Buying cheap to fix, good idea?

NemoScopes wrote:
Hi all, I have a question that hopefully some of you experienced RVers can help me with. I am currently in the market for an RV. I don't have any experience with them, but I have been doing an extreme amount of research on them for the past 4 months, so I have a good idea on how to inspect them, and know trouble spots to look for. However, I am still new to the whole thing. I have about 11,000 grand to spend on a used RV, and I have been scouring craigslist. My questions is this, would it be better to spend 10-11 grand on a much better "looking" coach, and then not really have too much cash left over for possible future repairs (only about 500 dollars as insurance), or to buy much cheaper, for example around 5 grand, and then have 6 grand for repairs on hand? Can decent RVs that have still have some decent life in them available for so cheap? It would be a nightmare for me to spend all of my available finances, then halfway out my trip something breaks, and I don't have any money to fix it. That is probably my biggest fear.

My plan is this. I want to buy the RV, have it ready to go within 3 months of purchase, go on an epic excursion up the west coast for 4 months, and then settle down again to work and re-up my deleted finances. This will be my home for the next several years.

I see some RVs that look "nice" on craigslist, 80's to very early 90's models, with desirable floor plans, and the ads say they are running and in good condition, but I wonder if it is really worth even checking them out? Maybe with such old and low priced RVs, there are serious issues that I will not be able to identify, and I end up buying a clunker without realizing it. However, I am definitely wanting to learn about RVs once I purchase them so I can become handy with them, so I do have an interest in becoming RV savvy/mechanically inclined eventually.

I would really appreciate any feedback on this issue, thank you very much! =)

Let me tell you what you might be in for. I was thinking like you that I could buy a decent RV and fix it up so I went on the hunt and found what I thought was a deal. It was a 1994 Chateau with only 33000 miles and when I looked at it everything was working and it was not bad looking on the inside. Bought it for $6000. I started having little problems the second day I owned it and in the past three weeks have put another $3500.00 into it for "Small stuff" which turned out to be big stuff and haven't even gotten to fixing up the inside. I wish now I had just purchased something nicer from the start. Just my two cents!