How to Sell a Motor Home

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Selling anything these days is a real challenge...just ask me! I learned the hard way about selling a motor home.

I am a retired educator that splits my time each year between Oregon and Arizona. For at least 10 years of our retirement, my husband and I have traveled in a motor home. During that time we upgraded or changed motor homes 4 times. Each time we were left more in debt. We could afford this luxury so we just enjoyed ourselves. We knew that a house on wheel was probably not a good financial decision. I would not "undo" what we have done. It was only when we were ready to abandon that life style that we realized what the price would be. We were just too busy having fun.

Then the hammer fell when we decided to give up traveling for winters spent in a resort in Tucson, AZ.

The motor home was a beautiful 35 ft. National RV Dolphin with only 20,000 miles on it. We had restored anything that seemed to decay before our eyes, paid for electrical problems and always had the Ford V10 engine serviced on time. So what was the problem? Well here is where the "SKUNK" was a real stinker. It seems that RV dealers have no conscience. I WOULD LIKE TO BLAME THEM! A motor home depreciates at the speed of light! Nowhere in the information that they give you when you are negotiating the financial details for the purchase do they mention that when you pay $115,000 by next year the value will be $95,000 (or something like that). So now we were paying on $100,000 (we did have a trade-in) and we could only sell/trade the rig for $95,000. In addition, all dealers will told us that we paid too much for the motor home we currently owned...maybe they would have said that even if they sold it to us. As the years pass, the gap between what we owed and what we can sell/trade it for widened. In five or so years we still owed $79,000 and the value was in the low $50,000s. GULP! The bottom line was the RV sales business was just to shady for even the smartest person to get around let alone us...PERIOD!

Now we really wanted to sell, get out of the RV life style and we own a SKUNK, all be it a beautiful skunk. It was still a skunk. How were we ever going to sell it? Believe me I tried every method known to me. I created listing on Craigs List in both Oregon and AZ. I listed it with several online sites paying about $90 for three month listings. I included detailed descriptions, pictures, email addresses, links and much more. I still thought the RV was beautiful and I was trying to re-coup what we were losing. I did this for almost two years.

Finally, last summer I sat down at the computer, brought up my Craigs List account and wrote a simple advertisement.

35' Motor home for sale, 20,000 miles. Owners must sell.

I did not put a price, picture or even describe the condition. I had two call the next day and sold to the second caller...only because the first buyer waited too long to make up his mind. In all the time we had advertised, written ads, used word of mouth or stood in the middle of the street with a 'sandwich board' over our shoulders we had never had one authentic response.

This is what I learned.

• You have to get over what you paid and what things were worth two years ago...no one cares about your problems.
• Less is definitely more in your ads...the few words I used struck a cord and let the buyer know that I was ready to bargain.
  
• Be willing to be flexible when you get a response. The question "What will you really take?" will be asked. Be ready with a response like, "Well I want $XXX but I will come down some. Just make me an offer." Remember, you own the item and do not have to sell.
  
• Mentioning that you have others that are interested if you have had other calls. This can create just the anxiety that you need in you buyer. But you do need to be honest. I think dishonesty will come back to haunt you.
• Suck it up and pay the price when you get as much as you are going to get...remember depreciation is your enemy. We should have done this two years ago when we were thinking of selling. I learned during the process to calculate how much I will have paid in a year or even three and weigh it against what I am getting. Sometimes selling will save you a lot in the long run even when you need to dip into your pocket.
• Last but not least, free sites like Craigs List do work...give them a whirl.
  

I hear people say "I am not going to give my (house) away." My response now is "It is all relative." You will sell for less now than you did two years ago but you will also buy for less. I am not a financial adviser or even a good bargainer but I am getting smarter all the time.

Hopefully, you will find something that will help you deal with the difficult task of selling a SKUNK. It is not easy but it is doable.

Disclaimer: I do not guarantee anything for you...but I have high hopes! :)

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