How We Turned Our RV Into Passive Income (Without Losing Our Minds)
2022 was a weird year for us. I guess it was weird for everyone—we were at the tail end of COVID—but for us, it was also a year of big decisions. We were debating whether to buy a house as an investment property… or invest in something else entirely.
Naturally, my girlfriend Khristine—being a horse girl and adventurer at heart—suggested, “What if we buy an RV instead of a house and rent it out?”
I looked at her, puzzled. “An RV? Huh, I never thought of that,” I said.
“Yeah,” she replied, already full of enthusiasm, laying out the advantages.
As a horse girl, she could use the RV to tow our then 3-year-old quarter horse, Baesix, to competitions. The rest of the time, we could rent it out to cover the payments—and eventually, use it ourselves for adventures. It actually sounded like a solid plan.
Before long, we were standing on a dealership lot staring at a one-year-old Forest River Class C. We bought it. That was the beginning of our RV ownership adventure. Little did we know how much work and stress lay ahead…
We quickly listed our RV on the peer-to-peer rental platforms, and to our surprise, bookings started flying in almost overnight! We were off to the races. We had listings on both Outdoorsy and RVezy, and they were filling up fast.
Watching the revenue totals rise on our dashboards was mesmerizing—but it didn’t take long for the illusion of “easy money” to wear off.
By the end of the first summer, one guest backed into something. Another left… questionable stains on the bed. There was routine maintenance, the occasional flat tire, restocking supplies, and of course, the dreaded black tank dumps. It all added up.
We were already busy with full-time jobs, and this added layer of logistics quickly started to feel overwhelming.
Enter Joel.
A friend of a friend, Joel was one of the first employees at RVezy. He casually asked, “How’s the RV rental thing going?”—although I think our tired faces gave him the answer before we said a word. “I might be working on something that could help,” he said.
We listened closely. Joel explained that after talking to thousands of RV owners while at RVezy, he noticed a trend: lots of people want to rent out their RVs, but very few have the time or patience to deal with all the moving parts.
His solution? A new kind of service that connects RV owners with professional RV managers—people who already have the infrastructure and experience to handle bookings, maintenance, cleaning, guest support, and more.
The stars in our eyes said it all. “Where do we sign?” I asked.
That was our introduction to RV rental management.
The value proposition was immediately clear: a professional manager rents out your RV full-time, handles all the details, and you receive a portion of the earnings each month. It’s the best of both worlds—you keep ownership and access to the RV, while someone else does the heavy lifting.
Here’s a simple example of how it works:
Let’s say your RV grosses $25,000 per year through the rental program.
- Booking platforms and transaction fees: ~$5,992
- The remaining amount ($19,008) is split 50/50 between the manager and the owner
- That’s $9,504/year to the RV owner
- And it’s 100% passive
Not bad at all.
The best part? We still get to use our RV for our own adventures—we just have to reserve our dates in advance.
Pros and Cons of RV Rental Management
Like anything in life, it’s all about tradeoffs. Here’s what we’ve learned:
Pros:
- It’s truly passive income. Once your RV is in a fleet, your involvement is minimal.
- Your RV is in professional hands—regularly maintained, cleaned, and inspected.
- You free up time while your asset generates income, and you can still use it when you want.
Cons:
- You give up some control.
- Rentals do cause wear and tear (though that’s true even if you rent it yourself).
- You’re placing a high-value asset in someone else’s hands—it requires trust and faith that the manager will deliver on their promises.
There was a moment on one of our RV trips—cocktails in hand, parked in a quiet spot—when Khristine and I exchanged a glance and both knew: we had found the formula that works for us.
We get all the upside of RV ownership—the freedom, the mobility, the lifestyle—while outsourcing the stress and logistics of rental management.
And we believe this is the better way for most people. Especially if you’re busy, or not mechanically inclined, or just don’t want to deal with strangers borrowing your rig every weekend.
Final words
It also challenged something we used to believe: that passive income had to come from digital products or stock portfolios. But this experience has taught us that real-world assets—like RVs—can absolutely fund freedom too.
More broadly, I’d encourage you to think about what other assets you might be underutilizing. Is there something in your life that, with the right system or manager, could start earning for you?
As for us, our adventure continues—and we’re sleeping a lot better knowing that we’ve found a model that works for our lifestyle and values. Oh and we also joined Joel in building his project into what it is today, but more on that later.
About The Author
Michael-Anthony Clement is the co-founder of RV Management USA, a company helping RV owners earn passive income through fully managed rentals. When he’s not strategizing growth or nerding out on business models, you can find him exploring new trails with his partner Khristine.
