Impossible First". Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1130, episode 1130. Thanks so much, and be sure you're subscribed. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School".

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From the Onward Project.