Question How to price your Newmar for sale?

[Neal]

Some of you have sold your Newmars in the past and gotten new Newmars. I'm curious when the time comes, that time is not now for me, how you figure out what your price is going to be to list your coach. How do mods play in? HWH Active Air, Solar, LED lighting, Electric Tank Valves, etc. etc. It seems people sell their coaches pretty fast so they seem to be pricing properly. What's the reference, tips for selling, etc.?

 

[redbaron]

I look at KBB/NaDA values for the coach without options. I take the high retail and justify that by the options I have.

My 2013 was purchased new for $239k. I added active aire and other options.

I sold it June of 2018 with 43k miles for $219k

Trade in offer was $160k

2019 DSDP 4369 * Active Air * NHSO

 

[Jabber Jaw]

I looked up value on KBB, went to "RV Trader", looked at comparable models, mileage, condition, equipment, etc.
I then determined what I thought was a fair price to me as well as to a buyer. Posted it to RV Trader for , sold it in 37 days $1,900 less than asking.
Comparable prices on a like '04 model coach were from $20,000- $49,000, with one being offered for $54,000 (still on there).
RV Trader allowed about 50 pictures, think I posted 47.
The ad received over 1,400 views, 24 saves, and I received 9 -10 legitimate inquirys, and 5 purchase offers, as well as as 2 additional, after agreeing to sell it.
Maybe this will give you something to use as a reference!

 

[deaton]

Some of you have sold your Newmars in the past and gotten new Newmars. I'm curious when the time comes, that time is not now for me, how you figure out what your price is going to be to list your coach. How do mods play in? HWH Active Air, Solar, LED lighting, Electric Tank Valves, etc. etc. It seems people sell their coaches pretty fast so they seem to be pricing properly. What's the reference, tips for selling, etc.?

My wife and I just ordered a new DS 4081 to replace our ‘17 DS 4018. We did our deal on the new coach and got the normal miserable trade-in offer from the dealer.

I realize it’s way too early for you to order a 2027 Essex, but when the time comes, I personally don’t believe that any mod the old coach has will have much impact on resale. Well, maybe the HWH Active Air.

In the case of a dealer trade-in, I suspect many mods might even have a negative impact. JMHO.

Since we were not too eager to accept our dealer’s lowball offer, we decided to try to sell the coach ourselves. We were under a considerable time crunch, since coaches do not appreciate and if the NAADA value were to take a plunge, that might also impact our trade deal.

We turned to RV Trader and placed a quick ad. I selected their medium priced deal, $80 for sixty days. My window to get the deal done was way shorter than 60 days.

The deal allowed for 20 pictures so I uploaded these along with some verbiage about our coach.

We had purchased this 2017 off the dealer’s lot. It had almost all the normal options, no specials, and no mods. The one big option it was lacking was heated floors.

Now the big question. What to price it.

I searched RV Trader and determined that there were over 400 Dutch Stars for sale on the site. So I narrowed my search. Turns out there were 14 DS 4018’s dated from 2015 to 2018. So I zeroed in on these and studied the details. They were priced from a low of $259,900 to $319,000. Clearly, those on the high end were dreaming. It was easy to see that where the price was too high, the coaches were just sitting there - 30 days, 60 days, 90 days etc.

I decided that if I really wanted to move this thing, I had to go in low, so I listed at $247,500. This worked. In less than two weeks, I had 1,180 views and 12 contacts. Contact number nine bought the coach on day eleven for $242,000, cash wire transfer, sight unseen, no inspection.

I was not worried about any details because I knew the coach to be in perfect shape and, now that the new owner has had it for a few days, I’m sure he agrees.

My wife and I agreed to deliver the coach to our dealer which cut 250 miles off the buyer’s trip to pick up the coach. While not part of the deal, I had the dealer do a pro-wash on the outside and detail the inside.

