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When selling a recreational vehicle, whether it is a motor home, fifth wheel, travel trailer, folding or pop up camper, truck camper or any other type of RV, establishing it’s real value will directly affect how quickly it sells. I think we all feel that our recreational vehicle is worth what we want it to be worth, in many cases at least what we still owe on it. The reality is that the real value is what someone else is willing to pay for it.

The value is definitely affected by the condition of every part of your RV, the closer it is to new condition, the higher it’s value should be. Something that can be difficult to swallow is that it may not be worth what you still owe on it, and you might have to pay something out of your own pocket to the mortgage company when you sell it. With a twenty year mortgage, the first few years you are not reducing the principal very much, and your RV is depreciating at a higher rate the first few years. Unfortunately many people don’t realize that until they try to sell their recreational vehicle for what they still owe on it, and don’t have much interested traffic or any success selling it.

Before you decide what the right price is, you really need to spend some time on the Internet comparing what others are asking for, and selling comparable RV’s for. You can’t really compare what a dealer asks or gets because they can provide financing, warranty and customer confidence which all equal money in the form of a higher selling price. You can look up the average value on the NADA website or the Kelly Blue Book website, just realize they are only averages, and in many cases designed to be more of a guide for dealers, so you should expect to get a little less if you want to sell it quickly. The most accurate comparison is to search the classified RV web sites for RV’s that are the same as yours. Find at least 25 and see what the ones that are closest to the same options and condition as yours are being advertised for. If you see any that say sold, try to contact the seller and ask if they would mind telling you what they sold theirs for, explain why you are asking. They will be the most accurate comparisons, since they are what someone actually paid, and not what they were asking.

There are RV brokers that will sell your recreational vehicle for you, and you pay them a small percentage of the selling price once it is sold. Even if you don’t want to go this route, I suggest that you contact a couple and ask them what is the real price that you can expect to get, since they get paid a percentage, they want you to get the most for it, and will usually give you the most accurate estimate of its value. Be open to what they have to say, and realize they are in the business of selling RV’s and they only get paid when they sell one, so they are experts at determining the value that it will sell for.

It is one thing to ask a little more than you are willing to take, but be careful not to make your asking price so high that it scares away prospective buyers. If you are advertising on a few classified RV web sites and you are not getting calls, I would suspect that the price is a factor. The more web sites that you advertise on, the more exposure you will get, so if your price is competitive, you should get interested callers. Price is not the only factor, however it has a direct affect on how quickly an interested buyer picks up the phone and calls to get more information. I suggest that you call your mortgage company and see if they will be willing to offer a loan to the new buyer, and if they will, advertise that in the ads. Most of the classified RV web sites also have links to financing, check them out, so you can tell any perspective buyer what is involved in obtaining a loan for your RV. The loan value will have an affect on how much you can get, and how quickly it will sell.

As difficult as it is to swallow, the longer it takes to sell your RV, the more money that it is costing you. You are still making the monthly payments, and the actual value is going down every couple months, so you might get a few hundred or even a couple thousand dollars more by waiting, but if you made more in monthly payments, you might have lost money. If you can price your RV reasonably accurate as compared to what they are selling for, you should be able to sell it fairly quickly. Advertise it on as many classified web sites as you can, have lots of pictures and help line up financing will all reduce the time it takes to sell your recreational vehicle.