Selling an RV/payment

[mountaintravele]

I will be selling my RV a few months later and need to understand how I can safely receive a payment. I want to sell to a private party.
It's going to be selling for 40-45K.
Receiving bank wire won't work for me.
I will ask buyer to give me cashier's check of a bank that has local, branch, I think. I want to be able to go to the branch in person and cash the check and also first verify that the check is good, before I sign the title over.
Had anyone done a sale like this? What are the steps with cashier's check handling to make sure one won't get defrauded?

[restlessways]

nickthehunter wrote:

RetiredRealtorRick wrote:
…Obviously there's some key information we're not being provided here.

Maybe he’s selling all his possessions and taking all his money in cash and moving somewhere where he feels the economy is more to his liking.Not sure why his reasoning is important to anyone answering his query. Maybe he doesn’t want his wife to know. Maybe He knows something he doesn’t care to share.

Yeah, perhaps a country where they don't treat citizens who use their own currency as criminals. The police surveillance state is disgusting.

[Grit_dog]

Wow, from the OPs weirdness, to all the strange “theories” and fears some folks have to old stories about $1000 bills….
This thread has to be in the running for thread of the year!

[LMHS]

This happened back in the mid 70's. We really weren't sure the bills were real. The bank wasn't sure at first either. Like us, they thought it was a bit fishy.


I have been searching on how to buy an expensive vehicle with the least amount of hassle and found this article. It is a blog-vertisement (Advertisement masquerading as a blog) but looks like an option for vehicles. I bookmarked it for later use. I thought others might be interested and/or use it as a starting point for their own research.

https://privateauto.com/blog/5-safe-ways-to-transfer-money-in-a-private-car-sale

[wapiticountry]

LMHS wrote:
I have found this thread very interesting and enlightening. I think banking laws have changed a lot since some have bought/sold. I know they have since I last needed a large amount of actual cash ($10K and up is a large amount, under $10K and that is able to be acquired given a few weeks). I think I might want to look into the escrow/title thing to get a bit more info.

My daughter and I look at online ads for RVs that are for sale in a 500 mile radius from us. She has asked about the "Cash" payment request. I have told her I assume that the seller means they won't finance the purchase, not that actual folding paper is required.

Since we both use the same online bank (Schwab), any purchase would have to be either a personal check or an online transfer. Our bank does not have an actual building in any state. We get actual cash from the registers at Walmart ($100 per transaction). Takes a while to come up with a substantial amount of cash. Nowadays, it takes minutes for a check to clear. Before I bought an expensive item like a vehicle, I would contact my bank to see how they would suggest I handle the payment. Except when the site is undergoing maintenance, I can transfer account to account, within my bank, in less than 5 minutes. I have transferred from my bank account to another "outside" bank account in the same business day or on the next business day.

My daughter paid actual cash for both her truck ($3400) and the truck camper (under $2K). They were priced pretty low so cash wasn't an issue.

My bus shell was paid for with cash (I had $2K all in $20s, banded in packs of $100 with two packs of $50 in $5's and $10s so we could dicker the price down). My Jeep was bought thru an auto auction. As private buyers, we had to pay cash. Only registered dealers could pay with a check. I went with $10K in a backpack. I paid $6000 + $600 for my Jeep (in 1998). A year before, I had the same amount in my backpack and picked up a mini van for $500 but I didn't like driving the van so I sold it for $500 and got the Jeep. I still have and drive the Jeep. At the time we banked with Bank of America. The branch my husband dealt with mostly was in a small town with many wealthy out-of-state customers. It took a while to remove the $10K from the bank in cash because they flat out told my husband that they only paid out "small" lumps of cash. They simply didn't keep large amounts of cash on hand. Even large banks don't keep lot of cash on hand. Their insurance doesn't allow them to keep over a percentage of their normal operating cash.

When my father would get paid in actual cash, he always had problems depositing it. This was for extensive and expensive tile jobs in multi-million dollar houses (like I said, "wealthy out-of-state") that were built, never lived in and sold for a profit (aka "money laundering"). We are pretty sure that he was being paid with drug money. Once he was paid all in $1K bills. The $1K bills looked new, looked fake, felt fake but his bank said they were good. And that bank was not terribly comfortable taking in all that cash. They had to sit on it until the armored truck outfit showed up on schedule to take it away. No one wanted $1K bills. Too hard to move around in the economy. $100 and smaller is better and more spendable.

As for the long-gone OP, it sounds like he is hiding assets from a divorce. It sounded off and I would have assumed it was a scam.

$1000.00 bills are worth more than the face value, often many time more. Taking them to a bank to deposit instead of an expert in numismatics is potentially throwing away a massive amount of money.

[LMHS]

I have found this thread very interesting and enlightening. I think banking laws have changed a lot since some have bought/sold. I know they have since I last needed a large amount of actual cash ($10K and up is a large amount, under $10K and that is able to be acquired given a few weeks). I think I might want to look into the escrow/title thing to get a bit more info.

My daughter and I look at online ads for RVs that are for sale in a 500 mile radius from us. She has asked about the "Cash" payment request. I have told her I assume that the seller means they won't finance the purchase, not that actual folding paper is required.

