Selling a Motorhome for Dummies?

[ComputerGuyInNO]

First of all I would like to thank everyone who has helped me on this forum. Your help and advice is very much appreciated. Let me begin by stating that I am not an RV'er. At least not of my own volition. You see my father passed away the day after Thanksgiving last year. After his passing the company that held the loan on his RV called the loan as is normal procedure. Unfortunately my father did not have enough cash in his estate to settle the loan. He did have other assets but not enough cash. I was worried about letting them repossess the motorhome because I figured they would auction it off and go after his real estate for the balance. I ended up purchasing the motorhome from the estate so that I could resell it and try and minimize the loss. He was actually upside down on the loan but I negotiated with the lender to reduce the amount owed. I live in New Orleans and the motorhome was in Greensboro North Carolina. I needed to go pick it up and bring it back to New Orleans so that I could prep it for sale. Before I went to Greensboro I had the motorhome take into the dealer in which my father purchased it. I asked them to go over everything and test everything and make sure everything worked because I did not want to drive it back to New Orleans in disrepair. That ended up costing me $4000. The motorhome was rarely used in the last four years but my father started the engine once a week and had it professionally winterized. He never exercised the generator so we had to have that rebuilt and had to have the whole top of the motorhome resealed. They also tested all the appliances changed all the filters checked everything out to make sure that it was safe to drive. After driving it back to New Orleans we had it professionally detailed and started cleaning it up. We then found that we had an electrical problem and had to replace the power center/converter/charger. So now to the questions I have to see if you all can give some advice. The MH is a 2006 Holiday Rambler Admiral SE model 30PBS. It has 9765 miles on the odometer. My brother, who is the executor of the estate, and I want to make sure that everything is as perfect as can be before we sell it. So on to the questions.

1. Should we purchase a new mattress. We both figured that someone buying a used MH would replace the mattress anyway but what do you think. I figured we could purchase a nice mattress and just leave the plastic on it to show that it was never used.

2. The topper on the slide out was damaged so we had the fabric removed but not the actual bars that hold it. Should we go ahead and replace that?

3. We bought two new front tires but did not replace the rear tires. Since the tires are eight years old should we go ahead and have them replaced.

4. What is the best place to sell a motorhome? I see they are being sold on eBay and craigslist. My father-in-law told me about RV trader.com. Can anyone weigh in on what is the best way to sell a used motor home from a private party?

5. If anyone has any advice on anything else I should check or have done I would appreciate it.

Again, thanks to all for all your help because it is warmly appreciated.

[mike_brez]

I sold my 94 PaceArrow in three days using Craig's list.

[peaches_cream]

I sold 2 MH using RV.Trader. 1st was a 1995 Holiday Rambler Endeavor Gasser and the 2nd was a 2005 Holiday Rambler Ambassador. I live in Ga. and the 1st was sold to a couple in Pa. 2nd was sold to a couple in Ohio. I used the 14 day, $14.95 special in both sales. You can put only 4 pictures in the ad. I made over 30 pictures I could email to the interested parties. I got between ave. retail and low retail (NADA) for both units. Give accurate descriptions and have good pictures available to email. Most of all, ask a reasonable price.

[ComputerGuyInNO]

Thank you Peralko, I will check them out now.

[Peralko]

Some national sales sites on the web besides RVTrader, include RVonline, and RVT.com.
Good Luck!

[ComputerGuyInNO]

Thank you for your reply. We looked at them on RV trader.com. We realize we will have to price it competitively with what is on the market. Nothing I have seen comes even close to blue book value. I just don't want to sell something that I would not buy myself.

[sch911]

The single most important thing to do is to price it realistically. Price it for what it will sell for, not the BB value or what you see on Ebay. You don't need to fix all of those things but you should accept the fact that they will all detract from the sale price. Good luck...