Advice on selling my 5th wheel

I've sold my RVs for the most money on Craigslist or RV Trader/RVT but it does take some work. If you're willing and able it will save you a ton of money over trade-in or consignment.

Cliff notes of what I've done:

Write a fairly long ad explaining the trailer and a bit about you - why you are selling, what you enjoyed about the trailer, etc. So many people just put a 10 word ad and it doesn't grab people.

Get GOOD pictures... not blurry cell phone photos. Get a wide-angled lens and some high quality pictures. 99% of the time your buyers are going to find your trailer online and the pictures are your first (and possibly only) impression.

Screen people - from the first point of contact, Google phone #s and email addresses, listen to parts of their story and be sure things add up. Ask for a copy of a driver's license and offer your to them - this weeds a lot of dirtbags out quickly.

Be realistic with pricing. At 3-4 years I've sold (quickly) my trailers at 1/2 of MSRP. At 2 years you should be able to do somewhat better but likely not much.

RVTrader and RVT give wide coverage. More local coverage can be had via Craigslist and Offerup. There is a web site that allows you to search all CL pages in the U.S., Canada and Mexico in one place. Searchtempest.com.

Lyle

Could try marketplace on Facebook

Make sure you know about all the scams involved in selling big ticket items. No Checks, certified or otherwise for one. Bank transfer is a good way to go.

A.Miel wrote:
Would appreciate advice/suggestions. Thanks!

You will lose a ton of money if you choose to do a consignment. I used RV Trader to sell my last truck and RV (as a package deal) so I would get nationwide exposure. I had a lot of interest and ended up selling to a really nice guy in Texas. He flew to my home state of Oregon and paid full price then drove them home. It was a very smooth transaction. As with any sale to a private party, you need to be really careful to read the people you're dealing with. I'm very sensitive to red flags and feel I'm a pretty good judge of people. I've never traded in anything. All my vehicle sales have been private party and it's saved me tens of thousands of dollars over the years.

I will say consignment (like trading your vehicle in) is much easier and less stressful. That is worth something.

Good luck with whatever decision you make.

Do you have a friend or relative located in a high traffic area? They may let you park it there, with your phone number on it. Some businesses will let you park it on their lot for sale for a small fee.

Jerry

You are going to lose a lot of money consigning it.

just make sure of what % they want to sell your rig. a friend of mine wanted x amount for his and the company priced it out at twice the amount. and it wasn't worth it so it sat on the lot for a long time before he took it home and sold it himself

Negotiate the deal carefully. Read every sentence. Remember that if the consignment company owner goes bankrupt, you lose it all 99.9% of the time. Does your insurance cover the time on the consignment lot? Oh, you don’t know? Tisk, tisk.