Some travel trailers interior features include multiple rooms, modern technology, and so much more. Many feature slide-out rooms and porches and come with modern creature comforts built-in, such as bedrooms, bathrooms, dining rooms, kitchens, Wi-Fi, TV, etc. You can go to NADA. After the initial loss, the depreciation should not go down too much more in the coming years. We all like to buy new and shiny things. Travel trailers are no different.
If you are like us and decide to buy brand new, we want to help you keep the value of your travel trailer as high as possible.
Five factors can cause your travel trailer to lose significant value, and we want to help you avoid them. Superficial damage, such as dents or dings from hail or road debris, will reduce the value of a travel trailer. Be mindful when turning corners, parking your trailer next to a tree, and pulling into a campsite. Just like a car, it needs to be washed and waxed regularly to help keep it protected from weather and sun damage that can occur.
Travel trailers that feature indoor plumbing for kitchen sinks, showers, or toilets must have some form of onboard water tank or tanks. Unfortunately, these tanks can leak and cause damage. Indicators of a water leak include mold, mildew, rust, and rotted wood. Exterior seals and caulk failure is the other major cause of water damage. Many of the newer travel trailers have appliances of convenience such as stoves, refrigerators, and microwaves. You will want to make sure all of these appliances are work correctly to keep the value up on your trailer.
Otherwise, you will only be hurting yourself when you try to sell your trailer. The buyer will want the cost of purchasing new RV-specific appliances taken off of asking price. What are your thoughts about buying from a well known RV rental company whose RVs are said to have been properly maintained may have high mileage and usage but fairly short on years?
If you own your RV rather than rent, you will drive it at no more than 65 mph max. You will keep it clean and really well maintained. The Rental RV you may buy has been most likely driven by a european here in the U. It will have been driven hard and fast and with complex systems that the average european seldom sees in his or her own country. Even as a pretty good mechanic and with lots and lots of RV experience, my RV experience has been that these things are generally in poor condition when they come off the factory floor.
Turn that over to an inexperienced european renter and things only get worse. The rental companies try hard, but they know how to make things pretty that are ugly underneath after one or two seasons of renting. I bought my class A DP new in , with the plan of selling and upgrading in , I look at the difference in purchase price and resale price plus maintenance costs the same way I would consider these costs if I were leasing.
If I were leasing this beast and the lease terminated, I would turn it in and get nothing monetarily, but I would have the memories. All this haranging about depreciation can be minimized by choosing a model with a better build and maintaining it keeping good maintenance records too , after all, this is an investment in life experiences, not just math You guys write these articles and waste all that time sitting at a PC doing research, when you could be out here enjoying life.
I have no regrets. It is the penny pinching bean counters and lawyers that suck all the enjoyment out of life……. There is no race and no disgrace, because sooner or later you will perish. Enjoy the memories whilst you can. I have the same question as Steve B above? So, the percentages are directional and need a proper anchor point.
If you think about actual sales price of a given model of RV, the amount people paid will effectively be a normal curve. Not the MSRP. Not the amazing deal that 25 people got. Now we need to interpret them. Now, if you overpaid, then your depreciation rate is higher; if you got a smoking hot deal, then you may see almost no depreciation. Like most other things in life, the resale value also depends on the model, scarcity, demand.
Models will depreciate faster. Simple economics. I can count the number of manufacturers offering this configuration on one hand … and still have fingers left over. You have to make that call in your case. I also felt the depreciation percentage was hard to understand as the percentages would greatly vary depending on what you paid. A way to determine a consistent depreciation factor for the unit would be to determine the actual fair market price of the used unit as compared to the original MSRP.
You would then be able to factor out the good or bad buying decision made by the original purchaser. I am looking for a wheelchair accessible motor home that has been designed for wheelchair use from the ground up.
This is quite different from a motor home which has had a lift installed but otherwise is a standard production unit. Newmar is one such unit I would love to own. There are very few units of this type new or used in the US and there seems to be very little price difference between new and used so I have to think that they hold their value very well.
A lot of retired busses short and long have wheel chair lifts if you want to consider that route. Excellent question. Thanks for the tip, Nicholas. They say everything works, it has a bunk house in the back, not enough pics on line, but I am gonna see it before we buy it…that said, how do you find out the red book, or blue book value for taxes? And what do you know about water tanks, one ad said it had a brand new water tank 1K value?
Just started reading your blog. Good information but would have been an easier read in a simple table or pie chart with your comments after. You are the first commenter I have read that stated that a RV that has seen very little use over a number of years are probably not a good choice. Idle time can be the death of machinery and buildings. Keep up the good work. Thanks Darrel. Glad you liked the post. Good idea on the chart.
I know this is not the best time of the year, but what a rip-off! Not sure if your numbers are based on MSRP or actual purchase price. Given that that model is nowoffered in a RVs are not like automobiles, where a dealer network has to do warranty work, for any brand he sells.
Your local RV dealer will not make repairing your RV , that you bought at a cut rate price, from a dealer a thousand miles away, a priority.
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Plan Better Trips Faster. God bless you all! Stay safe and really enjoy your journey! This is a factor in getting mine also.
And it has that new smel, l priceless. Thank you for your help. Jim- When you calculate depreciation, do you use manufacturer MSRP or do you use the selling price of your unit sample?
Thanks, Rich. What do you think? To RV Watchdog: I? You never mentioned anything about a Class B Motor Home…. Sadhana-amrit — A class b is a van conversation for lack of a better description. Experience the world and buy what you can afford. That means now!! Can you respond… do you agree? Thanks for this! The home continues to depreciate throughout its productive life. The straight-line method calculates the depreciation by deducting the salvage value from the cost, then dividing the difference by its estimated useful life.
The location of a home has a tremendous impact on its value. This applies to a mobile home as well. The better the location, the more likely the home will appreciate.
The condition of the mobile home can determine its appreciation as well. If the mobile home has been well-maintained with additions and renovations , the value could increase above the initial buying price. Not all mobile homes are the same. Because their prices vary considerably, they depreciate differently as well. The standard method used to calculate the amortization of mobile homes is the straight-line method. Determining this value and calculating it is not hard to do but of course, you can always call in a tax specialist or an accountant to do it for you.
Because of this, year will be based on more data than year We did the best we could with the data we had. The first thing to remember is that we should take these percentages with a grain of salt, each percentage shown in each table is a very general average rate. Use these numbers to figure out what a good year to buy from would be, meaning the years when RVs depreciates the most.
As you can see, if you plan your purchase you can save more or less money by choosing an RV that is a little bit older or newer.
You can also use the numbers to calculate what your RV could be worth right now. Here is how:. The value that returns is 17,, this is how much my travel trailer is worth based on the average rate.
I feel strongly about it and really like mastering more on this subject. If feasible, as you acquire experience, would you mind updating your blog with much more information. It is very helpful for me. This is a new unit, but will be 3 model years old in a few months when the models start hitting the showroom. What is a reasonable offer for me to make.
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