Stop Buying Things. Start Buying Assets that Pay for Themselves⏐Ep. #281

Summary

Podcast Summary: “Stop Buying Things. Start Buying Assets that Pay for Themselves” | The Koerner Office, Ep. #281 | March 10, 2026

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Episode Overview

Host Chris Koerner chats with multipreneur David Stilson about running small-scale rental businesses that generate recurring income from tangible assets. The conversation dives deep into the logistics, opportunities, and challenges of starting and scaling rental ventures—including tote rentals for moving, RV rentals for travel, and podcast studio rentals. The tone is practical, curious, and collaborative, offering actionable insights for listeners looking to build side hustles or replace consumption with ownership.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Rental Business Model: Low Overhead, Recurring Revenue

• Rental businesses allow you to purchase assets that can be monetized multiple times, as opposed to selling products once and restocking.
• David has explored multiple niche rental opportunities, from moving totes to podcast studios and RVs, and emphasizes starting small with manageable risk.
• Quote:
  “What I love about small rental business is you can start easily with very little capital and you have an asset that you can rent out again and again.”
  — David Stilson [00:00]

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2. Deep Dive: Tote Rental Business

Genesis of the Idea

• Sparked by needing boxes to move his own house, David found an untapped opportunity in Fort Wayne, IN for renting totes (sturdy, reusable moving bins).
• Initial investment was low; compared buying consumer-grade totes or bulk-ordering from wholesale suppliers.
• Launched the "Totes on Loan" website, started with a single pallet (~120 totes).

Go-to-Market Strategies

• Used Facebook Marketplace, then shifted to networking directly with realtors and moving companies for traction.
• Leveraged local "Real Producers" magazine to identify and connect with high-volume realtors through print ads and networking events.
• Developed a subscription program where realtors gift tote rentals to clients as housewarming presents.

Product Features & Logistics

• Branded packaging with realtor recognition ("This move is powered by...").
• Built a backend system allowing realtors to manage and “claim” tote packages for clients; unused credits roll over.
• Focused on easy logistics: rental, delivery, pickup, and streamlined upselling for customers needing more totes.

Monetization & Growth

• Pricing: 20 totes for $99 retail; discounted to $60 for realtor clients (bulk/subscription).
• The “buy more when you oversell” model minimized excess inventory risk.
• Client acquisition is mostly in-person networking; high close rates due to hands-on relationship building.

Quotes:

• “The rule is we only buy totes when we oversell.”
  — David Stilson [08:52]
• “Realtors are paying you on a monthly subscription so they can gift that subscription to their clients?”
  — Chris Koerner [05:23]
• “We see the platform [like Outdoorsy or RV Share] as a lead gen source. Their cut is huge, but repeat customers can be acquired directly.”
  — David Stilson [22:11]

Timestamps:

• Origin Story & Market Sizing: [01:15–03:22]
• Marketing & Subscription Model: [04:02–06:43]
• Logistics & Tech Stack: [06:43–08:38]
• Unintended Use Cases & Expansion: [10:10–11:44]

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3. RV Rental Business: Asset for Profit (and Occasionally, Fun)

Getting Started

• David began with personal RV use, financing through combined means, then bought a second RV for exclusive rental use after learning from a Facebook group.
• Focused on a “pull-behind” Jayco Jay Flight travel trailer, around $20k purchase, $400 monthly payments.

Marketing & Booking Process

• Listed on Outdoorsy, RVShare, and similar platforms; Facebook Marketplace for local leads.
• Importance of good photography (even iPhone shots) and specific model selection (bunkhouse for more guests).
• Did thorough market research: messaged other owners for real revenue data; in Midwest, base rental season is June–October.

Financial Outcomes

• First season yielded $7,000 in rental revenue (after platform fees); more than covered finance and insurance costs.
• Repeat business grew in the second season, especially via direct booking on their own site to avoid platform fees.
• Emphasized customer experience with thorough orientation, delivery, and unlisted instructional YouTube videos.

Scaling & Challenges

• HOA restrictions limited expansion; discussed consignment as a method to grow fleet without upfront purchases.
• Preferred asset types: simple, reliable, “feature-light” (no slide-outs or fancy extras to break).

Quotes:

• “You have an asset you can rent out again and again. You’re not selling something and then you have to go source more.”
  — David Stilson [09:20]
• “The best sellers are bunkhouses—sleep the most, don’t cost much more, and broader market.”
  — David Stilson [16:38]
• “I really feel like if this were a business—just a business RV—and especially if you hit scale, like, it’s a really, really good business.”
  — Chris Koerner [23:46]

Timestamps:

• Getting Started, Choosing Assets: [13:38–16:59]
• Market Research & Networking: [17:24–18:55]
• Season Revenue & Platform Fees: [20:13–22:34]
• Customer Experience, Avoiding Pitfalls: [24:59–28:55]
• Types of RVs & Buying Decisions: [29:06–32:26]

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4. Podcast Studio Rental: Turning Passion into Side Hustle

Origin

• Built out a high-end studio initially for personal YouTube/music interests (“My Dad’s Radio”).
• Realized potential to monetize as a location and service for bands, podcasters, audiobooks, and video production.

Unique Local Competition

• Fort Wayne is home to Sweetwater, with 400+ “direct competitors.”
• Differentiates by offering combined audio/video production for social content rather than just traditional studio work.

Business Model

• Side hustle status: Ranges from ~$200 to $2,000 a month in revenue depending on clientele/projects.
• Considers pivoting to serve podcasters and live video creators as an evolution.