While I don’t believe Specials or Mods have much impact on resale, that’s not true for Options. The first five folks who contacted me asked if it had heated floors. I had, of course, not addressed that in my listing. When I responded “no”, four of the five responded,“Well, that’s a deal killer.” So early-on I was concerned that one missing feature might trip us up, but it worked out in the end.

We closed the deal as an “In and Out” transaction with the assistance of our dealer. There was a small charge for this, but handling it in that fashion preserves a huge sales tax saving for us when we close on the purchase of our new coach.

Overall, we came out significantly better than had we traded the coach in to the dealer. Knowing the firm trade-in price beforehand helped in our pricing decision, since it put a firm “bottom” on the deal.

 

[Neal]

@deaton welcome to the clan. Well, I'm afraid to ever venture into the sale part of this ordeal, does RV Trader offer therapy post sale? It sounds like a major league ouch but maybe it's something I should do frequently to desensitize to it?? Regardless, I'm not looking forward to it but thanks for really putting the details out there. I'm looking forward to hearing of your new coach as that's always exciting to be a part of if only on the sidelines.

I assume the "in and out" is NIRVC, I learned of that when I visited them on the way out west. Would be good to educate others of that, maybe NIRVC or whoever can share these things with us as we get the new community situated. I did drive a 2019 Essex by the way, sadly it was nice! Great to drive.

 

[deaton]

@deaton welcome to the clan. Well, I'm afraid to ever venture into the sale part of this ordeal, does RV Trader offer therapy post sale? It sounds like a major league ouch but maybe it's something I should do frequently to desensitize to it?? Regardless, I'm not looking forward to it but thanks for really putting the details out there. I'm looking forward to hearing of your new coach as that's always exciting to be a part of if only on the sidelines.

I assume the "in and out" is NIRVC, I learned of that when I visited them on the way out west. Would be good to educate others of that, maybe NIRVC or whoever can share these things with us as we get the new community situated. I did drive a 2019 Essex by the way, sadly it was nice! Great to drive.

It might seem like an “ouch”, but it’s just money. When you know the reality of your trade number, it is very easy to price correctly. We could have priced it at $260 and it would still be sitting there.

Yes, NIRVC Lewisville. They’ve been great helping us on this deal. We had personal ”hands on” assistance from Brett Davis and Angie Morell for our selections, and our salesman, Doug McCasland, has been a big help as we waded through the details on 28 Specials.

We are doing factory pick up in February. Poor timing. But NIRVC discounted the price to about a grand and we couldn’t refuse.

 

[Akdare]

I’m doing factory pick up in February, too...the 17th.

 

[redbaron]

In and out can be done with most any dealer, and in any state. I researched going that route when I decided to sell my coach.

2019 DSDP 4369 * Active Air * NHSO

 

[Neal]

Someone should explain what In-n-Out means and it's not burgers! Many may not know about this or what it is.

 

[redbaron]

I will explain in and out as it relates to car sales.

In some states, like texas that charge sales tax on motor vehicles, the tax basis is reduced by your trade.

For simplicity, buy a 100k rv, and have a 25k trade, you pay tax on 75k.

In Texas, this only applies to dealer trades. If you sell your rv for 35k to an individual, then you end up paying full tax on the 100k.

This is where in and out helps.

The dealer takes your rv as trade for 35k, and then sells it to your buyer for 35k. Now you pay tax on the 65k difference and you made more money as well.

The dealers charge a fee of about $500, although some will try to charge much more.

This is an item I negotiate up front


2019 DSDP 4369 * Active Air * NHSO

 

[deaton]

Someone should explain what In-n-Out means and it's not burgers! Many may not know about this or what it is.

OK, here goes.

Most states have a sales tax on all coach sales. Even if you buy from a private party, you will get nicked for the ST when you go to register your new-to-you used coach.

However, when you trade your coach in to a dealer, most states with a sales tax will allow the dealer to show the trade-in value on the bill of sale and you get to deduct that amount from the sales price of the new coach so you only get nicked for ST on the difference.

