Let me just say that we started truck campering with our first kid at 3 months old. Don't wait any long than necessary to get the right camper. Certainly not years.
A $5K camper is a 'throw-away' in my opinion. Not worth fixing up; you just use it up and dump it when it is no longer safe.
I got my 855S from a dealer in Tuscan, AZ and financed. Payments at just over $200 a month. I too live in NorCal and it was worth the 900 mile each-way drive for the price I got it for. If you think about it in monthly payments, that's a couple nights a month in a hotel. Easy to justify.