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Question Buying out of state

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RVF Newbee
Joined
May 15, 2021
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3
I’m located in Washington state and after weeks of searching, finally found the travel trailer we want in California. We are planning to finance it with a decent sized down payment.

The dealer appears to be smaller, and they are insisting that the trailer be fully registered before I remove it from the lot. I haven’t actually seen it in person yet - my original plan was to drive down once we finalize terms, sign papers in person & take it home, but they say that won’t work because the finance company won’t actually pay them until it’s fully registered. They don’t want it leaving the state until that happens since “people take their time getting them registered and we need to get paid”.

Is this a normal situation? This is our first trailer, and first time trying to do anything like this from another state. Whenever I’ve bought a car, I would sign everything in person and drive away while the dealer finishes off financing, etc and get it officially registered a few weeks later. I’m very uncomfortable finalizing a deal without ever seeing the trailer in person. I could just fly down and sign in person, see the trailer, and fly back with papers, get it registered here, drive down & get it, but that all seems like a massive headache and obviously extra costs.

Anyone have any thoughts about this? I have very specific needs for a trailer and can’t just buy any model, so I’m hesitant to scrap the deal since it’s unlikely I’ll find another before the end of the summer.
 
I buy a lot of vehicles out of state. Rvs, trailers, cars...all the same in Texas. I leave with a dealer transport tag, arrive in Texas and pay my taxes and register in Texas.

Some states have me pay their tax. As long as it's on the list of reciprocal with Texas, and less than 6.25%, I will pay that states tax. Otherwise I will have the dealer deliver it out of their state so no taxes are paid until I arrive in Texas.

Buying and delivering in CA means you pay CA taxes. I would insist on out of state delivery.
 
I buy a lot of vehicles out of state. Rvs, trailers, cars...all the same in Texas. I leave with a dealer transport tag, arrive in Texas and pay my taxes and register in Texas.

Some states have me pay their tax. As long as it's on the list of reciprocal with Texas, and less than 6.25%, I will pay that states tax. Otherwise I will have the dealer deliver it out of their state so no taxes are paid until I arrive in Texas.

Buying and delivering in CA means you pay CA taxes. I would insist on out of state delivery.
Yes but do you pay cash or are they financed? If I were paying cash, I would do as you described. Taxes shouldn’t be an problem, amazingly enough the California sales tax rate of the dealers area is lower than mine in Washington, so worst case scenario I should only pay the difference up here.
 
My motorhome was financed. The bank paid the dealer before I left. Everything else worked the same. Dealer delivered out of state, so taxes where paid in Texas. Bank sent me a separate check for that as they wanted to ensure they had paper trail. My down payment was sent to bank, and then they paid dealer and taxes separately.
 
Not sure why the dealer would be stuck on having it registered before leaving the lot. A temp travel tag is normally written at the dealership (if that state offers them). If they are not helping with financing, lien placement is not their issue or concern. Doing registration or title work ahead of time is really risky. What happens if you back out, or the unit is not what they promised? Someone or both parties are stuck. Also to register generally means that taxes are paid. Most dealers pay instate sales tax in one check the following month.
Main thing is to have all your questions answered and be on the same page as the dealer. These thing should all be smoothed out ahead of time. A big surprise at the end is not a good place to be.
Holler if we can help.
Ken
 
We just bought our motorhome out of state and financed a portion of it. We purchased and signed papers, and took delivery of the vehicle prior to registering in our hone state. We used dealer tags to drive home.
 
Come on guys he's dealing with calif. They never make it easy for you to do any transaction without a hassle. Ive been out of the biz a few years so im sure calif.has made changes but we use to contact your state and pay the fees directly and then our employees delivered the coach outside of Calif. and then you drove home. The banks require the dealer to pay the fees because to many customers would stop at a casino and end up home without the funds or refused to pay the fees leaving the banks holding the bag. I once let a really nice old guy from Minnesota drive off the lot with a 800 dollar used camper and after a two week state audit found i didn't have proper out of state paperwork that 800 bucks cost me a 5000 fine. Since no one wants to pay Califs high taxes every dealer in the state should be an expert on out of state deliveries.
 
Come on guys he's dealing with calif. They never make it easy for you to do any transaction without a hassle. Ive been out of the biz a few years so im sure calif.has made changes but we use to contact your state and pay the fees directly and then our employees delivered the coach outside of Calif. and then you drove home. The banks require the dealer to pay the fees because to many customers would stop at a casino and end up home without the funds or refused to pay the fees leaving the banks holding the bag. I once let a really nice old guy from Minnesota drive off the lot with a 800 dollar used camper and after a two week state audit found i didn't have proper out of state paperwork that 800 bucks cost me a 5000 fine. Since no one wants to pay Califs high taxes every dealer in the state should be an expert on out of state deliveries.

My issue is having to pay & sign everything before ever seeing the trailer in person. I could fly down in advance, do whatever paperwork, fly back, get it registered, then drive down and pick it up... but man, what a hassle.

Is it unreasonable for me to insist that the dealer figure it out so I can drive down, inspect the trailer, sign whatever needs to be signed, then tow it home? I can bring whatever registration papers they need from Washington, pay for FedEx courier service, write a check or pay them in CA for the fees, etc. I am very uncomfortable owning the thing without seeing it first, and an extra trip seems unnecessary.
 
It does not seem unreasonable to me. If the dealer has a state office close, it seems you could always give the final OK, sign all the papers and grab a sandwich. You could also spend some time in the accessory store or just hanging out. I know some RV dealers we work with do exactly that. The dealer also has a risk if he titles or registers it to you, and you don't show up or don't like it. Now you have your name on a unit you are not buying. Some states also offer a "temp plate" to get home.
As always, your the buyer so you do have some expectation of getting services.
Let us know if we can help.
Thank you,
Ken
 
Ken is correct and I think is trying to gently warn you. Let me be slightly more blunt. DO NOT finance, register, or put any large amount of money down on that trailer prior to getting out there.

When you are purchasing from an out of state dealer it is even more important to do pre-purchase and pre-delivery inspections, and here is why. It is not if you will need warranty work done it is when you will need warranty work done you obviously won't drive back to the selling dealer. So unless you are purchasing an expensive Newmar, Tiffin, or other high-end coach you will have to find another dealer somewhere. Other dealers for your brand will always take their customers first and you last.

We recently drove from Florida to Texas to purchase new. Got an excellent price and didn't put down squat before arriving out there for the initial inspection. A couple days later we headed out with our new unit and we had temporary Texas drive-away plates on it. Our Florida plates were ordered, our 40% down payment was made, and the financing was set, but the Texas dealer didn't actually get the remainder of their money from our credit union for another couple of days.

The bottom line here is I would have never purchased from a dealer 1,300 miles away except for the fact they knocked over 32% off MSRP. Even with that kind of a deal I would have never paid anything up front except maybe a $1,000 deposit on a credit card, which in my case the dealer didn't even want. California or not I would not trust these folks because something certainly smells here.
 

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