Since You’ve Asked…..

I appreciate all of the comments and interest shown in my post from yesterday.  A few asked direct questions, and since I said I’d answer them I’ll do that here.  I can only give information based upon our own personal experience with Pismo Coast Village RV Resort:

A question was asked by Karen and Al wondering if we were guaranteed a site at the resort and if we always get a particular site.  ANSWER:  You are not guaranteed a site, however, 1/2 of the 400 total sites are withheld for shareholder use only.  The general public will only have access to 200 sites no matter what time of year.  We do not always get the same site when we come here.  We sometimes “request” a site when we make our reservation, but it cannot be guaranteed.  If you don’t get the site you ask for when you arrive, we have been assigned one very near the one we requested.  In our opinion, there are no bad sites here so we have always been happy.  

                                            We walked into town and went to the end of the pier.

Me and My Dog wanted to know if we knew of similar places like P.C.V. with shareholder opportunities.  ANSWER:  I do not know of any, but then we haven’t been looking for any either.  This one is enough for us since we still want to wander around and visit other areas from time to time.

Karen In The Woods left a comment regarding her seeing the photo of the older travel trailer camped at P.C.V.  She was glad to see that there is no age discrimination.  This is one of the most appealing things to us about staying here.  Let’s face it, all RV’s age.  Unless you have deep pockets and can replace your rig every 5 to 6 years, it will get older.  We find older RV’s here that folks have stored in town and just use it as their “beach house” for weekends and vacations.  Works great for that purpose.  Personally, I don’t want to patronize the parks that have an age restriction on RV’s or are labeled “Class A resorts only”.   Sorry, but my opinion on that is that those park owners and guests may be a bit stuck up.  JMHO.

                                         We saw this great looking fellow eyeing the crowd carefully.

Those Freely Living Life folks asked if this was a family-friendly park or a 55+ park.  ANSWER:  Oops, I forgot to put that info in the original post, sorry!  This is definitely a family friendly park…..and a dog friendly park.  We even see a lot of family groups that come camping here.  There are no defined group sites, but if you want to camp as a family group you can request sites side-by-side, or ones that back-up to each other.  We see it all the time.  There are kids with parents here on most weekends.  During the week-days it is mostly us “old folks” that remain.  During the summer, kids and families are here most all the time.   I love to see families out camping.  The playful noise of the kids doesn’t bother me, but during the daytime they are usually away from the campsite down at the pool, the beach, in town or at the State Park’s dunes riding ATV’s.  You are allowed to have 3 dogs per RV at this resort.  (There are some breed restrictions)  This is another thing I love about this park….looking at all of the dogs.  So many of the campers bring dogs with them and you see all kinds.  It is always fun to stop somebody and ask a question about their dog.  The owners eat it up and enjoy talking about their 4-legged kid.  We do not hear a lot of barking noise, either.  The dog owners seem to be a respectful lot and make sure their furry kids aren’t a nuisance.

                                     We saw lots of pelicans on the pier doing their “people watching”. 

                            This man just caught a fish….then he tossed it to the pelican waiting nearby….

                                               ….what part of “do not feed birds” did he not read?

The big question was asked by Judy, Dennis and Donna, and Pidge about how much a share in Pismo Coast Village will cost?  ANSWER:  All the shares are re-sales now.  There are no new shares being sold and according to the bylaws, there never will be.  It is being kept at 1,800 shares total.  Some people (like us) own multiple shares.  We decided to buy a second share in January of 2008 when we had come up here from a stay in Palm Springs.  We declined the opportunity to buy a deeded lot down there and it dawned on us that a second share here at P.C.V. would be the perfect deal for us.  We went to the Sales Office on property and found out that the price of one share was $29,295.00.  There were 4 shares up for sale at that time, all the same price.  In some years past there have a been long waiting list of folks wanting to purchase a share and none were available at that time.  We were in luck then in 2008 and made our purchase.  The buyer pays the commission which is 10%.  Our total cost was:  $32,550.00 which included commission and transfer fees.  If we decide to sell our shares, the buyer will pay those costs.   The share that we inherited was purchased by Bruce’s parents back in the early 1980’s and they paid a little less than $5,000.00 for it.  We were told that in all of the 35 years of selling shares, the price only dipped lower than the previous price once.  All other times, the shares sold for more.  So, we paid full price for our second share….and nothing for the inherited share.  We asked at the office when we checked-in this time and the woman there told us she thought the current re-sale price was about $35,000.00 now. 

Our thinking in 2008 was that even if we don’t make any profit on the second share, we will almost certainly get our full money back when we sell it.  Of course, any money we get on the inherited share is pure profit since we never paid for it.  A purchased and deeded lot will most certainly appreciate in value for those types of RV parks (no guarantee, though) but we weren’t interested in owning property anymore.  And since we have no fees, dues or assessments as shareholders, it is a good situation for us. 

Owning the 2 shares give us the opportunity to stay here FREE for 90 days each calendar year.  We can make reservations 6 months in advance of check-in date and have not had a problem getting a reservation ever.  We do not come here during the busy summer months so I can’t say how that would go with a reservation.  We choose to stay away due to the heavy crowds that are here and everywhere along the coastal area at that time. 

I hope this answers any questions on the subject.  I gave you as many details as I could possibly think of. 

I wish everyone a great weekend!  The weather here is fantastic and we are looking forward to a good weekend.  Life’s a beach!!

Until next time…..so long for now!