So I am not rich by any means but I pay my bills keep a decent Credit Score and know that I should wait to have a better score or wait to find that I have more money to do what I want with the maximum amount of flexibility. But as many people know you sometimes get anxious and I am no different. Additionally our reasons for RVing are because we want to travel now. The next thing is we plan to only keep our RV for 5-8 years. The reason for this is because of wear and tear, and new technology. This presents an issue with purchasing, that issue is we need a good deal and we need to ensure we are not majorly upside down when purchasing our RV. This then means we should probably take the following into consideration.
- Do not Buy New! The reason is depreciation happens immediately and in order to get back to true value of the RV will take about 5-8 years, which means we will be possibly upside down in a trade. so get one that already has experienced that depreciation and start with that and go down, then in 5-8 years you will be at a Good trade value, based on remaining loan balance.
- Do not buy OLD, buy only 1 year old model. 2 years old ONLY if it is lower than 5,000 miles. Also even 1 year old has to have 5,000 miles or lower.
- Buy quality!. there are some super expensive quality RV manufacturers out there and there are some very well known names in the industry. I am not going to the HIGHEND Million dollar models. Did I mention I am not Rich? But the two that are our targets are TIFFIN and NEW MAR. Each have good reviews and are known in the industry as a quality unit. I use this website to help find reviews. https://www.rvinsider.com/RV-Reviews
- Make sure financing is not outrageous, not super high interest and hopefully good terms. With this size of loan you should look at low interest, and shorter term if possible. Looking at a $250,000 loan here is what you will see
- 250,000 at 6.24% at 240 months is a monthly payment of $1825.26
- 250,000 at 6.24% at 180 months is a monthly payment of $2142.19
- At this time in 2022 the RV industry is having its highest profits in the past 10 years and the markup on NEW RV's in the first quarter was 18%, on used was 20% so thinking of that an rv that is used and cost a certain amount take 20% off that and that is what they paid the previous owner for it.
- An RV listed at 250,000 was purchased (trade value given to the dealer) for $200,000 which means the dealer has a built in profit of $50,000 and that is before ANYTHING you do.
- KNOW the RV you are going to look at, know its countrywide value, know the features, know the original base prices, know the manufacturer. Knowing things will help you understand what it has, what it is worth and what you want.
- FIND YOUR OWN FINANCING. if you find your own financing then you are paying yourself. This also will help you when negotiating the deal. those "dealer Prep fees" or doc fees or whatever the other things are that are added on can be negotiated.
- WALK AWAY. The hardest thing to do is to walk away, but there will always be another RV, and another dealer. remember they WANT to sell to you and THEY have to make their numbers, dealers have Quotas and numbers they have to make, so when you are thinking in your head "its only $500", remember that is what is STOPPING THEM from making the deal at that point it is either YOU or them to give up the deal. If it is on them, YOU will find another, and so will they. WIN WHEN you can!
Our journey is in progress we are currently dealing on a 2021 Tiffin Allegro Red 340 38LL, with 2781miles. It has everything we need/want and is within our price range. we are working financing on our end and will know more in our next post.
- We Drove it
- We opened and closed all the drawers, storage, slides, awnings, hood, everything.
- We researched it
- We worked out a Buy Order (a worksheet the dealer gives us), I will scan this in later and go through it because it is interesting to see the things listed....THE THINGS YOU SHOULDN'T PAY.
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