We said goodbye to the Airstream last Saturday. And since then, I’ve run the gamut of feelings. Basically I’ve been the epitome of #allthefeels. I didn’t expect it to be that way. I thought I’d just be relieved, but I must admit, I’ve been sad too. To help me work through some of my feelings, I thought it might be helpful if I shared some quick tips and things I learned from selling our Airstream. 

1. Consider your listing options.

There are all kinds of ways to post your RV for sale– the local paper, RV Trader, RV USA, Craigslist, your own social media, and more! Each one of these listing options has pros and cons. I chose Craigslist because it’s free, I was familiar with it, and I wanted to deal with mostly local buyers. Since I wanted to make sure my listing was seen by many, I made a Cragislist post in all the large regions in my state, I just made sure that the location was very clear in the listing.

2. Research price

Even though I have a Master’s in Library Science, which is basically a Masters in Research, I still had a difficult time researching a fair price for our Airstream. Our RV was beautiful and in great shape, but it also wasn’t pristine or restored– it was renovated. So, I had a difficult time pricing our former home. I had seen pristine Airstreams sell for $80,000 and I had seen some real doozies go for $1,000. I didn’t really find many Airstreams that I felt were in the same ballpark as ours, so I made some calculations on how much work and money we had put into her, and I went with my gut. Speaking of exact price…

3. Price your RV a bit higher than the price you will accept

Just like with a car, people expect to haggle with you. I personally did not put “OBO” aka “Or best offer” in the post because I didn’t want a bunch of low balls. I felt like my pricing was fair and I feel that it is on the buyer to negotiate on price. After all, it’s their money and it’s their responsibility to open the negotiations.

4. Don’t take anything personally

I had a few emails and phone calls that rubbed me the wrong way, but I tried to not take it personally. I understand that buying an Airstream or RV is a big choice. I’ve been on the buying side too. And let’s be real, there are some weirdos out there. Just move on and know that the right buyer for your RV is out there.

5. Be prepared to work!

I don’t think I was prepared with the amount of inquires that we received. We got hundreds of inquires from all over the world! I felt so lucky, but I felt like dealing with all the inquires was another job! Although, I stated in the post that I wanted serious inquiries only, I received a lot of inquires that were not serious and it was difficult to sort out the serious buyers from the non-serious ones. In the end, I answered all the questions to the best of my ability, even if I had the feeling they weren’t going to buy.

If you aren’t so lucky to receive a bunch of inquires, consider why. Are your pictures bad? Is your price too high? Is your listing unclear? Ask an unbiased friend to look over your work and let you know how you could improve. Treat it like a job!

6. Ensure your listing is as comprehensive as possible

I felt like I had put up a thorough listing, but in the first few days, I continued to receive the same questions over and over, so I updated the listing with the answer to those questions. Some people will not read the entire listing, so I also had a Word Document that I had copied and pasted question answers in.

7. Be up front about pricing right away

I listed the Airstream on my social media accounts before Craigslist because I knew that a lot of people followed me because of the Airstream. In that post, I did not list the price because I felt strange telling all my friends the price of my beloved home. I’ve never been shy about money before, but I just felt weird about it. In hindsight, I should have just said the pricing instead of telling people to inquire for price. I received way too many unnecessary inquiries and it added a lot of stress to the situation.

8. Make sure the photos are beautiful, but accurate

When we were searching for a house, I can’t tell you how many houses we saw that looked great in the photos and were a complete mess in-person. Photos usually hide quite a bit of dirt. Make sure your RV is clean, your photos are taken in daylight and if possible, use a real camera– not a phone. If you have a fancy phone, you might be able to get away with it, but make sure you slightly turn up the sharpness on your photos, so potential buyers can see as much detail as possible.

9. Make sure you have all your paperwork together before you list your RV

We are all dummies sometimes, y’all– myself included. We had visited the DMV to get our RV  registered in NC the same day we listed the Airstream. (We had it registered in another state before.) And little did we know that an out-of-state title can take up to 6 weeks in our state. D’oh! Add in snow days and it is a recipe for a headache. Anyway, don’t get too excited, like we did, and list your RV before you have all the paperwork.

10. Don’t stress too much

Easy for me to say, now that I have a sold RV, right? Well, I stressed out big time over this sale and to be honest, it did no good. When I stopped stressing and relaxed, things started happening. Only then did I get serious buyers and several offers.

Were these tips helpful? Do you have any more tips for selling an RV?

Also, if you’re interested in full-time RV livin’, I wrote a book about that! You can buy it here.

-Melanie

 

 

 

SaveSave