As I drive along the Highways, Interstates, and cities there is a reoccurring theme that I see while driving my RV, and that is admiration, fascination, staring, pointing and smiling faces. That definitely is a tiny bit of positivity experienced by simply driving my motorhome. I see that there are people that want to own their own motorhome.
I was introduced to the lifestyle by a wonderful couple in the ministry. They wined us and dined us showing us pictures of the inside of their RV and told us of the awesome trips and interactions they had been experiencing. After the wining and dining they left us with one thing......Do your homework! They never gave us any education on what it would take to go to a dealership or private owner, and what we would need in order to close the deal on our dream motorhome. So, that left me with the task of going to dealerships, looking on the side of the road, going on Craiglist, or checking on the internet to see if someone was simply trying to get rid of the RV because they were either fed up with RV payments, death of a family member, or someone just looking to sell their RV.
Doing your homework means:
1. Finding financing
2. Having a down payment
3. Finding honesty in the seller
4. Finding honesty in the dealer
5. Finding your RV
6. Understand that the RV industry is a haggling business
I will go over each point.
1. Finding financing- While I was looking for my RV I knew I could negotiate a better deal if I already had the money up front. You can get an awesome deal it you've already went to an institution, or have the money in hand. Personally, I went to my mortgage company first, and much to my surprise they had the highest rate. You must know what industry standard is in order to know if you've been offered a good rate. I will talk about that in another blog.
2. So, you think you see something that you want to purchase. Unless you have enough to buy the RV outright, you will have to get financing. Along with financing a down payment is required in 99% of the financing cases. (Note) you actually would want to put a down payment on an RV because they depreciate at a rate of about 15% a year from what I've read during my studies, coupled if you want to trade it in after or during the first year. RVs are considered a risk by bankers, and if you were to have any financial issues your RV would be the first thing they would go after. Bankers scrutinize purchasers hard due to that fact. I will go more in debt in a later blog.
3 & 4. Unfortunately, sellers and dealers know things about the vehicle that may not be shared with the buyer. This adds a totally different dynamic to looking at RVs. I can't refer any one dealership to a potential buyer where the salesperson may not be upfront concerning the particular RV. When purchasing my RV I used an independant company to do a pre inspection to attempt to find any thing the seller/dealer maybe trying to side step you on. I will reveal the company if given permission.
5. Finding your specific RV can be a tedious process. Why? Because there are so many RV to choose from. But you should be looking for the one that you have went on the internet, or researched out for your family not allowing a person trying to make a sale dissuade you.
6. This may be one of the most important points I will make. THIS IS A HAGGLING BUSINESS, so be prepared to give an offer after you've been pitched, unless you agree and know it is much lower than what you saw it on the internet, or private sales. Lastly on this point....NEVER, NEVER, EVER buy the MSRP. If you don't know what you are doing you could lose tens of thousands of dollars. Just like a car has book you can look in to determine what the price is at that time, so do RVs. As I always say, "Investigate before you invest".
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