Since we both use the same online bank (Schwab), any purchase would have to be either a personal check or an online transfer. Our bank does not have an actual building in any state. We get actual cash from the registers at Walmart ($100 per transaction). Takes a while to come up with a substantial amount of cash. Nowadays, it takes minutes for a check to clear. Before I bought an expensive item like a vehicle, I would contact my bank to see how they would suggest I handle the payment. Except when the site is undergoing maintenance, I can transfer account to account, within my bank, in less than 5 minutes. I have transferred from my bank account to another "outside" bank account in the same business day or on the next business day.

My daughter paid actual cash for both her truck ($3400) and the truck camper (under $2K). They were priced pretty low so cash wasn't an issue.

My bus shell was paid for with cash (I had $2K all in $20s, banded in packs of $100 with two packs of $50 in $5's and $10s so we could dicker the price down). My Jeep was bought thru an auto auction. As private buyers, we had to pay cash. Only registered dealers could pay with a check. I went with $10K in a backpack. I paid $6000 + $600 for my Jeep (in 1998). A year before, I had the same amount in my backpack and picked up a mini van for $500 but I didn't like driving the van so I sold it for $500 and got the Jeep. I still have and drive the Jeep. At the time we banked with Bank of America. The branch my husband dealt with mostly was in a small town with many wealthy out-of-state customers. It took a while to remove the $10K from the bank in cash because they flat out told my husband that they only paid out "small" lumps of cash. They simply didn't keep large amounts of cash on hand. Even large banks don't keep lot of cash on hand. Their insurance doesn't allow them to keep over a percentage of their normal operating cash.

When my father would get paid in actual cash, he always had problems depositing it. This was for extensive and expensive tile jobs in multi-million dollar houses (like I said, "wealthy out-of-state") that were built, never lived in and sold for a profit (aka "money laundering"). We are pretty sure that he was being paid with drug money. Once he was paid all in $1K bills. The $1K bills looked new, looked fake, felt fake but his bank said they were good. And that bank was not terribly comfortable taking in all that cash. They had to sit on it until the armored truck outfit showed up on schedule to take it away. No one wanted $1K bills. Too hard to move around in the economy. $100 and smaller is better and more spendable.

As for the long-gone OP, it sounds like he is hiding assets from a divorce. It sounded off and I would have assumed it was a scam.

[Grit_dog]

Bluedog wrote:
This topic has been covered good previously but advice assumes the seller and buyer are in the same location.

What, as in my case, if the buyer and his bank is 100 miles away and the DMV to handle the tile is 40 miles in the opposite direction?

Read back a page r 2. That has been answered too.

[way2roll]

Well at some point you have to get together to sign docs and hand over keys. Outside of teleportation I don't know how else you sell an RV. As far as the bank/money, you can always wire/direct transfer. You bought your current RV at some point, so we know it can happen. Most people aren't in your situation though so it's a bit of an anomaly. I am sure there are other aspects of your life that have challenges based on your remote location.

[Bluedog]

This topic has been covered good previously but advice assumes the seller and buyer are in the same location.

What, as in my case, if the buyer and his bank is 100 miles away and the DMV to handle the tile is 40 miles in the opposite direction?

[charlestonsouth]

Bluedog, you certainly have a distance logistics problem! With the RV paperwork in order and a “meeting of the minds” between buyer and seller on the purchase price, I know you two can work out the distance problem; however, it will take you two a couple of days of your time to do it. By the way, I love your state!

[Bluedog]

This subject has been covered quite often. Most suggestions have been how to conduct the transaction between 2 people living in the the same town 2 miles from each other and their banks 3 blocks apart. Do everything together is the theme. Easy!

What do you do in my case where the buyer is 100 miles from the seller and the DMV is 40 miles at the county seat in the opposite direction?

Not so easy!

[Grit_dog]

Yup, the seller is a dink….that was established early on.

[charlestonsouth]

After reading all this proposed transaction mess instead of a very reasonable and simple transaction, it sounds like what we really have here is a seller who does NOT have his or her title paperwork in order. You can imagine the rest of the story. I’ll give you a hint—the buyer does not come out well in the end.

[Grit_dog]

^And assuming one or both parties don’t bank with a popular national bank chain I assume?

(Hand raised) pick me! Easy answer.
USE YOUR BANKS. Done this more than once. You each share banking contacts and buyer approves a wire to the sellers account. And the seller verifies receipt of funds from their banker before handing over the keys.
Piece of cake. Just requires both parties to not be idgits.

And never lived in a state where the dmv had anything to do with the actual transaction. That’s the buyers problem after the sale. And why the buyer gets a signed title and bill of sale.
In the case of a lien on the title, refer to the previous answer. Use the banks.

[Bluedog]

There has been a lot of advice on this subject on this forum.

Trouble is all talk is about a transaction between 2 parties that live in the same town 2 miles from each other. Things get complicated when distance enters the picture.

Go to the bank together to handle the money; then to the DMV to handle the title.

What procedure is feasible when the banks are 100 miles apart and the DMV is at the county seat 40 miles away in the opposite direction?

Solution?????