Private Sales?

[Lurker1]

We're thinking of selling our coach... just not sure it's for us anymore.

We were wondering if, at this price point, are buyers willing to buy from private parties? I'd imagine folks spending this kind of money would be nervous about buying from some joe-schmoe and choose instead to buy from dealers. I'd prefer to sell myself since I can get more money, but if it's going to take 12 months, it might not be worth it.

Anyone here buy or sell a $100,000+ coach from a private seller?

[ferndaleflyer]

I have sold a ton of stuff on my own----trick for me is to price it like you want to sell it.......if you are to proud of it you will get to keep it.

[Jayco-noslide]

I would say selling to a dealer will get you the lowest price; however, that's exactly what I finally did with a 2007 Chevy half-ton truck I sold a couple of years ago. Just didn't have the patience to deal with any more crazies and false hopes. It partly happened because I started out pricing it way too high.

[Lurker1]

Mr.Mark wrote:
Lurker1, we consigned our previous 2008 coach at Motorhomes of Texas last summer (2014). They charge an 8% fee (if they still do) and detail your coach inside and out as part of the consignment. I like the fact that they keep the coaches plugged in and the slides retracted until a buyer wants to look (no risk of slide topper damage from a quick storm).

It took 3 months for our coach to sell and everything went very smooth. All and all, we got back 49.2% of our purchase price on a 7.5 yr. old coach that we purchased new (not counting the fee), 45.3% after the fee.

MOT will pick-up your coach up for free (from their website).

Good luck,
MM.

Thank you, sir. Email sent to MOT... we'll see what they say.

[msmith1199]

Lurker1 wrote:

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...

I would think a big dealer is only go to buy it from you if they can get it for pennies on the dollar. They are far more willing to sell it for on consignment than they would be to buy it outright. And consignment with a dealer is not a bad way to go as they may be able to sell it for more than you could sell it for anyway which could make up for the consignment fee. The bad thing about selling on consignment is it's going to sit on their lot until it sells and all kinds of people and their kids will be wandering through it. In the event it doesn't sell, you are going to get it back in whatever condition it's in.

[Blackdiamond]

I sold a coach for 90,000 to a private party through Craig's List....also had it listed on RVT and RVTrader. It did take a year but we also did not have it cleaned out and ready to go because we were still using it, had it sold the earlier, in 4 months but the deal fell through.

The buyer financed it through Essex Credit and they sent out a their own inspector, who really just took pictures and made sure it would start.

[2gypsies1]

rgatijnet1 wrote:

Personally I've never had much faith in the consignment dealers. After all a quick sale, at whatever price, still nets them a commission. There is not much incentive for them to hold out for a higher sales price.

At PPL and probably others, the OWNER sets the selling price. If a future buyer wants less, PPL contacts the OWNER to o.k. it. If the OWNER refuses then the price stays the same. PPL has absolutely no say on what the unit sells for.

[rgatijnet1]

You have nothing to lose trying Craigslist first. Just give a complete description with lots of pictures and be prepared to screen the buyers from the lookers. I've had good results with Craigslist selling motor homes.
Next you can try eBay for under $100. Again, give a complete description and lots of pictures. You can set a realistic reserve and if the bidding does not reach that amount, you do not sell. What this MAY do is give you an accurate idea of exactly what the coach is worth. I've sold some high dollar Classic Cars on eBay and things went smoothly.
If those two places fail you, than you may consider the places that want to charge you a consignment percentage.
Personally I've never had much faith in the consignment dealers. After all a quick sale, at whatever price, still nets them a commission. There is not much incentive for them to hold out for a higher sales price.

[Two_Jayhawks]

I have purchased as well as sold every RV I have ever had from a private sale. Nothing to it.

[Mr_Mark1]

Lurker1, we consigned our previous 2008 coach at Motorhomes of Texas last summer (2014). They charge an 8% fee (if they still do) and detail your coach inside and out as part of the consignment. I like the fact that they keep the coaches plugged in and the slides retracted until a buyer wants to look (no risk of slide topper damage from a quick storm).

It took 3 months for our coach to sell and everything went very smooth. All and all, we got back 49.2% of our purchase price on a 7.5 yr. old coach that we purchased new (not counting the fee), 45.3% after the fee.

MOT will pick-up your coach up for free (from their website).

Good luck,
MM.

[Lurker1]

2gypsies wrote:
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 also considering consignment, and none of the local places seem good, so I've looked at PPL. In all, it will cost me ~$1,000 and realistically three days to get it there, give it to them, and get me home. Their fee is 10%... Compared to wholesale, which is what an outright dealer sale will give me, I make a few grand. So PPL is in the running, but not sure...

Thanks to all for the great comments.

[2gypsies1]

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.

[TriumphGuy]

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...

[randallb]

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

[Lurker1]

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...