Quotes:

• “It was a little bit addictive. So I just had a bunch of gear, I had the studio and so I just opened it up to bands, people that need mixing, mastering…”
  — David Stilson [33:25]
• “There’s like, what, 400 direct competitors to me. The worst place you could do this.”
  — Chris Koerner [34:26]

Timestamps:

• Studio Build-Out & Monetization: [32:31–34:31]
• Differentiation & Market Fit: [34:31–35:12]

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5. Universal Rental Lessons & Advice

• Start simple. You don’t need massive capital or volume to begin.
• Use research: Validate demand, reach out to other operators, and learn from online communities or local groups.
• Focus on recurring or multi-use business models: Find ways to create subscription or repeat business (e.g., realtor tote gifting program).
• Prioritize customer experience: Build processes and infrastructure that minimize headaches—for you and the customer.
• Be open to consignment and collaboration to scale without over-leverage.

Quotes:

• “Don’t be afraid to reach out to people that are already doing it. You’d be surprised how open and friendly people are to help other entrepreneurs in the space.”
  — David Stilson [36:40]
• “You can start low tech. You don’t have to be fancy about this stuff… just, you know, do some research around what you think you can rent out.”
  — David Stilson [36:04]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Worst case, we have totes for the rest of our lives. Best case, the thing takes off and we need to go buy more totes.”
  — David Stilson [02:48]
• “I love multipreneurs such as myself.”
  — Chris Koerner [37:07]

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Resource Links & Next Steps

• Guest: David Stilson, X (Twitter): @DavidStilson
• Chris Koerner / The Koerner Office: Podcast, business tips, and ideas at TKOPOD.COM
• Platforms Mentioned:
  • RV rentals: Outdoorsy, RVShare, RVeasy
  • Totes on Loan: [totesonloan.com] (URL not directly shared in episode)

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For New Listeners: Actionable Takeaways

• Consider rental business models as low-risk, potentially high-reward; begin by solving your own problem and seeing if others will pay for the same solution.
• Network in person (especially in local markets) and seek recurring or subscription-style clients.
• Research markets by talking to other operators, using platform listing data, and watching trends on Google.
• Build basic but reliable tech for logistics, credits, and upsells as you scale.
• Don’t hesitate to reach out to successful operators—most are generous with advice.
• “Start buying assets that pay for themselves.” (Paraphrased theme of episode)

Transcript

[David Stilson]

What I love about small rental business is you can start easily with very little capital and you have an asset that you can rent out again and again you're not selling something and then you have to go source more goods. I started looking for boxes and found tote rental was a thing. Worst case, we have totes for the rest of our lives. Best case, the thing takes off and we need to go buy more totes. We immediately had to buy another 120 because we overbooked. And the rule is we only buy when we oversell.

[Chris]

What do you know about the rental business? Not real estate rentals, but renting, other stuff, moving totes, podcast studios, RV rentals. Well, I met a guy from Fort Wayne, Indiana that does all kinds of different rental businesses. He's a multi preneur. So I sent out a poll to my audience and said, what types of rental businesses do you want to learn about? You guys told me loud and clear. And so I found a guy that's running businesses in these spaces. The rental business is great because it's low overhead. You learn a lot of different skills while doing it. You can scale it, you can use platforms to grow it like RV share, outdoorsy, or you can use Facebook Marketplace to grow it, or you can push paid ads to your own website to grow it. Many ways to skin this cat. So please enjoy this rental business episode with David. Tell me about tote rentals. Why is that an opportunity?

[David Stilson]

Okay, so we decided we're going to buy a new house, so we need to move. So we put our house on the market. When we started packing the house to stage things, I started looking for boxes. I'm one of those that I don't want to get used boxes and go to grocery stores. And I'm like, I'm just too lazy. I don't like hodgepodge boxes. So I started looking at like wholesale boxes. Loosely exploring, like, could I do a box selling business? And found tote rental was a thing. So there's a company in Chicago that does it, which is near us. Indianapolis has one. It's really big out west. But Fort Wayne didn't have any providers that did it. So I was like, okay, well how much is it? You know, I was doing the math in my head. I'm like, I could buy, you know, those yellow top, you know, industrial totes for seven bucks a pop. They were on sale. I could buy, you know, a hundred of those, 700 bucks, rent them out for $2 a piece. And I was just doing some basic math with chat gbt too. And like, how viable would this be? The cogs are really low. And so I just threw up a website immediately.

[Chris]

And this website, this is us.

[David Stilson]

Yep. Totes on loan.

[Chris]

Okay.

[David Stilson]

So what we ended up doing instead of getting like the. The consumer grade totes at Home Depot is we found us a. There was a random video on YouTube where a guy was like, I run a tote rental business and here are my suppliers. And it was like a real quick snap of like three wholesale suppliers of totes. So I paused the video, looked up the companies, found out they cost about 12 bucks a piece, but you have to buy them by the pallet. So it's like 120 totes. Okay. To get the price break.

[Chris]

1500 bucks or so per pallet.

[David Stilson]

Yeah. With shipping. And I also found out one of their warehouses is an hour from me and they always have about a thousand totes on stock at any one time. So I'm like, okay, let's buy a pallet of totes. Worst case, we have totes for the rest of our lives. For any time we ever move again. Best case, the thing takes off and we need to go buy more totes.

[Chris]

Yeah, it sounds like me at Buc EE's. Like, worst case, I'll fill my pantry full of junk food for a year. Best case, I have a new business. I mean, a lot of awesome businesses start out with that kind of hypothesis, right? Uhhuh.

