Need advice on purchasing an older RV.

robotspaceman wrote:
I work at a roofing supply company run by extended family, most of my friends are handy with home repair and whatnot, so a leaky roof isn't the worst thing.

I would walk away from any rig with water damage. There are enough rigs out there without, that you should not buy one with...
and yes I've repaired two water damaged RVs

.....
I've been told that Fleetwood is one of the better brands out there and having seen the newer ones up close I'm pretty sure there's a reason they're still around. Quality lasts, and obviously there's a boatload of problems that can arise with a motorhome of any kind, so I'm not particularly worried about that.

Well, no, almost everything you wrote there is wrong. Fleetwood was (it went bankrupt) was one of the "average" brands, and poorly run.
Quality does not last, maintenance does. At the age you are looking for who did the maintenance, and how well, is much more important then who built it.

While shopping for a 5er we once saw a three year old New Horizon, probably one of the best rigs made (new cost over $100,000). It had been trashed by the original owner. While we saw a 20 year-old Fleetwood looked like it had just rolled off the show-room floor. The owners took care of it, kept it in a garage, really put some care into the rig

Is NADA guides a decent starting point to reference when you're considering price of a vehicle? Granted there are numerous things to keep in mind, so clearly any suggested price is largely subjective.

We're looking at having around 10k to spend for a vehicle and I've seen the models we're interested in for less than that. Putting some extra cash into the thing will obviously happen, we just want to hear back from people who've owned one of those models on what they think of them.

Thanks :)

NADA is the average reported selling price by the dealers. This price is anything from 20% to 50% higher then private sales.

But, again, it's CONDITION. We once knowingly paid above book for a rig that had been incredibly well cared for (garaged, seldom used,etc)

It's all about condition

and I really do mean, walk away from any rig with water damage.