Seeking trailer selling advice for a fixer-upper trailer
So I'm looking for some advice, and I'm hoping folks here might be able to lend some experience. Ready for a hilarious tale of good intentions and bad decisions? Here we go:
A friend of mine fell on hard times (lost his job). Fortunately though, he got a new one in my home state of Maryland. He asks if he can bring his trailer down and park in our driveway. Wanting to help him out, I agree to let him stay in our driveway while he gets settled. He gets someone to haul his trailer down here, we hook it up to our mains, and he starts his new job while apartment hunting.
Only one problem: Our county in Maryland doesn't allow anyone to live in a trailer long-term. It isn't long before we get a knock on the door from a County Inspector. One mad scramble for housing later, and my friend is now happily enjoying apartment living... but his trailer is still sitting in our driveway.
This guy is like a brother to me and I cut him a LOT of slack, but I also know him. It will take him FOREVER to get organized and sell the trailer. So I get his OK to spruce it up in preparation for sale. I go out to take a look at it, get a sense for what needs to be done... and the place is a disaster. It needs a ton of cleaning, there's damage to the water lines from a rodent infestation (thankfully from back when it was in New York). There's no leaks now (I checked after a rainstorm), but there's clear evidence of old water damage (which'd make any buyer flighty and I wouldn't blame them). There's some badly done repairs. One of the doors is busted... it's obvious that he hasn't been taking care of this thing. It's not junk, but it's definitely junky. It's a fixer upper.
I want to help my friend out, but I also want his trailer off my property. I'm decently handy, but I don't know anything about RV repairs, and frankly, I don't want to turn his badly-maintained trailer into a hobby-project just to boost his sale price. He's not going to deal with it without a lot of prodding, so I need to get the ball rolling.
In this situation, what would you do? Is there any good method for selling off a sub-optimum trailer? It isn't falling apart, but it definitely needs some TLC. I know it won't get top dollar if I don't fix it first. Are there businesses that "flip" trailers? Buy bad ones and restore them to not-crappy?
A friend of mine fell on hard times (lost his job). Fortunately though, he got a new one in my home state of Maryland. He asks if he can bring his trailer down and park in our driveway. Wanting to help him out, I agree to let him stay in our driveway while he gets settled. He gets someone to haul his trailer down here, we hook it up to our mains, and he starts his new job while apartment hunting.
Only one problem: Our county in Maryland doesn't allow anyone to live in a trailer long-term. It isn't long before we get a knock on the door from a County Inspector. One mad scramble for housing later, and my friend is now happily enjoying apartment living... but his trailer is still sitting in our driveway.
This guy is like a brother to me and I cut him a LOT of slack, but I also know him. It will take him FOREVER to get organized and sell the trailer. So I get his OK to spruce it up in preparation for sale. I go out to take a look at it, get a sense for what needs to be done... and the place is a disaster. It needs a ton of cleaning, there's damage to the water lines from a rodent infestation (thankfully from back when it was in New York). There's no leaks now (I checked after a rainstorm), but there's clear evidence of old water damage (which'd make any buyer flighty and I wouldn't blame them). There's some badly done repairs. One of the doors is busted... it's obvious that he hasn't been taking care of this thing. It's not junk, but it's definitely junky. It's a fixer upper.
I want to help my friend out, but I also want his trailer off my property. I'm decently handy, but I don't know anything about RV repairs, and frankly, I don't want to turn his badly-maintained trailer into a hobby-project just to boost his sale price. He's not going to deal with it without a lot of prodding, so I need to get the ball rolling.
In this situation, what would you do? Is there any good method for selling off a sub-optimum trailer? It isn't falling apart, but it definitely needs some TLC. I know it won't get top dollar if I don't fix it first. Are there businesses that "flip" trailers? Buy bad ones and restore them to not-crappy?