[David Stilson]

Yeah. And let's just test it. And so it was admittedly a little slower to start. Like I didn't get immediate validation. We put up some Facebook marketplace posts before we even had the totes. I was doing the. This is when I was deep deeper into your content was like, sell it before you have it. So literally like, hey, we rent out totes. Hey, Nano Banana, make a bunch of images of me carrying, carrying this tote download product image. No picture of me. You know, it looked, it was obviously AI and that kind of didn't do anything. So we, we took a more manual approach and started actually networking locally with realtors and, and moving companies. And that's when we actually got traction.

[Chris]

How did you get their attention? Because everyone wants a realtor's attention.

[David Stilson]

So there's a magazine in our town called Real Producers.

[Chris]

I love low tech marketing tactics.

[David Stilson]

Yeah. And so Real Producers, it's a very niche magazine that highlights and they're in every town. You probably have one in Dallas, Fort Worth area. They highlight the top producing real estate agents and then they also run networking events. So monthly they'll have one or two events where you can show up as a vendor and just. Just rub shoulders with. With Realtors. So that's. We leaned into that heavy. So the magazine gives you a printout of, like, here's, you know, 50 realtors. Here's the volume they did. Here's the average home sale price. Here's, you know what I mean? Like, awesome data that you can just snap a photo of and say, hey, let build a campaign around contacting these realtors. And then my wife would just reach out and say, hey, let's do coffee. And she would go to all the networking events. And yeah, we just. One of the things our real producers, manager of the. Of the magazine for our said was like, you guys got to have a subscription program. You need recurring revenue. He's like, and realtors love to give gifts, and they love unique gifts. So we're like, okay, let's make a realtor gifting program. So now we. Now we have realtors signed up on a monthly basis that pay basically a subscription to gift moving boxes to their clients for closings.

[Chris]

So realtors are paying you on a monthly subscription so they can gift that subscription to their clients?

[David Stilson]

Yep.

[Chris]

As, like a housewarming gift.

[David Stilson]

Yep. Here's 20 totes for your move. And then we. We have like a. A pouch on the side of the tote, and we make a nice printout. This move is powered by so and so from Coldwell Banker or what, you know, whatever real estate firm. And. And we. We deliver the totes. The people move. We don't want to handle any of the moving or packing.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[David Stilson]

And then when they're done, we go pick them up.

[Chris]

So logistically, how does it work? So how much is a. A realtor paying you every month on average for something like this?

[David Stilson]

So we do two per month and five per month packages. If they did two per month, we discount it heavily. So you'll see, like, we charge $99 for 20 totes. They pay 60.

[Chris]

Right.

[David Stilson]

And we do two at a time. So they do 120amonth at the base, you know, tier. And then they can go up to like three or five hundred a month, whatever it is. For five rentals. Five times six is. I can't math right now. 300. We had one realtor immediately that was like, well, I just want to pay for the whole year.

[Chris]

Like, okay, yeah, cool.

[David Stilson]

All right. So.

[Chris]

So.

[David Stilson]

And we had to build, like, a way to track that. So I've built software around this whole business.

[Chris]

So if you. Okay, so if a realtor is paying for 100 totes a month or whatever. What happens when they want to give some of those out? Like, logistically, what do they do?

[David Stilson]

Yeah, so we built a claim portal so they have their own agent login that they can go in and see how many credits they have. They can create the gift order in our system.

[Chris]

The credits rollover if they don't use them.

[David Stilson]

Yep, yep. And then when the customer redeems it, I built an upsell mechanism so the customer gets 20 totes free.

[Chris]

Because they probably need more.

[David Stilson]

They might need more. So what? The way we did it was your realtor gave you a $100 gift, so the realtor paid 60. You get 100 to spend towards a bigger package. If you want more totes, basically is how it works.

[Chris]

So you open the magazine, you see the high producers. Your wife reaches out to them via text, and what does she say?

[David Stilson]

Oh, she. She reaches. Um, she actually meets them in person at the events. They have a monthly event. We. We haven't actually done any cold outreach yet.

[Chris]

Mm, interesting. So she sees who they are beforehand and then shows up in person at the event, hands out a business card. Here's who I am. Here's what we do.

[David Stilson]

Let's have coffee. Let's talk about it. Let's show you more about what we do.

[Chris]

Yeah, man, that's brilliant.

[David Stilson]

Do.

[Chris]

Do you have any numbers on, like, what her success rate is or close rate is?

[David Stilson]

Man, I wish. I wish we were that sophisticated.

[Chris]

I have to think it's pretty high if you're doing it in person and they're high volume. Like, it's not just a realtor, It's a realtor that is already paying for gifts. So you're just asking them to be a little more unique and pay for your gifts, right?

[David Stilson]

Yeah, if they've. If they haven't subscribed. What we've seen so far is they will try us out first. So, like, kind of just by one. It's a slow real estate time of year here too, so there's not a lot of closings happening right now. So they'll be like, let's try one. And then it's like. Then the light bulb clicks because it's like the customers rave about it. They're like, all these totes were awesome. And the realtor loves it. We had one realtor say, like, I love how hands off. The gift was for me because you guys just took care of it. You delivered them, you picked them up. Like, I didn't have to do anything. I just gave you the info and you took care of it.

[Chris]

Yeah. How is this going? Are you booked? Are you expanding the business?

[David Stilson]

Yeah, so we. We started with those 120. We immediately had to buy another 120 because we overbooked.

[Chris]

Wow.

[David Stilson]

And so now we're up to almost 400 totes.

[Chris]

That's amazing.

[David Stilson]

And the rule is we only buy totes when we oversell.

