Need advise on selling our motorhome - RV-Dreams Community Forum

LibertyLinda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Need advise on selling our motorhome

snerf · RV-Dreams Community Member

Try lowering the price - if you can't lower the price for financial reasons, then you may have to re-adjust your plans vis-a-vis a 5th wheel.

One of the biggest shocks people have is confronting the reality of what they would like to receive vs what others are willing to pay. Sometimes it can be a pretty big difference.

A great way to monitor "real" vs desired prices is to watch eBay ending auctions. It doesn't matter what the item is, if you quickly scroll through the listings to see goods with multiple offers, that will tell you the real market price. It's even better when the seller has a 'buy it now' price - most of the time, it's 2x the top offered bid, whether or not there is a reserve.

For those with nerves of steel, try selling unreserved. Before you try this path, watch some of the dealers who use it pretty regularly. If you have a high demand RV, it's not unusual to get 20+ bids, but the price is the price. If you can't deal with the real sales price, then it might be better to just hold on & use.

http://motors.shop.ebay.com/RVs-Campers-/50054/i.html?_trkparms=65%253A12%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A7117&rt=nc&_dmpt=RVs_Campers&_sticky=1&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_sop=1&_sc=1

Edit by moderator: Activated link. Terry

-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Sunday 12th of May 2013 01:55:49 PM

PIEERE · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have no idea how long it would take to sell!!! Is your price in align with other RV's? Have you listed the desirable features? Have you done any unique upgrades. Did you keep service records, list it. The news media keep claiming that RV sales are up. It must be easier to finance new as i have seen many used units for sale; but it's still early as the kiddie are still in school. Best of Luck! Are you trying to upgrade or settle down? Just curious!! Happy Mothers Day!

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

Also list the price openly, I noticed on your blog it says "inquire for more details"...people want to see the asking price first.

PIEERE · RV-Dreams Family Member

Try the NYC/NJ/Philly craigslist?

Racerguy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Gene makes a very good point.When I am looking to buy something if it has no price up front I bypass the add and never go back.

LibertyLinda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you all for the advise!
I find it interesting that the "season" may just be getting going now - that is my impatience showing.
We have just lowered the price, but also will negotiate.
We expanded the craigs list to areas sort-of near us. We could do more I suppose.
I will beef up my web site, I wasn't thinking of it as a primary sales site, but I could put more detail into it rather than just rely on the links to the craigs listing.
We would not be able to live full time in the Class A, it is not built for that kind of living, but our backup plan is to do just that until we sell the house and then can get the 5th wheel, pay off the Class A, etc. I am just anxious to have the 5th wheel now to move into and go, so we know how much we can bring with us.

Thanks again Dreamers, you have pulled thru again :)

TXRVr · RV-Dreams Family Member

I just purchased a pre-owned Class A to replace the one I had sold. I sold mine via word of mouth from a network of RV friends across the country. So, I can't help you with the marketing end of the sale, but I can provide some suggestions on how to advertise and how to prepare yourself for serious buyer inquiries.

Don't bother to put the words Serious Buyers Only in your listing. That won't stop anyone from calling or emailing. I want a phone number to call. I am not willing to text or email and then wait on you to respond. Keep in mind that I am still looking and you may lose a possible sale in that delay. Do list all of the equipment on the rig. If you are paying for words in an ad, then put the major ones in and have a list of the rest that you can email me.

Have a written list of all of the specs that you can give to me. Tires sizes, HVAC BTUs, number of tanks (to include fuel and propane) and the capacities, engine and transmission, inverter/converter, generator, slide width/depth, etc. And yes, I want the bed size since I'll spend a third of the day there.

You can take pretty ones of the curtains, but I want pictures that tell me what is inside and outside of the rig. That includes roof, bay, engine, battery, and water/sewer bays. If I have to travel to you to see the rig, then I would at least like to know it is worth doing by first looking at a lot of pictures.

Know everything that there is to know about the RV or be able to look it up in the manuals and get back to me with the answer. If you can't, or won't, then I figure that you don't know how to properly maintain or even use all the systems properly. That's not a rig I wanted to buy. If the tires are over 5-6 years old, regardless of tread, then you have to be willing to reduce the price by the cost of replacements. It is a safety issue for my family and a deal killer if you won't.

I am going to ask about non-working equipment. If something isn't working then tell me up front. I am going to find that out anyway. If it was obvious then I assume that you were trying to hide that or something else.

Have the manuals available for me to look thru if I need to. Have the maintenance records available. If I can't validate when the oil was changed and/or all the filters were changed then the cost of doing that comes off the price. It isn't cheap. Even if you are a do-it-yourselfer, at least show me where you bought the parts.

You have to be willing to let me spend half day inspecting it (my inspection sheet was 11 pages long). That includes having the RV hooked up to power, water, and sewer so that I can check out every system as it would normally be used if I were camping in it. Clean out the bay storage. I will be looking in there and I prefer not to crawl around someone else's stuff to do it.

If the interior inspection goes well, then I will want to take a test drive with the end stop being a reputable shop to check out the engine and drive train systems (assuming it is a MH). I will pay for that and, if we don't do the deal, will give you the shop results for the next potential buyer since I won't be needing them. A test drive is not negotiable, but if you prefer to take the RV to an all services RV shop for a top to bottom inspection and have that documentation, then I can work with you on it.

I had selected a dozen potential rigs to buy. Half of the owners were uneducated about their rigs and unwilling to go find the info I asked about. One didn't want to take more pictures. Two would not allow me to have it shop inspected even tho I was paying. I bought a rig from one of the remaining three owners who were serious sellers. I am the one with the money. Make it easy for me to give it to you.

