We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Sanville recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How has Covid changed your business model?

I like to tell people that COVID changed our business model literally from the very beginning. We had just filed our paperwork to become an LLC in February of 2020. Jim and I were working our professional jobs as an engineering manager and respiratory therapist when COVID hit. We had just laid the groundwork for our side business and we were in the process of trying to buy our first home to flip. When the world was closing down, we quickly realized that purchasing a home to renovate was going to be very risky from many different angles. So we put our plans on pause for a few months. During that time, we decided to renovate our personal RV and we then sold it. It sold very fast and for more money than we ever expected it to sell for. This made us really reconsider our plans to renovate homes through our business…could we do RVs instead? After much debate, we decided that we would take the plunge and put our focus on renovating RVs. We could work on them from home which was very helpful when the kids were suddenly home a lot and Jim was working remote anyway. It gave us the flexibility we needed and we knew the market demand for renovated RVs was very high. We still plan to add home renovation back into our business model eventually but for right now, we remain focused on RVs and doing home contruction for ourselves and extended family.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

In 2018, Jim and I purchased our first travel trailer for weekend camping trips in Texas with the kids. We made some great memories but quickly decided we needed a big upgrade for the next phase of life! We then purchased a 2014 KZ Spree Bunkhouse that we lived in for 5 months while we finished construction on our new home. Because Jim was the contractor and we did most of the labor ourselves on the house, it was important for us to have the kids close by while we were working long hours on the house. Having our camper on site allowed us to do this. When we finished construction on the house, I began showing Jim photos on Instagram of gorgeous, renovated RVs. I knew we could do it to ours as well! We had the construction and design experience as we both have been involved with construction and renovation for many years. Jim finally agreed to it and we quickly turned the KZ Spree into a beautiful, updated space. We listed it locally for sale and it sold incredibly fast for a lot more money than we had expected to make on it. That began the addicting process of RV renovation!

In early 2020, we formed Sanville Investments, LLC. We had initially planned to do home construction and renovation as a side business but with the pandemic hitting us and all of the real estate, supply chain issues occuring, we hit “pause” on that plan. We went back to the drawing board and realized that it made the most sense for us to stay in the luxury RV renovation space as a business for the time being. I was still working as a respiratory therapist at the time and was logging extra hours in the COVID units. Jim was also working as an engineering manager. We needed a side business that would allow us flexible working hours. The RV remodel process definitely fit the bill! We have since renovated several RVs that have quickly sold and have been delivered to customers around the country. We now have a waitlist for clients who want to purchase one of our renovated rigs and another waitlist for those who want us to renovate their rig. We have been guest speakers and panelists at an RV renovation conference and were recently featured in the RV Today magazine.

We feel that our work sets us apart from others in our modern, minimal design schemes as well as our attention to detail. We have lived in an RV with four kids and we are able to quickly assess what areas of an RV need re-designing to be more functional becuase of that experience. With Jim’s engineering and construction background, he can confidently assess and repair nearly any issue that we come across in RV renovation. This saves us and our clients lots of valuable money and time by not having to bring the rigs into repair shops. Jim is also a genious craftsman who can design and build almost anything that he can think up. With his abilities, we are able to build unique designs into our rigs that would not be possible otherwise. We know that when we sell a product, it has our personal stamp of approval and it is something that we ourselves would feel comfortable purchasing. When people purchase from us, we want them to know that we have gone through every area of the rig and have inspected it to the very best of our ability!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Our best source of new clients has been through Instagram and growing our social media presence. In 2021, I knew that demand was there for renovated RVs. But, we were having to pay to advertise our renovated rigs while I saw that other renovators were selling their rigs before the renovations were even complete (just through social media). I knew that I needed to focus on growing our social media presence and our website so that we could achieve that sort of demand. In June of 2021, we launched our website and in January of 2022 we began to press hard into our social media growth. The results have been nothing short of exciting! From speaking at conferences to being published in magazines to waitlists of customers wanting one of our renovations, the results speak for themselves!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

It’s been a slow journey but showing up daily to post photos/stories/reels from our work day and our projects has resulted in getting us close to 20,000 followers in a year! We find that people love our whole rig tours and our before/after images espeically well. We have implemented software like Canva and Planoly to help us find the best times to post our content as well as trending topics and music. We also implemented a “Ask Us Anything” day every Sunday. We take time to answer or follower’s questions on that day. It encourages interaction with our account and it helps people with RV related questions. It’s a win-win!

It was a struggle at first to find content for our feed. But we are getting better at recording content and photographs as we are working on rigs or when they are completed so that we can then use for content for months to come. We have found that following similiar content creators/renovators and interacting with them frequently (and sharing their content!) has also helped our presence to grow. If you are in a niche market, be sure to follow other like minded creatives to follow and share. Community over competition is HUGE when you are starting out! We often share an RV that is for sale by one of our fellow RV renovators and they do the same when one of ours is up for sale. The results of that community support can be seen when renovated rigs sell quickly and without paid ads!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sanvilleinvestments.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanvilleinvestments/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sanvilleinvestmentsllc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sanvilleinvestments

Image Credits
Sarah Sanville