What is the Best Method for Reselling Your RV?
July 11, 2019 2:45 pmRV life can be an adventure for many people if they have the free time and money to travel the country and explore all that Mother Nature has to offer. Many people who buy RVs did not simply decide to purchase one overnight. They love the lifestyle and have been camping out and visiting RV parks and recreational nature reserves in our country for quite some time. Nevertheless, when it comes to reselling their RVs, they may have no idea of how to make the best transaction. Let’s consider the pros and cons of the various sale methods below.
Classified Ads
It may seem like everyone out there is looking for a hot deal on an RV when you consider how many are sold each year. You may feel like the king of the road when you pull up in your RV at a campsite and unpack your gear for a sweet vacation. However, in reality, the used RV market can be a hard sell for private sellers.
We live in a very dangerous world that is full of dishonest people. Money gives you the power to make others your servants and to lighten your own load. There is no question that the incentive to swindle people out of their money is great.
Because the book value depreciation for RVs and vehicles can be quite high, buyers may be skeptical of why you’d be selling a late-model RV for such a low-ball price. It would seem impractical to take that kind of hit to your pocketbook unless there was an emergency, and you were in need of cash.
When you are selling an RV that is over 5 years old, with some miles on it, the depreciation tends to slow down. Nevertheless, it can be a harder sell to move an older RV without strong maintenance records to prove that it was well taken care of.
Therefore, posting up ads on the classified boards like Craigslist is not always easy. Buyers are jaded and reluctant to buy anything without documentation because they need to reduce the risks of buying a lemon with hidden problems. Furthermore, the banks are far less eager to lend money out for used RVs with an unquantifiable history and quality because, if the borrower gets a lemon, they may stop paying the loan altogether.
In addition to all this, you have to put a lot of work into shopping your products to interested buyers. While dishonest RV sellers are waiting for the right sucker to buy their piles of parts, RV buyers may be looking for the most desperate seller who is willing to sell at rock-bottom prices. It is all a give-and-take game that can drive anyone a little batty.
For this reason, the classified ads are a spotty method of reselling your RV. Unless you are published in a circular that moves a lot of RVs at fair prices, you will get a lot of tire kickers and low ballers that waste your time and frustrate you.
Online Auctions
Online auctions were once more relevant than they are today. Nowadays, an online auction is a scavenger hunt because very few bidding wars erupt. An auction is fueled by the energy of being able to bid in real-time with a sense of purpose and irrationality. All those status contests and headbutting matches dissolve in online auctions.
Unless you have something really special and a lot of people who are selling RVs on the auction at fair prices, there will not be much a built-in market to get a fair price. The auctions want you to list low on the belief that demand will bid it up. However, this rarely happens anymore.
Nowadays, buyers are using sniper software that allows them to enter a bid at the last second to nominally outbid the competitors. The buyer with the best internet connection and processing power will win and cheat the game. Even the online auction giant Ebay has realized the dying popularity of auctions and has retooled the majority of their listings to sell through best-offer and buy-it-now methods.
Selling to an RV Dealer
An RV dealer may be one of the best options. First of all, there is no waiting game. RV dealers are well-endowed with capital and can make the purchase on the spot. This can save you lots of time and money by saving you the wasted efforts of fooling around with tire kickers and low ballers. In addition, an RV dealer will never insult you and give you a low-ball offer. They are experts and know exactly what the book rates are and what the fair market value of an RV may be.
An RV dealer is also prepared to help you when you need a deal on a new RV. If you are selling your RV to upgrade to a better model, a dealer can extend their wholesale discounts and provide a better overall deal when they can also expect to make a few bucks reselling your used camper or motorcoach.
And there is nothing dishonest about how RV dealers make money on used RVs. They have the resources to recondition them, back them with warranty protections, and to reach the largest local market of prospective and serious buyers. They also have a good relationship with lenders and are able to help customers secure financing without the frustration that they face on the private market.
An RV dealer provides a valuable service and has a range of products in stock to make the shopping experience easy and convenient. Granted, you may luck out and find a buyer on the private market who personally values your RV more than a dealer. However, finding that ideal cash-in-hand buyer, who fully agrees with your personal valuation, is more improbable than not.
Categorized in: RV Info
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