New RV Search

Part 1 – Which Sell Strategy

What are we thinking, it’s a seller’s market out there? Inventories were scarce at all the dealer’s lots. If you are looking for a particular rig model, size, or brand, good luck. Discounting is at an all-time low, rigs are flying off the lots. Throw in a pandemic and you might as well stay home and enjoy your current rig. That did not deter Ginny or me from heading online to see what we could find. I thought I would chronicle our efforts and walk you through our entire experience. This will be a three or four-part series featuring, Sell Strategy, online and Dealer visits, Final decision, and Preparing for a new delivery.

Time To Sell

It’s time for us to say goodbye to Natasha our Open Range Roamer 347RES. She has been a great RV, we have logged over 40,000 miles during the last 3 1/2 years of ownership. I had been told by my dealership that we put more miles on our rig than most do in 8 years of use. I had made numerous upgrades and fixes to her, I thought I had the rig set up the best way we could for what it offered. Frankly, for her price category, we found that we had many of the options that the more expensive rigs offered. The itch to sell was strong and brought on by the surge in RV sales this year. The fixes started outpacing my abilities as a do-it-yourself guy.  We made a decision to begin the process to sell.

Private Sale or Trade-In

My first inclination was to sell the rig myself and realize the best return on our investment. I guess calling an RV an investment might be the wrong description, Expecting a great return on our cash outlay and upgrades were pipe dreams. Driving off the lot as a newbie with our new Open Range Roamer I thought we had made a very good deal. I did my depreciation homework for this model and RV’s, in general, felt proud of the price I had negotiated. Little did I know that after three and half years and many dollars plowed into it later that Its value would be so low.

I began my value journey by looking for all the 2017 347RES Open Range Roamers for sale across the country on RVTrader. This particular model and year were hard to find. I thought that might be a good sign given the general lack of availability and the condition my rig was in. I did finally find a few and found my pricing sweet spot. I headed then to the NADA guide to zero in using my upgrades, etc, and landed on my pricing. We landed between $36,000 – $43,000 for private sale.

I felt fairly good about the resale value but knew we would need to find the perfect buyer and land somewhere in the above range. This also meant I would be inviting folks into my rig and space during a pandemic. I wanted a cash deal but knew that was not likely and would need to work with the buyer and a loan officer. I got all my ducks in a row, video tour, upgrade sheet, specs, etc, and got ready to list the rig. Hold on a minute, given the pandemic and financing, this just is not going to work for us. Time to consider other options, the dreaded trade-in negotiation.

What We Wanted In A New RV

Traveling about over the last three years we started compiling a wish list of features for our next RV. This was driven by what I felt were a few of the shortcomings of our current rig. I was looking for a better suspension system, hydraulic slides, disc brakes, upgraded plumbing with a shutoff manifold, G rated tires, just to name a few exterior upgrades. As for the interior, Ginny and I were looking for day/night shades, a better oven stovetop combo, a convection microwave, an internal vacuum system, a better pantry. The Open Range is a little over 37′ fifth wheel all in. The size has been very manageable however we wanted to downsize even more to give us a few more camping options. Our goal this time will be to find a Fifth-wheel under 35 feet.

All the latter were nice and would make for a more enjoyable trip and ride. The most important consideration was the dealership, warranty, and brand customer service level we would be dealing with. Over the last few years, we have built a fantastic relationship with our dealerships Dunlap RV and its service department. Highland Ridge has been very good to work with, they have always been responsive to my requests both in warranty and out. It was going to be very hard to look elsewhere at other Dealerships given these facts.

My research was directing me to the following brands of fifth wheels: 1) DRV 2) Redwood 3) Grand Design Solitude 4) Big Horn – Heartland 5) Avalanche – Keystone. The DRV and Redwood were too heavy, large, and priced out of our range. I zeroed in on the Grand Design Solitude and Big Horn as my primary focus. The service records and manufacturer support from what I could see from Facebook Groups, Forums, and Youtube Channels I follow pointed toward Grand Design. My dealership does not carry that brand but I was not going to abandon my relationship with them. Open Range and Jayco Pinnacle and North Point became part of the picture due to that relationship.

LazyDays “Sell Your RV” program

As they say “We handle everything: Pickup, title work, and pay-offs. Quick and Easy”! Have a motorhome, travel trailer, or fifth wheel you’re looking to sell? Lazydays RV pays the highest prices for hundreds of RVs every month (2010 or newer motorhomes; 2014 or newer travel trailers and fifth wheels). Sounded like a good idea and much cleaner than me trying to sell it outright. The process was relatively easy, fill out their inquiry form and within days you receive a note from them looking for additional information. Here are the questions they were looking for answers to.

Year, Make, Model, Any smokers? Any pets? Any damage? Are there any water leaks past or present?  How old are the tires?  How Old are Batteries? Full body paint? Used as rental/lease? Is there a payoff? Are you located near any of our facilities? After filling out the information they needed and providing what I thought would be pertinent information such as upgrades, original equipment and here is that list:

Questions answered, options, and upgrades listed, off went the email. I got a call a few days later from the buying office and they offered me $25-23,000 prior to inspection. After a little more conversation about the upgrades and options, I added I was able to push that to $27,000. To say I was a bit deflated was an understatement. They to my surprise did not take into consideration my upgrades. I now had a base price trade value to work with. This was of course site unseen by this dealer, the rig still needed to be inspected for a final number.

Let’s Do the Dealer Dance

Armed with the trade-in value from one of the biggest RV dealers in the county and my NADA blue book value for resale we were off to Dunlap to look at their inventory. That story and more in our next post “Let’s Dance”

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