Question Selling a coach while traveling, yaye or naye?

[Neal]

@Neal -- I recommend that you sell your coach, buy or lease a hanger for your airplane that is large enough for a new RV. This way you can work on your projects in the comfort of an enclosed space, and your plane will be happy too!

That would be nice. Not available where I am now but I'd love to find that somewhere in the future when I can move.

 

[sheridany]

I'm curious why you say that? You're the 2nd person that has insinuated that now. Interesting....

If I sell, I may wait a year or two to find something I like and can trust.

And yes, what I have is dialed in, my only thought is now is the time to sell it at a premium as I do think the end of this "buying spree" is coming to an end with interest rate hikes on the horizon, that will likely affect me, and everyone being priced out of the market in various areas. At some point this is going to invert and my sale price now vs. sale price then could be on the order of 100K difference.

I'll test the waters, it will be priced at premium level to the point you'll have to take it from me which is what I did with my Porsche and that is exactly what happened with that.

I don’t mean that in bad way but you run a software company and a growing rv forum and you just bought a plane. Not to say you won’t do it again but when I sold my Ventana it was like I got a lot of time back that I was glad about. Fast forward to now, I retired from corporate America in 2021 and I am not getting younger so I figured now was the time to go see the country in an RV before I can’t drive a 45 foot coach which was a bucket list item. You will make the right decision for you and your personal and financial circumstances and it will be obvious to you and maybe not others.

 

[Neal]

I don’t mean that in bad way but you run a software company and a growing rv forum and you just bought a plane. Not to say you won’t do it again but when I sold my Ventana it was like I got a lot of time back that I was glad about. Fast forward to now, I retired from corporate America in 2021 and I am not getting younger so I figured now was the time to go see the country in an RV before I can’t drive a 45 foot coach which was a bucket list item. You will make the right decision for you and your personal and financial circumstances and it will be obvious to you and maybe not others.

Thanks @sheridany, I just wonder if I was putting off some vibe as I absolutely love RVing so hearing this from you and one other was shocking but I get it. I know sometimes when people are set free of something especially when it causes financial hardship, they may not come back. An interesting story...

YouTube is the reason I returned to flying after not flying for nearly 20 years. I actually started back into flying in 2017 (prior to the YouTube situation) and took a one hour flight with an instructor. It cost $239 for that one hour which was insane (plane rental (glass cockpit) + instructor. I went to a RV show one rainy weekend right after that and stepped into a "bus" which I always admired, if I was going to get an RV that would be what I'd want. 3 weeks later I ordered. Okay, that was really irrelevant. YouTube popped up some backcountry flying and I thought wow, that looks like fun. Flying Cessna 172's was boring to me which is why I never went back, well, I never went back as I started RVing. Such a long way to get to this....so I decided to start flying again and went to get my tailwheel endorsement, a requirement to fly tailwheel airplanes, about 10 hours of instruction, etc. I QUIT about 3 flights into that training. My passion is/was RVing. I had my RV with me, I just wanted to travel in my RV like it was my pacifier. Well, on the drive home I realized I did have the desire to fly again which I thought I did not during the training, I later returned to complete the training.

The plane gets delivered, I have to fly it 40 hours before I can leave OR to fly it to VA. I'm still not sure I want it, the whole time I'm thinking to myself how much I love RVing. What did I do???? Flying it 27 hours across the US from OR to VA the same thoughts...well, finally I'm really loving the plane but absolutely LOVE RVing.

As a confirmed hoarder, I don't see ever not having a house unless simply transitioning between one "storage facility" to another. As I've said to many "I'm a most of the timer" RVing a good part of the year. I realize that soon I think we're going to have an inversion. I can get a price higher than I paid now (not taking into account labor and mods of course) but soon it's going to be a 100K swing between what I can get now to what I would have gotten prior to this pandemic buying frenzy. I think the inversion, i.e. buying may stop and items for sale sitting and prices going down from the peak we're seeing now. We'll see.