[Chris]

Yeah. Yeah.

[David Stilson]

And hopefully we don't oversell on a weekend because we can get the. I can get an order to. From the warehouse that I mentioned within 24 to 48 hours.

[Chris]

Yeah. I mean, so we're talking podcast studio rental, tote rentals, and RV rentals. So you're in the rental business? Yeah, I just. I guess I just found the package for this episode.

[David Stilson]

Yeah.

[Chris]

What. What do you love about the rental business? What do you hate?

[David Stilson]

I love that we can start small in rentals because my wife has always wanted to do property ownership and like, you know, go that route with being a landlord and renting out property. But that's a substantially larger investment and a lot of risk. What I love about small, small rental business is you can. You can start easily with very little capital and you have an asset that you can rent out again and again. It's not. You're not selling something and then you have to go source more. More goods and whatever. I like that aspect of it where it's. And I like the. The, I guess, niche nature nature of doing several small rental businesses as opposed to being like Sunbelt Rentals, where we just rent everything, Right?

[Chris]

Yep. I mean, you could, you could add anything to this. Like, you could start, like you could start renting tables and chairs to weddings. Right. Or stuff like that.

[David Stilson]

Yeah. It's been interesting people how they use the totes that we didn't foresee. Like, they find. They find uses for them. Like we had a wedding planner call us and say, hey, I've got a bride who. They have a venue. We have to bring all of the centerpieces in for the tables. But boxes won't work because they're, you know, for whatever reason. Like. Yeah, I mean, it's a great use case. We had another guy, he moved 180 gallon fish tank because all of his coral and everything had to be like, you know, in water and. And his fish, obviously. So boxes obviously don't work for that.

[Chris]

Yeah. I would think that like your biggest quote unquote competition for this is just the fact that people don't know this is a thing that it's possible. Right. My Mind doesn't go there if I'm moving.

[David Stilson]

Yeah. Awareness marketing is kind of the. Because nobody's searching for this. The best search term I've kind of latched onto is like moving boxes.

[Chris]

Well, let me, let me show you something. I just went to Google Trends. I typed in Tote Rental 2004 to today and look at that. For those listening, basically up until 2011 there were, there was zero search volume and then there's a good bit in 2017 and then it is up into the right. As of right now the like the relative score is a hundred out of 100. And some people misunderstand how Google Trends works. This doesn't mean that like oh, we've peaked. It's going down now. It's like no, like if 10% more people search tote rental next week then it would, next week would be at a hundred and then this week would be at 90.

[David Stilson]

Right.

[Chris]

So this is exactly what you want to see in a Google Trends chart.

[David Stilson]

That's amazing.

[Chris]

Tidal wave is on your side. I mean I think people are sick of throwing away Amazon boxes. It just doesn't feel right, you know?

[David Stilson]

Yeah. So well and we, and we tried to price it so you know you can buy box kits from like Home Depot for 3, 400 bucks for you know they have like a four bedroom box kit. It's different sizes and things but you still have to get rid of those or and you still have to tape all the boxes and put them together. We actually had a box open up on us when we moved last. So it's just like we, we were done with it. Like we just don't put boxes anymore.

[Chris]

Yeah. So I'm starting to run paid ads directly to my newsletter because right now it's where I'm seeing the most potential. Because here's the thing. Social platforms don't let you own anything. The algorithm changes and your reach disappears. Email is the only channel where you actually own your audience. And Beehive is built for people who are ready to grow bigger than ever. It's got a built in ad network. Sponsors come to you directly through the platform. You approve, you get paid. You pay no platform fees on paid subscriptions. Whereas substack takes 10%. Beehive takes nothing. And now you can sell coaches and coaching directly to your list. You don't need to stitch five tools together. Beehive lets you do everything in one place and, and you pay zero commission forever. Name another newsletter platform that can do all that. I've been on Beehive for over Two years. And it is, without a doubt, one of the biggest reasons my newsletter is growing like wildfire. So go move your email list over to Beehive now and get 30% off your first three months at beehive.com, chris. That's B E-E-H-I-I-V.com, chris. So you started with buying an ember pull behind RV for yourself for your own use, and you finance that through a bank and through your 401k. And what is your monthly payment on that, give or take?

[David Stilson]

It's about 400amonth.

[Chris]

Okay, $400 a month payment. And then you came across this Facebook group for people renting out RVs, and their first bit of advice was don't rent your own. So you went on the hunt for a second RV that could. You could use only for business. And you found a Jayco class C. Right.

[David Stilson]

A Jayco Jay flight travel trailer. So it's another pull behind.

[Chris]

Okay, Another pull y. And you paid about 20,000 for that, and you financed that one as well. Okay, so what's your payment on the Jayco, your business RV?

[David Stilson]

So it's about 400amonth? Yeah, it's about 600amonth for the Ember.

[Chris]

Okay. And how long did you have the ember before you decided to start doing this as a business with the Jayco?

[David Stilson]

So about a year and a half.

[Chris]

Okay. And then you leaned on this Facebook group for support on, like, how to and insurance and all that.

[David Stilson]

Yep.

[Chris]

Okay.

[David Stilson]

Yeah.

[Chris]

What's your. Here, go ahead.

[David Stilson]

Because there's different. I guess there's different ways to run this business. Some people are very hands off. You know, you're renting the Bear, the travel trailer. Like, it has a mattress. We don't give you bedding. We don't give you towels. Just bring your own, everything. And then there's people that are like, no, this is Airbnb on wheels. We, like, set you up with, you know, cookware and cutlery and all the linens you need. Towels, toilet paper, everything you basically need to go camping.

