Private Sales?

You said you want to get a good price. Selling it to a dealer will not give you that.

You might consider selling it on consignment at either PPL in Texas or Motorhomes of Texas - two well-known ones who get a lot of buyer traffic.

We sold ours through PPL within one month. The buyer flew in from Florida to buy it. With consignments you name your price. You don't have to deal with endless phone calls and no-shows to look at the RV. It was a very simple process for us.

I'm not in the market for a $100k+ MH but will be for more around $60k and will shop private party and dealers. If I had the money for $100k+ I would still do the same. However I'd say the following caveats:
- Be very, very sure about your pricing. I have seen ads where people not only don't understand wholesale and trade-in but don't understand the proper retail price. What I'm talking about is when folks go to nadaguides.com and click on everything in the list as an option for the coach. That makes for a very inflated ad price and zero calls. The right way to do it is somewhere in between selecting no options and only selecting the ones that are truly options, not "forced" options. For example, a fridge may be an option in the brochure but there is no way to order a unit without one. So it's included and doesn't factor into the NADA pricing. Dealers run this game too which gets on my nerves.
- Be realistic with your pricing. If I'm going to pay close to retail, I'm going to buy from a dealer. That way I have some recourse. If I'm going to buy from private party, I expect something between trade-in and low retail. Just being honest. I've always bought vehicles that way - the seller gets more than trade and I don't pay retail, so we both gain a little bit.
- Take extra care with your listings. I can't tell you how many poor craigslist ads I've seen with a few mobile phone pictures and a two sentence description. No one sells a house this way, yet people expect their vehicles to move that way. My advice is to stage it, use good lighting and take descriptive and plentiful photos. Everything from the cleanliness of the storage bays (yes, clean everything everywhere) to the control panel, genset hours, odometer, and so on.
- Be quick to respond to inquiries and be descriptive when answering questions
- Be flexible to allow independent inspections

OTOH I have been on the other side of it as well. I would consider the following:
- Consignment at PPL or other places
- Specifically say in the ad no showings without proof of funds. I would not be insulted by this. I can produce pre-approval loan papers and/or a bank statement. You know I'm really that serious and from my perspective it helps to talk you into a test drive
- You will get lots of random emails asking a few questions and then disappearing. Make your first responses clear but short. If there is follow-up, then you can get more descriptive etc. Otherwise you can spend a lot of energy answering in detail to everyone and it gets very old
- Be prepared for lowball offers. They will happen. I've made them myself - you never know without asking and I don't mean anything by it, just trying to score a deal. So you should figure out what your bottom line is before you get lowballed. And see above about realistic pricing...

Lastly, I like Randy's advice the best:

randallb wrote:
... A quick fast sale at a lesser amount beats the heck out of your discounted but slightly higher sales price 2 to 6 months later. I have not even gotten in to the time you will waste showing it.
Randy

I've tried to sell a few things starting at the higher price and spending months waiting with a few showings. Last time around I tried something different - when negotiating on another 5er, we got a trade quote for ours. Then I advertised it for that in craigslist and said "Gone in 7 days when I trade it." After 5 days I had it sold and gone, and was in a cash position to buy the 5er and scored a better deal. Maybe I could have made 2-3k more if I sold it myself and waited, but there was no guarantee of that. I think next time around I'll try the same thing.

My $0.02 hope it helps just a little...

Never forget that every extra day you own the RV is another day that it depreciates. I do not know what your financial situation is with the RV but if there is a loan against it every month is another handful of money flushed down the toilet. I use this phrase because once you decide to sell your RV it becomes a financial drain with absolutely no return in the way of fun or travel.
When we sold our 08 HR I called one of the large Florida dealers and put a deal together over the phone with a few pictures e-mailed to them to show condition. They wholesaled it and 2 years later it was listed by a small FL dealer for $5000 more than we got for it. What happened after that dealer is unknown. A quick fast sale at a lesser amount beats the heck out of your discounted but slightly higher sales price 2 to 6 months later. I have not even gotten in to the time you will waste showing it.
Randy

Jayco-noslide wrote:
But, unless you are trading in you don't have a choice do you?

I'm assuming I can sell it to just about any larger RV dealer even without a trade. No? I'm in Tampa and there are a ton of BIG dealers in close proximity...

Any private sale is going to hinge upon price and convenience to see the rig. If you are near major population areas, private sales are easier than if you live 50 miles out in the sticks. Just be aware you are likely to waste vast amounts of time dealing with lookie Loos and people who have no ability to buy.
Another factor is going to be whether or not your rig is going to be financeable. If it is older than about 7 years or has higher mileage, your buying pool is going to be greatly reduced.
My advice is to be very sure you are properly priced. Don't put a penny of value onto anything you have added or changed on your rig. Nobody is going to care that you spent an extra $2000.00 on custom paint graphics or spent $5000 for the 50 inch Plasma TV upgrade from the factory. They know the paint adds no value and a better 50 inch TV can be bought for less than $500. The fact is almost all factory options have little to no value at all when it comes to resale.
There is a very limited number of buyers for $100,000+ used RVs and you don't want to miss one who would otherwise be interested in your coach because you initially set the price unrealistically high, hoping that someone will bite. Most people who can afford to buy a $100,000 plus RV didn't get into that position by paying a premium price for their possessions.
I may be in the minority, but I prefer to buy from a reputable dealer. That way if something is truly out of whack (say major structural damage was not disclosed, or the rig was represented as having a Cummins 600 and I discover the badging has all been changed and the engine is actually ISL 400), I have someone with assets to go after.

We purchased our 2003 Class C from a private party but I think the buyer expects to get a good deal; low price. So you may not get what you would like. I don't think it's a problem but when you sell and what you get is unpredictable. But, unless you are trading in you don't have a choice do you?

The easiest way to find out is list it a couple of places.

We bought our DP off of Craig's list.

Bill

We purchased our coach from a private seller and are perfectly happy having done it that way. We also sold our fiver as a private seller.

Finding the coach we wanted (the DW had narrowed the selection down) was harder than the purchase. It only took 4 weeks to sell our Fifth wheel and the purchaser was happy too.

With the sales tools available on the net I wouldn't hesitate to sell myself. The only advantage to a dealer is arranging financing, but Good Sam will now finance private sales.

Good Luck and sorry to see you leaving our community.