I still don't know what I want to do. Yesterday it was a sure thing, this morning, I don't know. Like my Porsche, it will have to be taken from me, i.e. premium pricing. I realize whatever I get next will likely not compare in quality to what I have now. I'll likely go to a 43 / 45 but 40 footer stresses me out as it is when going places, it seems the ideal length to balance the tight fit and having good storage for travel. I'll evaluate again soon as I'm heading to Hilton Head Feb 1st for two weeks. That will be a good time to evaluate, detail it, photos, and go from there.

 

[Old Bubblehead]

Don't put too much pressure on yourself. It is a great time to sell, but not a good time to buy. You have options, see if someone "takes it away from you". Bank the money and enjoy your time off the road using your plane. Research what you really want in your next coach. Once the market reverses cycle, go get you next coach. You will be ready for some RV time by then, who knows it might be an upswing in taildragger time and you could get some help in buying the next RV.
Over here in Egypt, we call these dilemmas first world problems. Don't let stress impact your ability to enjoy your life.

 

[sheridany]

Thank you for sharing that. You will figure it out…for you. I will say this there’s never been a opportunity situation like we are seeing now in the industry and if you were ever to get paid a premium for your coach now is the time. There’s no crime putting it up for sale (there’s some work to list it) and seeing how the market reacts and whether the right buyer emerges that wants your coach. You will know that right buyer as you will inevitably get tire kickers and dealers and scammers calling.

I can line up brand new buyers I meet all day long who wished they had bought a well maintained coach versus dealing with the first year warranty issues return to factories etc. When the market pendulum swings back you can evaluate on your criteria if you want to get another new or even a good used coach. Nothing wrong with that thought process. Meanwhile you can enjoy your plane and travel as well.

 

[Neal]

The problem is I don't see prices coming down on NEW coaches. Pre-owned, yes. Maybe factory/dealer incentives will arise but take for example Newmar, have they ever lowered a price? I think they keep pushing them up the ladder but will freeze the price but never lower it. I don't know, just a guess. So I don't see NEW ever getting a better buying opportunity in the future but when the pre-owned market starts flooding when inflation hits hard, that's where the deals are. I just don't know if I can buy used, I always buy new, but there are great deals that come up as we all know due to a variety of crisis of owners that need to offload it and exit RVing.

 

[Jabber Jaw]

Neal......I too doubt that NEW prices will ever come down. The increases may slow a bit.
Only DEAL, if any, is that the "DISCOUNTS" will once again go up; making us think "we got a better deal"!

 

[sheridany]

You are right prices on new won’t come down even in the worse of times unless competition forces the market to do it. People exiting is already happening as I hear people who ran to RVing in 2020 are selling. Not a lot but some. I also see alot of people trading up with the same brand and units for something new. There’s a sweet spot of slightly used luxury line coaches (Newmar) around from those trade ups that I would look at or you can’t go wrong with a used Newell or a bus conversion. The great thing about used is you just saved yourself 20% in a depreciation hit. Something to be said for that.

 

[Neal]

I've seen barely used coaches getting listed on Facebook groups making me wonder why they ever bought. So yeah, there are deals to be had but they may be doing the same thing as others, selling at premium prices. I've watched prices all over the spectrum. Some I wonder "why are you selling so low" and others that seem to be crazy high.

 

[Old Bubblehead]

You don't know what you don't know. Not good business model to lower prices, much easier to provide deeper discounts when sales start to slow down. The market has bubbled up so fast, there will be a contraction some time in the not to distant future.

At the AIM rally in Vegas, Brett Davis was talking about how the high end coaches had slipped a bit faster than down line ones. He talked about the book on a MA vs a DS and how the dutchy was still holding values across book releases. Not enough data points to eke out trend lines yet, but interesting in its own right.

Can you do used? we struggle with that as well. I would say in somethings. I would have no issues buying a used sport car of a vintage I like, or a used high end watch if I found the price attractive and pedigree sound, or a hand gun I was looking for.

Houses have been an issue for us, we built three and only purchased one preowned. We enjoyed getting it the way we wanted. Coaches have been same, ordered two spec'd our way. I think I could find my way preowned if it was the right coach, like a cherry Newell that fit my budget. You have to do you, spend some time to figure out what that looks like.