[Chris]

Yeah. And that's what you did.

[David Stilson]

Or the ladder. Yeah.

[Chris]

Yeah. Smart. Remove the friction, the confusion. Keep it as simple as possible. Okay, so you buy it. What do you do next? What are your first steps after buying this thing?

[David Stilson]

So it was kind of the end of season, and that's why we got a decent deal on it. Which in where I live, camping season ends November 1st. And so we bought it at the very end of September. So the very first step was take pictures, put it On Outdoorsy and rv, Share and rveasy, all the Marketplace sites and just see if we get a rental. Create Facebook Marketplace posts, point people to those. We got one rental in the fall for Halloween weekend. That was our very first customer.

[Chris]

And you're in Fort Wayne, Indiana?

[David Stilson]

Yep.

[Chris]

Okay, how long did it take you to get that first rental?

[David Stilson]

So I think that would have been within, Was it within a couple weeks?

[Chris]

Okay.

[David Stilson]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Are you able to share your screen and show us what your, what the J code looks like?

[David Stilson]

Yeah. Let me pull up my website.

[Chris]

Did you hire a photographer for the pictures or did you take them yourself?

[David Stilson]

I took these myself with my iPhone.

[Chris]

Okay.

[David Stilson]

Share screen.

[Chris]

Are those the same pictures you have on the listing today?

[David Stilson]

Yep. Okay, so this is from my website.

[Chris]

See this? Okay.

[David Stilson]

Mm. So basically just your kind of every, every feature.

[Chris]

And can you pull this with like a Ford F150 or do you need something bigger?

[David Stilson]

Yep, yep. You can pull it with a, with a regular pickup truck or a large SUV. I think this trailer weighs in at about 4800 pounds and about 500 pounds of tongue weight.

[Chris]

Okay, what, what made you decide on this? So how, how long is this one?

[David Stilson]

So this is a 26 foot bunkhouse. It was nine. Yep. And it was important for us to do the bunk house per recommendations of the group because a lot of people were like, do people want teardrops? Do they want. Is it. Are there a lot of couples camping? And pretty much unanimously, everyone said the best sellers are bunk houses sleep the most.

[Chris]

Yep. Because you don't really pay a lot more for the bunk houses, but you, you broaden your market. Right. It's much more people that might want to rent it. What. Okay, so that's why you ordered the bunk house. What made you decide on like a 20 something footer at this year? This price range, etc. Did you do much, much research to land on that?

[David Stilson]

I, I, so the, the research, I, I kind of missed a little bit of the story in the beginning because before I, we went out and bought a camper, I actually went on outdoorsy and found all the travel trailer listings in my area and saw what the, what they were charging. Because it's really important to know what your market can do because, because yeah, in, in Florida or out in the mountains in Colorado you can get 200 a night. But in the Midwest, Indiana, you know, we don't have amazing, you know, state, you know, national park destinations. You're camping in state parks and festivals and concerts and those sorts of things. So did market research on what listings were out there? And then I actually started messaging people that. That had listings, and people that had multiple campers listed was like, hey, how are you doing? Like, what kind of sales are you doing? How. How. You know, it looks like your calendar is pretty booked up for the summer. Would you mind sharing with me what you're doing in revenue and whatnot? And the. The feedback I got from a couple owners was, like, we reliably do about $5,000 every. Every season per camp.

[Chris]

Okay. In rent per camper per season. Okay. How many people were willing to talk to you about this?

[David Stilson]

I had two. Two people? Well, there's the people on the Facebook group. Right. Once I found the group, and there's lots of people in that group. But. But everyone that I reached out to about this on Outdoorsy was. Was open, so there's a couple. Couple people. I didn't go super deep. It was just like, yeah, I.

[Chris]

Whenever I'm doing research on, like, RV Share, Outdoorsy or airbnb, I like to run a search for the unit I'm curious about for, like, this immediate weekend, and then one for a year from now. That way you can see, like, all right, there's three available this weekend, and there's 30 available next year. Wow. Okay. It's 90% occupied right now. The market is 90% occupied. And then you can change it. Like, all right, let's look at a class A RV this weekend and next year. All right, there's six this weekend and eight next year. It's like, well, that's not great. You know, nothing's taken. So did you do any stuff like that?

[David Stilson]

I didn't go super deep. I. I kind of went out on faith. It was just like, yeah, this will work. Yeah, I could sell $5,000, and that would cover basically the. The payments. And then I know I could do better than that. Or, you know, optimistic me was like, they're not even on, you know, Facebook Marketplace. They're not even on RV Share. They're not, like, pushing ads. These. You know, they're just putting it on one platform, and it does that.

[Chris]

Yeah. And when you say a season, you mean, like, March to October?

[David Stilson]

Yeah, our season, we really started booking, like, mid June till the end of October. So November 1st is when the state parks all winterize here, so they shut off, like, the dump stations and that kind of stuff.

[Chris]

So your season doesn't even start till June then. Wow. Okay. All right, now, how. How long ago did you first start this?

[David Stilson]

So we started last. Last summer was our first full Summer. So it was the year before that. So it have been 2024, end of

[Chris]

24 into end of 24. All right, so your first season was the beginning of 25 y or the middle of 25. What did you end up doing in. In revenue that season?

[David Stilson]

So we did about $7,000. Wow.

[Chris]

Okay. And you went into it thinking 5,000 is base case. I think I can beat that.

[David Stilson]

Okay. Yep.

[Chris]

What were your payments across that same time frame?

