Buying from a Rental Company?

To those of you who have replied to this thread - many thanks!

Your contributions are very much appreciated - and I will study carefully what you have written

Thanks again....

Chris

Generally, if you need internet that's useful, you'll need to provide your own or plan to work out of a Starbucks or similar. In most situations, the best solution is cellular data service. Either use your phone for a hot spot or use a dedicated hot spot device. We used a dedicated hot spot device for a few years when we still had dumb phones, now we just just use our smartphones.

Chris, I am in the same boat. I also am looking to buy from a rental company. I have made several inquires on this site and others getting ideas and comments like you are asking for. Much of what I have read is from naysayers who have never acquired one this way or would never want to for what ever reason.

I have a little insight into this subject as my wife was a bookkeeper for a local RV rental business and because of her experience I have more faith in RV rental places than maybe I should but I know how careful their staff was with the motorhomes they rented out to make sure they were always in top condition as a breakdown while rented was a major problem for them and happened very rarely. So I may be fooling myself but I would think any rental business who has been in business for a long time would have the same policy.

I have had a motorhome before and believe me they all will require a lot of maintenance and work to keep them going down the road. But I have seen for instance local here a 2009 Fourwinds 28 foot class C with over 50K miles on it, sitting on a used RV lot selling for 49K. consider that I am looking at a 2009 Majestic 28A with 130K miles on it for about 28K. That is 21K difference.

Now a friend mechanic of mine quoted me a price of 5K to replace the engine and transmission if I ever needed his help. I just remodeled my home inside including new appliances, hardwood floors and counter tops and did not spend 21K. My point here is that in my opinion buying a rental as a base rig and planing on putting money into it you will still be far away ahead of most I have seen on lots at the prices many private parties want for their rigs. And you have no idea how they treated the rig either. If they are selling it to get money possible it was a lot of trouble to them and they just did not want to put a lot of money into the losing situation. You never know.

Anyway Chris, get a good check list when you start looking and when you see something you like go over it very very very carefully. Make damn sure everything works. I plan on inspecting the one I decide on and I know my wife and I will probably spend 4 to 6 hours going over every function of the rig including video as we do. Making a list of what we need to have corrected before we sign the final papers.

Good luck to you and I hope all turns out well for you. I plan on positing my expense here when I actually buy one which could be as early as next month.

There is a lot of great info in that thread - I've read through it twice.

One tip - you have a lot of info in your post. I'd search the site for questions on connectivity in campgrounds as well as read through full-timers forum if you haven't already.

Bottom line is connectivity is pretty poor in campgrounds. I don't have experience with campgrounds that do long term rentals but in travels, you can check email and the weather at best. Too many users for a small pipe.

Now, if you are doing work at noon it's probably better than evening when the campground is full. Lots of posts of connectivity options that have worked for other full-timers.

There is a fairly long and long-running thread on precisely what you're looking for - feedback from people who ATUALLY own previous rentals, not just folks saying "I've heard this that and the other about buying a rental". It was very helpful for us when we were considering the purchase of our previous rental (that we're happy with!)

Here's the thread: http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26035008.cfm