So in Texas, where our ST is 6.25 percent, if you have a 150,000 trade-in on a $300,000 new coach, your sales tax bill comes to $9,375 instead of $18,750.

Most of us who have ever traded in an RV are aware that dealers are brutal when it comes to making an offer on your old coach. If you do get a “good” offer, you can be pretty sure you are paying too much for the new coach. So the obvious solution is to sell your old coach yourself and don’t let the dealer have it for peanuts.

An In and Out transaction allows you to do this without losing the sales tax advantage. You arrange with the cooperating dealer to have them “buy” your old coach and then “sell it” to the buyer you have already found and qualified. They process all the paperwork, collect the money from the buyer, maybe provide some financing to the buyer (something you can’t do and your dealer is happy to oblige) and they hold the proceeds from the sale to apply as partial payment against your new coach. They can legally show the proceeds as “trade value” on the bill of sale for your new coach.

In some cases, the dealer may not ever even see your old coach, you just deliver it to your buyer. In our case, we delivered the coach to the dealer after the buyer had wired the funds. The buyer picked it up at the dealership a couple of days later.

Obviously your dealer is entitled to a small fee for handling the paperwork. This is usually split in some fashion between the buyer and the seller.

So if you dealer was offering $150,000 for your trade and you sell it yourself for $180,000 using an In and Out transaction, your sales tax bill is now $7,500 on that $300,000 new coach instead of $18,750.

 

[deaton]

I’m doing factory pick up in February, too...the 17th.

That’s exciting. Maybe we’ll see you there. What reasons did you have for going with a New Aire? You’ll be beating us up the mountain, thats for sure!

 

[Akdare]

I have a gas coach now, a 2018 Coachmen Pursuit, 27’. We loved the floor plan, but as primary driver, I hated the way it drove. I’d be exhausted at the end of the day even with aftermarket suspension and handling stuff. I wanted a diesel, but something short, as I love national parks. Was looking at the 2019’s, but when they came out with the 2020’s with 2 extra feet, bigger engine, digital dash, etc., I jumped on it. Floor plan is very similar to the one we have now.

 

[deaton]

I have a gas coach now, a 2018 Coachmen Pursuit, 27’. We loved the floor plan, but as primary driver, I hated the way it drove. I’d be exhausted at the end of the day even with aftermarket suspension and handling stuff. I wanted a diesel, but something short, as I love national parks. Was looking at the 2019’s, but when they came out with the 2020’s with 2 extra feet, bigger engine, digital dash, etc., I jumped on it. Floor plan is very similar to the one we have now.

So back to the subject at hand, are you trading the Pursuit or selling it yourself?

 

[FLSteve]

Just curious … has anybody had any luck doing an "in & out" deal with NorthTrail RV ??

FLSteve

 

[Akdare]

So back to the subject at hand, are you trading the Pursuit or selling it yourself?

I am just trading it in...the small difference is not worth the hassle to me.

 

[sheridany]

I wonder if this would work in California because each new RV used or new pays the full freight sales tax irregardless of a trade or a sale. That is a big check to write. I still have a copy of my check front and center to remind myself when I start jonesing for a DSDP.

 

[deaton]

I know there are some states that have the policy that you pay full freight on the sales tax with no offset for the trade. I would not be surprised to learn that California is one of those.

I’m thinking we have folks on the forum who can confirm that as a fact.

That said, in a state with that policy, the In-and-Out transaction would have no benefit.

I suggest you move to Texas.

 

[FL-JOE]

Thanks for explaining the "in and out". I had never heard of that. I would be interested if anyone knows of North Trail ever doing it.

 

[Hawkeye]

Have done this for years on equipment, cars, trucks, UTVs anything with sales tax, but have never heard the term "in and out". Not all dealers will do this and the ones that do, some will charge, and others not. To me it would be a no brainer to complete a sale. Most dealers of licensed vehicles want the item to pass thru their lot so it doesn't compromise their dealers license.