[David Stilson]

That's a good, like, total.

[Chris]

Yeah, I guess. 400 times 12. 4800.

[David Stilson]

Yep.

[Chris]

Okay. And then insurance. How much is insurance?

[David Stilson]

So insurance is about 30. $60 a month.

[Chris]

Oh, that's nothing. Okay, so seven. What? No. 400 a year. All right, so you're at 5200, give or take, and then other random expenses. So you made a profit. Profit, yeah. Effectively slim, but, yeah.

[David Stilson]

Approved it. I proved out the concept that, yeah, it would work for one unit at least.

[Chris]

Yeah. And that's your first season. That's like, with very low. What's it called? Like, you don't have any reviews yet. You don't have any track record. You don't have any repeat business yet. Whereas season two, this season, it should look a lot better, right?

[David Stilson]

Yeah. Yeah. And in fact, we're already. We have three bookings.

[Chris]

Wow.

[David Stilson]

For July that are repeat customers, right?

[Chris]

All three of them.

[David Stilson]

Yes. Yeah.

[Chris]

Wow.

[David Stilson]

So our very first customer, the one I got that October, Halloween, the first seat, the end of that first season, she booked again. So she was our last customer this year or last year, I guess. And that was a big thing for us, was we treat the platforms like they're a lead gen source because they. Outdoorsy, is pouring a ton of money into ads. We can't outspend them. There's. They're just everywhere. Right. And they take a pretty large cut. Um, they take about 25% of the rental fee.

[Chris]

Mm.

[David Stilson]

And they charge the customer for extra insurance and ancillary fees and all the things. So we built our. Our own site to do our own bookings. And the customer saves a ton of money. And we make a lot more money because we charge the same nightly rate. We just don't pay the fees. So those repeat customers are coming back direct.

[Chris]

Yeah. So is that 7,000 before or after fees?

[David Stilson]

That's after fees.

[Chris]

Oh, nice. So closer to 10,000 gross. Okay, so you're happy with that? And did you have any, like, stressful moments? Because I, you know, I think I said this. I've been in this business, and I'll never Forget. It was spring break. We were at the beach. My RV was rented out. They took it to grand. The Grand Canyon, all the way from Dallas. And I'm trying to relax on spring break, and they call me, and, you know, the Grand Canyon gets very cold. Even in March, it's very cold. And they said, the heat. The heat went out. What do we do? And I'm like, I don't freaking know. Like, I'm in Florida. You're in the Grand Canyon. Like, I, I. I don't know what to do, man. I didn't know what to do. Like, I kind of walked him through a few things, and I hung up the phone, and I felt bad. I wasn't a jerk to him. Like, I felt bad for him, but I also didn't know what to do, you know, like, I'll pay for your hotel. I'm sorry. And I hung up the phone, and I looked at my wife in bed, and I was like, we're selling that thing done, right? Because it was like a. It was a class C. And so there's so much stuff that can go wrong for those listening or watching. Like, a class C is a. It's a motorhome. It's a vehicle and a house. It's like the two things in the world that break the most together, except it's very rickety because they have to be light, you know, so. But I really feel like if this were a business, like, just a business rv, and especially if you hit scale, like, if you have a few units and you can outsource calls like that, it's a really, really good business. I've been on the record several times saying I love this business, this industry, which is why we're talking today.

[David Stilson]

Yeah. Anyway, the mentors in the group that I joined, that Facebook group, some of those are, you know, they have 20 to 50 units. Like, they scaled it. You know, they have a. They have their own yard, and they have staff that turns everything.

[Chris]

Wow.

[David Stilson]

For us, it was about having good process and good training and doing very thorough walkthroughs with the customers. A lot of our rentals are actually deliveries because not Everybody has an F150 or a larger vehicle. We have the benefit of removing that as a risk on a lot of the rentals because I'm the one driving it. So if they have most of the risk, probably, yeah. Yeah. Especially from an insurance standpoint. So I can set it up, make sure everything's level, make sure everything's operational before I leave the campsite, which is, you know, game changing, and then occasionally we'll get a call that's like, hey, we can't get the Stove Delight. And it's one of those, like, it's a weird, tricky. You know, you gotta kind of like, push and hold, and you have to explain it. But other than that, everything's, you know, Knock on Wood has been smooth sailing.

[Chris]

Yeah, I know. With. With our unit, we went out and used it ourselves first, and I got to know all the quirks of it because they're all. A lot of them are the same, and. But they all have something that's just a little bit different. And so after I really learned it just by living in it for a few days, I had my wife hold my phone, and I just made an unlisted YouTube video, and I just walked people through the unit. Here's the out. Here's how you do this. You do this. Here's how you flush out the thing. And then anytime they book, it's like, watch these. Like, you must watch these. And if I could go back in time, I would use AI to make, like, a quiz. Right? And it's like, do not come pick up this unit until you've passed this quiz. You know, honestly, like, I need to know that you know what you're doing for both of our safety.

[David Stilson]

Yeah. And a lot of that is spelled out in the. In the supplemental rental agreement that we got, and it's huge that it spells out all of those things in writing. And they do sign and agree that, like, you know, especially when it comes to dumping the tanks and things that go into the waste tanks, that's a big deal. That's where I see a lot of horror stories.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[David Stilson]

In the group, in the community.

[Chris]

Okay. So theoretically, if. If this season goes about as well, if not better, then you'll have this thing paid off in a few years. Right. You'll own it outright, and then your profit will be much, much higher. Do you want to scale this business? Are you trying to buy more or what's the future look like?

