Upgrading to a new RV? Tips for readying your old RV for sale

Time for a new rig? Selling the old one may be one of your top priorities – and of course, you want top dollar. Here's some ideas on how to make your RV have plenty of eye-appeal, and get your potential customers off on the right foot.

Clean as a whistle: Obviously both outside and inside cleaning is a must. Pay particular attention to "first impressions," meaning, the outside of the rig. If the inside of your rig is pristine but the outside has a visible flaw, your customer may just drive on by.

Odors: The nose knows. Lingering odors can kill sales. Most obvious suspects include the toilet and the refrigerator. Dump your holding tanks and flush them well. Some RVers put deodorant treatment down the black tank, and even the gray. If the refrigerator has a smell, put a few charcoal briquettes inside.

When a customer is coming, put your rig in the best light: If weather permits, roll out the awning, and consider putting down your grass carpet.  Make sure the shades and blinds are open. Turn on the interior lights. Turn on the stereo to SOOTHING music, but keep the volume low. Make sure the refrigerator is running and cold. If weather is anything but pleasant, set the air conditioning or furnace to make the interior cozy.

Walk through: Demonstrate that all appliances and electronic goodies operate. Got automatic levelers? Run them up and down. Show that slideouts are operational. If you've got a motorhome, offer a test drive.

Make the sale? Don't get burnt by a scammer. Money orders and cashier's checks are a red flag, especially if written for more than the sale price. "Just provide me the change," could turn into a bummer when the check or money order is fraudulent to start with. Make it clear to the customer that you'll need to verify the funds before you turn over the rig and title. Check with your bank about how long items will take to clear.

Customer want to pay cash – and large quantities of it? Be happy to take him to the bank with you as you make the deposit – and verify that the cash is indeed, real cash, not counterfeit.

Always get your customer's signature on the "bill of sale," make them duplicate, and some advise it's best to have them notarized. If your state requires notification of a sale, be sure to fill out the form completely and get it filed promptly.

RV tech shows "watch outs" for used RV buyers (video)

If you're shopping for a "good deal" on a used RV, don't let your heart get ahead of your head. Here's an interesting video from an RV technician who walks you through someone's "great deal" that really turned out to be a lemon.

Shopping for a used RV? Check for recalls and complaints.

Shopping for a used RV? There are plenty of things to be "looking out for," but let's just focus on one for a second: How about recalls? Recreational Vehicles, like cars and pickup trucks, are subject to federal oversight.

The agency involved is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and they have a handy database that keeps records of recall campaigns clear back to 1966. If you're seriously looking at a given unit, you owe it to yourself to look at the NHTSA recall database to check and see if the rig you're interested in has any listed recalls. It's simple and easy to do.

Log on to the NHTSA data base (at www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchVehicles). Simply input the manufacturer name and the model year of the rig. You don't need to have the specific model. Press the "GO" button and the system will send a list back of any hits.

What information might you find? We input our rig's model year and manufacturer, and sure enough, we got back two recalls, one of which was for our particular rig: A wiring harness issue could lead to pinched wiring, which could end up in brake failure. Since our unit is an "orphan," the company out of business, we quickly checked on our own to make sure the problem had been repaired. The system will also list "complaints," "investigations," and "service bulletins."

Our own experience points to an issue that many RV shoppers are dealing with: What to do if a manufacturer has gone out of business? It's a situation where you have weigh outcomes. In our case, the company was not only out of business, no other company had "picked up" responsibility for a fix. Had we been shopping for this trailer and found the problem, we would have had to weighed in the added cost of getting the problem fixed. It's a leverage point when negotiating a sales price. Is the seller willing to get the problem fixed, or will he adjust the sales price accordingly?