LibertyLinda · RV-Dreams Family Member

TXRvr,
Thank you for the very comprehensive advise - there is a lot there we can use!

I have beefed up the pics and descriptions on my web site, with still more to be done and you have offered good points.
I must admit that putting my phone number there is a little nerve racking, I can spam emails, not phone calls - and there is a ton of spamers out there! I will ponder that point. I am also putting it out there on twitter.

Thanks again!

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

I Second that motion!!!

I pass by any ad that requests me to forward my phone or leave an E-Mail......I always find that those people want to get back to me at their convenience....

I buy & sell coaches and normally have 4 or 5 to look at, with customers also looking ..........people who want to sell it at there convenience are not ready to sell.......A dirty coach is not ready to sell.......a coach without service records is not ready to sell...

Selling a coach is like selling your home or real-estate.....the worse it looks , poor records , and not ready to sell , the less the offer.

your Selling ad should make it convenient to the customer to get there dream Started...along with a price that matches Real time regional prices , not Dealer NARDA book listing prices

Rick..(TXrvr) hit the Nail and drove all the buyer points home.......the more you are prepared with info the less your customer has to knock the price down....unless there paying Cash!!...

good Luck ,the New england buyers season has just started....Remember to list it in Boston Craigslist as well!!!!

azrving · RV-Dreams Family Member

Our local dealer is begging people to drop their RV on his consignment lot....he claims they can't keep enough inventory. If it's not selling, your asking price may be a little on the high side. You can't always use Nada, Kelley Blue Book, etc. to come up with your asking price and keep in mind a bunch of the optional equipment listed on these sites is considered standard equipment by your manufacturer and shouldn't be added to the base/asking price.

Example: Back in 2005 we were selling a piece of commercial property, the lady that wanted the property offered us X amount in cash and a nearly new Pace Arrow Motor home to seal the deal. This person was customer of mine and I trusted her completely. When she handed me the Nada printout that showed the Private Party asking price was $91,000, I had no reason to second guess her but I should have. We closed the deal on the property and we took possession of the Pace Arrow 37C with triple slides, corian counter-tops, 3,700 miles on the odometer, all the bells and whistles. Our plan was to sell the MH right away, we didn't need it we had our TT and the MH wouldn't sleep 6 comfortably anyway. I advertised it on all the big RV sites and had no takers, really had no calls except from the RV consignment shops, seems this model Pace Arrow was a popular unit/floor plan out west. The dealers wanted to give me wholesale and a couple of them told me my asking price was too high. I decided to run the numbers myself and that's when I found out the lady that traded us the MH had entered the model/year of the MH and then proceeded to add all of the standard equipment back into the mix to come up with her figure. She didn't do this intentionally; at least I hope she didn't! biggrin She still took a beating on the MH, she and her late husband paid $125,000 for the MH when they purchased it. Anyway, I ended up selling the MH for $75,000 and now I read the Nada, Kelley Blue Book suggested price list very carefully.

We have been looking at Class C Motor Homes lately and the prices are all over the place. It's still a buyers market when it comes to luxury items and you may end up breaking even or taking a little loss to get the deal done and move into the full timing lifestyle. Good luck.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

As far as a phone is concerned, aren't there disposable phones available at WalMart or other places? If so, get one of those and list that phone number so no one has your personal number.

While we've never done that with a phone, Jo did get a secondary e-mail address when she was selling some of our stuff on Craigslist.

Terry

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Normally I can spot the spammers a mile way on craigslist. I say normally, but have never had a problem. I don't care if the have my email address, my spam-catcher catches them. If you're really paranoid about your phone number you might do as Terry suggested.

But I'm guessing it's price and your not listing it. If I'm looking and a don't see a price I just go on by.
You could have a link to another page that provides more detail and your price as Jack Mayer does on his rigs and lots.. I used RvTrader.com to get an idea of used pricing and establish what I want to pay. Personally. I think NADa is high.

If you've had any interested responses but they failed to purchase, call them back and ask why very nicely. Tell them you want to sell your unit so need all the input you can get. Remember, it's a depreciating asset and may well be worth less than you owe. Only your research will tell.

Good luck to you.

Sherry

LibertyLinda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi all,
Again, thanks for the feedback.

I have expanded the Craigslist to multiple cities now-12 & counting (including Boston Lucky Mike, just cuz you have "lucky" in your name LOL), and have included my phone number with those postings. Also, I have an alternative email address I am using. I can always edit stuff out if I get wierd calls.
I have it on RVT.com for two weeks just to see what happens and may put out the money to do more, its had a lot of "views" so far.

Sherry, my brief classified on Dreamers has two links, one to my web/blog site and one to Craigs list for the RV.

I have also re-established contact with a DRV dealer who may be able to assist with consignment sale, but that would probably be a last resort.

All of your points are very helpful :)

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Just FYI,
A RV place in Cottonwood, AZ charges 10% for consignment sales. Have no idea what other places charge.

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

Another source of price information is PPL http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/ They are a large consignment dealership and, from what I hear, like to turn their inventory quickly, so the units are priced to sell. Yes, you can ask more, but from what I read when we were looking, it will eventually sell for what they tell you anyway. Find some coaches that are similar to what you have and see what their prices are like.

When we bought our coach the asking price was pretty high, but we knew the seller wanted to get it gone. They had put quite a bit of money into it recently, so we felt reasonably comfortable offering a bit above NADA, and they accepted it. Unfortunately, I misread the date code on the rear tires, and found out that they were actually 10 years older than what I thought. Oh well, 7 June is the last day of work, and then I can get new tires.

Edit by moderator: Activated link. Terry

-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Thursday 16th of May 2013 07:07:38 AM