[David Stilson]

We. We want to. The. The issue. We. We live in a hoa on a cul de sac with no. No driveway space and no property with, like, rules, like, don't have a camper

[Chris]

at your house more than 48 hours.

[David Stilson]

So, yeah. Yeah. We're like, it works now we need a new house.

[Chris]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[David Stilson]

So that's kind of the journey we're on right now is like, do we scale this? Do we? For a while, some friends of ours had a little teardrop camper. That we took on as like a consignment. So then we didn't have to buy it. We just split the nightly rate with them.

[Chris]

That's a whole industry in and of itself. Right? Just renting out others RVs.

[David Stilson]

Yeah. So if we did scale it, that would probably have to be the way where it's like we find people that have campers relatively close that live near us that we could go get it, prep it, split the nightly rate, and then we're not out another $20,000.

[Chris]

Yeah. Well, what's cool about this business is that even though this is your business unit, you have your own. On any given night where it's not booked, you can take it out for free, quote, unquote for free. Right. Like, those are just bonus nights. Did you guys take advantage of that at all or did you use your other RV for stuff like that?

[David Stilson]

No, we. This. This camper is solely, solely business for us. Like, we don't even. We don't use it at all. The closest thing we've done to using it ourselves was we took our neighbors camping because they've always wanted to go and they don't have a camper. And we're like, well, just. We'll take the rental.

[Chris]

Yeah, okay. All right. So if you were to buy another one or when you buy another one, what type of unit pull behind longer, shorter, Class A, class B, class C. We.

[David Stilson]

We really like the bunk house. It was huge for us to make sure whatever we got doesn't actually have any slide outs, which is a really popular thing that people love because you have a ton of space inside, but that the number one failing part on an RV is a slide out motor.

[Chris]

And it. It increases the risk of water leaks as well.

[David Stilson]

Water leaks? The. The motor fails, you can't get the slide out back in when you need to return it.

[Chris]

Well, I also realized, like, a lot of potential renters don't even know what a slide out is. They don't know it. It's called that. They don't know what to look for. They don't know to ask for it. So you're paying out the butt for this feature that breaks, that leaks, and people don't even need it or want it or know that it exists. Right. They don't know what they're missing.

[David Stilson]

Yeah, and that's another thing. We're always looking for things that are feature light. So, like, it has an AM FM, Bluetooth radio, but that's about like, there's no TVs, there's no, like, Some people are like, do you provide wi fi and da da da for now? Like, because that's just another thing that can break and we have to support and get that phone call at 3am so, like the basics.

[Chris]

Yeah. And, like, things are trending away from that anyway. Like, a lot of airlines aren't even installing TVs anymore because people have their phones. Yeah. You know. Okay. So, love the business. Would you recommend it to others?

[David Stilson]

I think I would if you. If you had some kind of cash and the ability to pull it, like, you do need a truck or if. Unless you do a Class C or like a sprinter van. What do they call it? Class B.

[Chris]

Class B, yeah.

[David Stilson]

So if you. If you have, like a driving unit, you could probably pull it off, but they're just super expensive. I mean, you get into Class Bs and they're like $80,000 to start with.

[Chris]

Yeah, yeah. So just for those listening or watching, Class A is like a touring bus, right? Like Dave Matthews Band. They're in like a Class A. It's huge. It's massive. It's diesel. You can't park it. I would not recommend it. Those can be hundreds of thousands to even millions of dollars. There's a. There's a world where that's a good business. People do rent those, but, like, not for the faint of heart. Class B is like your decked out sprinter van. Like the nomad lifestyle. If you go to, like, Moab, Utah or whatever, you're probably renting one of those for a ton. That's a whole industry in and of itself. It thrives out west, especially. Not so much in, like, the Southeast, but anywhere there are mountains. And those are, like you said, those are really expensive. But they rent out for about the same amount as a Class C. So when I did this, I did all my research and everything screamed at me. Class C motorhome, which. That's. That's a motorhome. That's kind of what. What you're used to, seeing you drive it. It's all one unit. It's nice because the family can walk around. It's. It's just all there. You don't have to separate your vehicle from it. And you can even tow a vehicle if you want. But the trade off is they usually have slide outs. They break, they leak. There's a lot that can go wrong on that thing. And they're not very safe, honestly. And my. My family saw all 50 states. Well, 48 in a class C in 48 days. And then we saw Alaska and Hawaii. We flew there. But it was very reliable. 13,000 miles. But not super safe.

[David Stilson]

Right.

[Chris]

So. And then you have a pull behind like. Like what you have where you just attach it to the hitch and then you have like a gooseneck pull behind where you need. Like you need a gooseneck truck. You need the. What's it called? Like when it's in the bed of the truck? Yeah. Fifth wheel. Fifth wheel. And then you have what they call toy haulers, which is like a pull behind. But the, the back third of it is just a big open room to put like side by sides. ATVs, motocross, et cetera. Did I miss any categories? Is that about it?

[David Stilson]

Teardrops.

[Chris]

Teardrops. So yeah, like the rounded aerodynamic type Airstreams. Is that a teardrop?

[David Stilson]

No, Airstreams is. They're technically just a travel trailer, but it's just a really. They're a unibody like aircraft grade thing. They're. They cost $130,000. They're. I would total. That's my retirement camper. Like when we get there someday that's.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[David Stilson]

What I'll get. But teardrops are great because like a couple can take it, you know, on a road trip, sightseeing and just kind of camp along the way or you know what I mean? They're just very small and you can pull them with anything. They're. They're super light.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[David Stilson]

So.

[Chris]

And then they have like pop ups, right? Pop up. Do they make those anymore?

[David Stilson]

Yeah, they do. I would probably. I was just actually talking. The couple that we rented, their teardrop, they're. They're selling it and they're. Cuz they had a baby and so they need something bigger and so we're advising them on what to buy and because we want to rent out their next camper and I'm like, okay, get, get. If you get a pop up, get like the, the A frame ones that are hard shell and not like the canvas. Because dealing with the canvas is, is kind of a nightmare. If it rains, it gets wet and when you bring it back, you have to set it all back up and dry it out and it gets, it can get moldy and there's just a ton of issues there.

[Chris]

Yeah. Okay, well, let's move on to your podcast business. Podcast studio business.

[David Stilson]

Sure.

[Chris]

When did you launch that and why.

[David Stilson]

Okay, so. So I don't know if you can see me having. There's a drum set. So we started a YouTube channel called My dad's Radio and in the process of that bought A ton of gear for the studio, mostly as a hobby project. I'm a lifelong musician and so I had this idea. Let's create a collective of, of like 30, 40 people that come together randomly and we record and, and we put out videos on YouTube and I worked at Sweetwater at the time so I, I got a really good employee discount. My. It was a little bit addictive. So I just had a bunch of gear, I had the studio and so I just opened it up to bands, people that need mixing, mastering. That's. It's more of. I would say that's definitely more of an inside a side hustle territory. On a bad month I'll do about 200 in revenue, but I've done up to like two grand in a month. I produced an audiobook for an author who didn't want to use AI. He was a audio biography he had written about his brother with intellectual and developmental disabilities and he, it was from him it, you know, he wanted to read the book. So that was a nice good paying gig. So.

[Chris]

So this is kind of like a passion project. You're not trying to make millions of bucks but you wanted to build this out for yourself anyway so why not monetize it now?

[David Stilson]

Yep.

[Chris]

Do you, you make money by renting it out per hour or.

[David Stilson]

Yeah, I'm trying to, I'm trying to figure out what the market will take. I'm in a unique town. Fort Wayne is home to Sweetwater. And I don't know if you're familiar with Sweetwater, but they are the largest retail music store in North America. So they're directly competing with Guitar Center. So they sell, you know, the thing our microphones, pro audio gear, guitars, lighting, band and orchestra instruments. Billions of dollar company. They employ a sales staff of around 500 people. And I say that to say every sales engineer at Sweetwater has a recording studio. So there's like what, 400 direct competitors to me.

[Chris]

Yeah. In my town. Yeah. The worst place you could do this. Yeah.

[David Stilson]

And Sweetwater itself has a world class recording studio like on campus. So the slant I'm trying to take is like I don't just do audio, I do video. So I've had video production companies in the past. I have a of the gear and the know how. So if you want to do like live recorded videos, band demos for, you know, booking shows and those sorts of things, that's kind of how I'm trying to position this space is like bring your band and we'll do a live recording on video for Instagram and YouTube and all those things.

[Chris]

Yeah. What about renting it out to podcasters? Do you think that'd be viable?

[David Stilson]

I think it would. We would probably need to do some. Some decorating just to like, make it, I guess, visually appealing space rather than like a music space, but I think that's definitely an option.

[Chris]

Do I dare ask how much it costs to build up that studio?

[David Stilson]

Oh, gosh. Oh, no. I'm just. You don't even want to add it up. Let's say we're sitting at about $30,000 retail of gear in here.

[Chris]

Yeah. I just built out my own studio upstairs and it was about the same.

[David Stilson]

Yeah. So I'm curious because I've heard. I've heard you mention the studio upstairs. Now, is that because you want to do more in real, like, real life, podcast style?

[Chris]

Things move away from. From virtual stuff? Yeah.

[David Stilson]

Okay.

[Chris]

Yep.

[David Stilson]

Yeah, I love those. Those videos where you are going on site with people and in their business. I think I even commented on one of your videos. It's like, I love this format. When you did, like, the washer rental.

[Chris]

Yeah. Yeah.

[David Stilson]

Like, this is awesome.

[Chris]

Yeah, thanks. That was the most viewed video ever that I posted. David, is there anything that we. That we missed that maybe people could or should know before getting into any of these businesses?

[David Stilson]

I think just you can start low tech. You don't have to be fancy about this stuff. Just, you know, do some research around what you think you can rent out, see if there's other people doing it. I mean, I did the similar thing. Like, I went on Facebook, Marketplace, even on a wide area in my region and saw that people were renting out totes. And I even. I did the same thing I did with RVs. I reached out to those people and said, hey, I see you're renting out totes. Like, how's it going? And I've done the same thing with, like, I found a company called Bennett. There's an. Another company. Uh, I think it's Ben's on the move out your way. Like Blue Bins. He actually is a moving company as well.

[Chris]

Mm.

[David Stilson]

Don't be afraid to reach out to people that are already doing it because you'd be surprised how open and friendly people are and helpful to. To help other entrepreneurs in the space and kind of give you a leg up on what you should think about or what you should do. Just like that Facebook group I joined for the RV rentals. Like, full circle, same thing. Like, what do I. What am I. What do I not know? Like, what are the risks? What are the nightmare horror stories I'm going to deal with. How can I avoid, you know, those things?

[Chris]

That's beautiful. Thank you, David. This is awesome. I love multipreneurs such as myself. If people want to learn more from you, where can they find you?

[David Stilson]

So I'm on X at David Stilson.

[Chris]

Perfect. Well, thanks for coming, David.

[David Stilson]

All right, thanks for having me.